While the world was aflutter earlier this week over Apple's official announcement of iCloud at WWDC next door, we at IRIS have been busy trying to figure out what it all means for independent artists and labels. As it stands so far, Apple is offering 53% of revenue to independent labels and 12% to publishers, however the deal has not yet been finalized. Whatever the case, the iTunes Match service launching in the Fall will allow record labels to collect revenue from pirated music (details here). On the down side, this service will not be available outside of the US until at least 2012. Whether iCloud will in the long run benefit independent artists (and the music industry) is "clouded" by the widely varying opinions. However, one thing is clear: cloud-based music services is the future.
