Ever wondered what it’s going to cost Apple to bring your iCloud dreams to life? Well, according to the New York Post, Apple is paying the record labels a combined total of around $150 million for the rights to stream their music through the iCloud service – add that to the price of its new North Carolina data center and you have a pretty hefty sum.
Apple finalized its iCloud negotiations earlier this week after it struck a deal with Universal Music Group – the last of the four major record labels to sign up to the iCloud service. It has now also secured deals with the corresponding publishers just in time for its unveiling – and possible launch – at WWDC on Monday…
The New York Post reports:
Apple will fork over between $100 million and $150 million in advanced payments to the four major music labels in order to get its iCloud off the ground, three separate sources told The Post.
The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant has agreed to pay the labels between $25 million to $50 million each, as an incentive to get on board, depending on how many tracks consumers are storing.
Despite the $150 million being mere petty cash to a company like Apple, who famously has billions in the bank to spare, the Cupertino company will want to claw back some of its investment somehow – and that means we’ll undoubtedly pay to use the iCloud service.
While no official pricing structure for iCloud will be announced until Monday, recent reports claim the service will be $25 per month after a free trial period.