Earlier this year at WWDC Apple announced it’s new ICloud services that are designed to give Mac users a unified experience across all of their Apple devices. One of the most interesting things about the new cloud service is it’s music component which is going to allow users to stream their music collection to all of their devices anywhere with an internet connection. Google announced a similar service earlier in the year at Google I/O.
How ICloud Music works
The way ICloud music works is in exchange for $25 a year, Apple scans the entirety of your music collection with it’s music ID technology. Once Apple determines what each song is it finds a very high quality ACC file that you can stream on any of your apple devices. As a result it’s likely
Listen to music on ICloud will be high quality then out of your collection provided you have a fast enough connection. If Apple cannot identify the song or if it isn’t in the ITunes store then it will upload that file to Apples servers so you can still stream your entire library. Unfortunately, it may take a while to upload all of your music to the cloud so if your collection has a lot of bootlegs you better be ready to leave ITunes running over night.
How ICloud Stacks Up To Google Listen
One of the key differences between Apple’s ICloud service and Google’s listen service is the initial scan. Chances are a good portion, if not all of your library will be available to stream right away with ICloud. Alternatively Google requires that every song in your library be uploaded to your “locker.” For those of us with large collections it will likely take days or even weeks to get all of your music uploaded. That’s a huge initial investment of time and bandwidth. On the other hand Google listen is currently free of charge while the ICloud costs a very reasonable $25 a month. The comparison boils down to whether potentially higher quality music and convenience is worth a yearly charge of $25.
Guest post by : Maria Rainier.
Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blogger for First in Education where she’s recently written on skin care jobs along with a piece on automotive technician jobs. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, traveling, and working with origami.
