What Does iCloud Mean For Google And Amazon?

Apple yesterday became the first of the major players to launch a cloud-based music service, iCloud, which included deals with all major record labels and the publishers. Amazon and Google beat Apple to the punch earlier this year with their own cloud-based services, although the lack of deals in those cases severely curtails the functionality of the services. For example, each of the unlicensed services requires users to upload their music libraries into a locker.

Business Week reports that Google offered the labels $100 million up front to the major labels. Money apparently wasn’t the only sticking point. According to sources, labels also are concerned with the number of search results on Google that point to pirated music. Perhaps the fact that Apple has now concluded its negotiations will spur the others to quickly close their own deals with the labels so as not to fall further behind.