Independent labels and German app developers angry...
We know that it's coming, an Apple press release and about a thousand banners at WWDC have made sure of that, but the fact that iCloud hasn't even been officially launched yet hasn't stopped some from complaining about its prospective impact on their businesses.
Firstly,?Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin, the independent labels’ global rights body, sees the new music streaming service could short-change independent rights holders.
In response to media speculation that the independents are being offered a discriminatory licensing deal, Caldas calls for Apple to recognise the importance of indie labels have on the music biz: "As the most experienced player in the digital music space, Apple should have the deepest understanding of the significant value that independents bring to their business," he says.
"In light of this I would be very surprised and extremely disappointed if Apple were not going to ensure that independent rights holders are properly and fairly remunerated on the iCloud service.”
He can't currently comment on individual negotiations, but it will be interesting to see how Apple deals with the indies after the cat is out of the bag.
Another complaint, this time to the German government's competition authority, comes from Simfy - a Spotify-style service that provides music streaming in an iCloud fashion to Germany, Austrian and Switzerland.
Simfy's CEO Gerrit Schumann told The Next Web that he believes that Apple has?withheld?the authorisation for the company's iPad application in advance of the iCloud announcement because it is in direct competition:
"We believe there is a connection between Apple’s iCloud development and their blocking our application, as we offer a true triple play streaming service (mobile, Web, desktop)," he said. "It seems Apple is worried about competition."
What's strange is that the company has already got an approved iPhone app for the service in circulation, so an iPad version was a shoo-in? "We have always considered Apple an important partner, but it is unacceptable for Apple to be able to control the market in this way,” he added. “The App Store is a key marketplace we use to reach our customers. That is why it was so disappointing and incomprehensible to us that we have apparently been blocked intentionally for months now.”
Strong claims.
If there's such complaints before the service even goes live, what's going to happen after Jobs and co flick the switch? We'll find out soon, we guess.
Tags: Apple icloud iTunes Phones Audio Tablets Simfy Merlin WWDC2011
Apple iCloud's not even launched yet, but complaints are racking up already... originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:40:00 +0100