Apple has agreed to pay the four major music labels between $100 and $150 million in advanced payments as part of its cloud music deals, according to a new report. Citing three separate sources, the New York Post reports that Apple will pay each label between $25 million and $50 million to get on board with the iCloud service, dependent on how many tracks early customers are storing.
According to the report, these same payments were a major hold-up for Google in its discussions with the labels, and may have influenced its decision to launch its cloud service without label support. The report states that Google will now likely have to pay higher fees to secure deals similar to those between the labels and Apple, but could have a similar cloud offering online as soon as September.
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