Just a few days before Apple is scheduled to preview its upcoming iCloud streaming music service the company has now signed on the final of the four major record company labels it needed to make the service work. CNet's News.com reports that Universal Music has signed on the dotted line to allow Apple to have access to its library of songs for the iCloud service. However the deal making for iCloud is still not yet over. News.com reports that Apple is still working with other companies such as EMI and Warner/Chappell to get the music publishing and recording rights
News.com also has posted what it claims are the numbers for how the revenues will be split between the various parties for iCloud. According to their story, Apple will get 30 percent of the iCloud revenues while the music labels get 58 percent. Music publishers will get the remaining 12 percent of the revenue. However the LA Times web site has slightly different percentages with Apple keeping 18 percent of the revenues and the music labels getting 70 percent of the pie. Pricing has yet to be officially announced but the LA Times speculates that consumers could spent about $25 a year for the service.
Meanwhile, News.com claims that Apple is also trying to extend the iCloud service to other entertainment forms. It reports via unnamed sources that "in recent weeks Apple has raced to license movies and TV shows from Hollywood film studios and TV networks." The iCloud service is expected to be officially announced on Monday but won't actually launch until later in 2011.
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