What Is Apple's Huge iTunes Surprise?

Apple is teasing a huge iTunes announcement on its website, with details to be announced at 10 a.m. ET tomorrow. Many in the music industry have expected Apple to launch a cloud-based music service of some kind ever since the company bought and then shuttered the streaming music site Lala.com. So here are three possibilities:

1) We're rooting for an all-you-can-eat subscription service: about $10 a month to access the entire iTunes catalog on your computer, iPod and iPhone. With the power of the Apple brand and the millions of credit cards numbers Apple has on file, an iTunes service would instantly legitimize music subscriptions — and change the record business forever.

2) The second option is slightly less revolutionary: Apple may launch an iTunes feature that will allow you to listen to your iTunes library remotely — on any computer, iPhone, iPod Touch or other device like the Apple TV. But would this feature live up to Apple's claim that tomorrow will be a day "that you'll never forget"?

3) What if it isn't about music at all? Since Apple has reportedly been putting massive resources behind new server farms for cloud services, they could well be planning a Netflix-style video-streaming subscription service. Or even music and movies together.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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