UPDATED 08:10 EDT / MARCH 07 2013

Apple, Google Taking Different Paths to Music Subscription Cloud

The latest Apple rumor is that CEO Tim Cook and Eddy Cue, the company’s head of internet products, met with music producer and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine during a trip to Los Angeles last month.

Lovine is the co-founder of audio technology firm Beats Electronics.  Unnamed sources cited by Reuters claim that the topic of the hush-hush meeting was “Project Daisy,” Beats’ upcoming music streaming service. The subscription-based offering was first announced in January.

“Apple’s Internet products chief Eddy Cue, a key player in setting up its iTunes Music Store, also joined the meeting, at which time Cook expressed interest in Daisy’s business model and its rollout plans, although the two did not discuss specifics of a deal, the sources said.

The meeting between Cook and Iovine, who is also chairman of music company Interscope-Geffen-A&M, was “informational” and covered a broad range of music-related topics, the sources said.

Lovine said in an interview that he pitched a subscription service to Steve jobs in 2003, but the late co-founder refused because signing up record labels would have been too big of an expense.

If the rumors are true then Apple is once again considering to make an entry into the music streaming space. Why now? Because the personal cloud is taking off, and because Google is already working on its own Spotify clone.

Word has it that the search giant may be working on a Google Play streaming service, a rumor that the company does not deny. A spokesperson even went as far as admitting that “there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.”

Apple and Google are already competing in mobile, will they be taking this rivalry to the next level? We will no doubt find out in the coming months.


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