A large piece of what Steve Jobs announced for music yesterday at Apple's WWDC2011 is now available. If you're in the US or Canada then iTunes 10.3 beta (aka iTunes In The Cloud) is ready for use. Beyond the PC or Mac, you must be an iOS 4.3.3 users on an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM only, sorry Verizon subscribers), iPad and iPad2, or 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch. Key iTunes In The Cloud features include:
New purchases download automatically on all Apple device.
iCloud automatically downloads any new music purchase to all your Apple devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. Buy a song from iTunes on your iPad at home, and you'll also find it automatically on your iPhone, for example.
Your past purchases can be automatically synched to all Apple devices.
Download music you’ve previously purchased on iTunes to all your devices. When you buy music from iTunes, iCloud stores your purchase history.
Not Available Until Fall
The benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you haven’t purchased from iTunes for $24.99 a year.
Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality. With 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most music is probably already in iCloud, but you can upload is what iTunes can’t match. As Apple is quick to point out, that's faster than Amazon or Google.
Missing In Action
The new iTunes may auto-synch all your Apple devices, but missing is a streaming music service (like MOG or Rdio) and the ability to stream your own music directly from the cloud (like Google and Amazon).
Download iTunes In The Cloud Beta here.
