Posting this here because I think it'll be an interesting discussion.

http://www.cultofmac.com/how-steve-jobs-just-monetized-pirated-music-wwdc-2011-reaction/99042

So what about all my original songs that I have on my PC? What about other musicians that have unreleased music on their PC, in their iTunes folders?

so if i read that right, it will only sync with the itunes folder, right? other files stored elsewhere won't be uploaded?

Glad that I don't use iTunes and never will.

Guys, this is a service you have to sign up for and pay a subscription fee. It's no different than the model Amazon is using right now.

If you don't sign up for the service, then none of these people care what's on your computer.

This technology has existed for several years, the only difference is that Amazon and now iTunes have figured out a way to charge money for the streaming service.

Again, this is not some communist plot to figure out how many songs you stole from Pirate Bay.

Everyone, put your tin foil hats away.

I've only bought two or three albums from itunes, ones I couldn't find else where.....Most of my music isn't in my itunes folder, just cd's that I burn in to it..I won't be signing up for the service or using it...So let me get this straight?? I don't need my tin foil hat?? Cuz I kinda like it....

this has nothing to do with "where" you purchase a song, it's a really simple idea, geared for portability.

1. the Amazon Cloud system or the iTunes sytem (whichever you want to pay for) scans your music library.
2. Both Amazon and iTunes have millions of songs on their servers.
3. Let's say you have Slayer - Reign In Blood on your computer (for an example)
4. Amazon/iTunes will see "hey, he's got Reign In Blood", so we'll make that available for him online, to stream from anywhere, doesn't have to be at his computer to listen to Reign In Blood...
5. This process is repeated for all your music files. The system doesn't give a rat's ass whether you bought the album from iTunes, ripped it from a CD, downloaded it from a blog or dubbed it from a cassette. It assumes if it's on the computer, you own it.
6. Whatever albums it matches, you can play online.

Then 60% of the monthly subscription fee you pay for the service, will be given to the labels to help recoup costs for songs that people "really shouldn't have".

It's NOT going to report to anyone what songs you have.
It's NOT going to send you a bill.
It's NOT going to laugh at your terrible musical tastes.

It's simply going to offer you the ability to play your music anywhere in the world where you have access to an internet connection.

If you don't pay the fee, it's not going to do ANYTHING.

So, before people start panicking and deleting iTunes and getting all goofy thinking Big Brother is moving into the guest bedroom....think about it.

If you don't pay for Netflix streaming service....you don't visit the website and try to watch movies. Same concept.

No, we didn't go there, but I wanted to make sure we DIDN'T NEED to go there.

P.S. - It doesn't UPLOAD anything. The files already exist on their servers, it doesn't touch the files on your computer at all.

You are not exactly correct.

For the Amazon cloud service, you upload all your tunes to their server, any music you buy from Amazon automagically appears in your cloud.

For the Icloud service, your tunes are scanned, any music that exists on your hard drive that Apple has signed deals with the music labels automagically appears in your cloud (ie no uploading), tunes it doesn't recognize or they don't have deals with the labels, has to be uploaded.

I've been using the Amazon cloud for a few months now, it was pretty cool to be able to stream music from my cloud over my phone on a friends stereo at a party. The major disadvantage for Amazon is that you have to upload ALL your music which can take days, it does it all in the background though, so its not too bad.

I evidently need a vacation.

I'm not good with humans right now, I need to go to Antarctica for 6 months or so.

Surely in some ways though, there's the potential for this to lead to more piracy and early release leaks (although, the same could be said of Amazon et al's service)? I understand that the iCloud is only going to upload stuff that it doesn't already have on the iTunes server, but what if you're one of those lucky folk privy to pre-release promo CDs? Say you've ripped a couple to your iTunes and you have the iCloud set up and you absent-mindedly let it upload your preview copies of new albums. Would anyone else be able to access them?

Now that I think about it, probably not. Still, there might be a slight risk there.

I think MP3s/iPods are as far as I am going in the evolution of technology. This whole cloud thing doesn't sound the least bit interesting to me. I'll get off here, thanks....

I honestly don't understand a thing that's been talked about in this thread, but it doesn't sound like anything I need to worry about anyway. I have iTunes on my computer but I rarely use it, I don't own an iPod, and I've never heard of this "Cloud" business.

Sometimes I think I'm better off remaining a dinosaur.