SPOTIFY SIGNS UMG, ONLY NEEDS WARNER FOR US LAUNCH

All Things D reports that Spotify has signed Universal Music Group to a US distribution deal, the third of the four largest labels to agree, and anonymous sources say the last remaining holdout, Warner Music, may also soon cave.

APPLE SIGNS WARNER MUSIC TO STREAMING SERVICE

Need another sign that iTunes will soon be floating your library up to the cloud? Look no further than confirmation of Apple signing Warner Music, a deal that should see the label's music available in its upcoming streaming iTunes service. This is in addition to last week's confirmation that two major labels signed on, though its unclear whether Warner is part of the pair or is, indeed, a third. That might leave only one of the major labels left unsigned -- or maybe Apple's already locked down all four but doesn't want to kiss and tell.

APPLE MUSIC CLOUD SERVICE READY; AWAITING BLESSING OF MUSIC PUBLISHERS

According to Peter Kafka over at All Things D, Apple’s presumed cloud-based music service will not be all that dissimilar from Amazon’s. The report details that Apple, like Amazon, will allow iTunes users to store newly purchased tracks and already-owned digital music in an online locker. Unlike Amazon, however, the Cupertino company is looking for deals with major record labels.“They’ve been very aggressive and thoughtful about it,” said an industry executive speaking with Kafka. “It feels like they want to go pretty soon.” The report also notes that the industry buy-in and licensing will allow Apple to store a single, master copy of a digital music file on its services and share that file with authorized users — making the company’s storage schema much more streamlined. Amazon’s Cloud Drive implementation is based on its S3 storage service and functions more like a cloud-based hard drive — every time a user buys a track it’s uploaded to that specific users online locker. “Sources tell me that Apple has already procured deals from at least two of the big four labels (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI) within the last two months,” writes Kafka. “One source tells me Apple content boss Eddy Cue will be in New York tomorrow to try to finalize remaining deals.”