Video Won't Rain From Apple's iCloud (Yet)

Contrary to earlier speculation, Apple apparently is not going to offer streaming movies or TV shows on demand via its iCloud service — at least not at first.

According to the L.A. Times, Apple will offer iCloud for about $25 per year, letting users who purchased iTunes music to upload songs and access them over the Internet on different devices. There will be an initial free trial, the paper reported.

Apple will take an 18% cut of the iCloud fees. The company has deals with four major labels — Warner Music Group, EMI Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment — and will share 70% of iCloud revenue with the labels and 12% with music publishers that hold the songwriting rights, according to the L.A. Times.

At some point hence, the company “envisions expanding the service to movies, TV shows and other digital content sold through iTunes,” the paper reported, citing an anonymous source.

Note that the revamped, slimmed-down $99 Apple TV box released last fall does stream TV shows and movies users rent from iTunes (see Apple Goes Rental). To play video purchased from iTunes, the Apple TV set-top must connect to a computer, iPhone or iPad.

The iCloud service will be officially unveiled by Apple execs including CEO Steve Jobs at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference next Monday, June 6.

Other products to be featured at the conference include Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X, and iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Apple announced earlier this week.

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