Apple has reportedly signed a licensing agreement with EMI Music and is on the cusp of inking similar deals with Universal and Sony Music for its forthcoming 'iCloud' service.

Although no official comment has come from Apple or any of the labels concerned, Cnet cites "multiple music industry sources" as confirming the news; the same sources, presumably, who rightly predicted the launch of Google Music sans music licenses.

With the music deals in place, Apple could allow users to create digital lockers of music they own simply by scanning their hard drives for relevant files, rather than forcing them to upload hundreds (and, for some, thousands) of music tracks in order to store them in the cloud.

Cloudy with a chance of iTunes

Songs could then be streamed from the user's cloud account using a web-connected device, thus saving the limited storage on most portable devices like iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Both Apple and Google have been longing to get into bed with music labels in order to offer a licensed cloud-based music service.

Google recently launched Music by Google, a cloud storage service only currently available in the US, but was said to be desperate to get labels on board before the launch.

The 'iTunes in the Cloud' system is yet another new way to ensure repeat payments from customers; Apple is likely to charge a subscription fee for the service, hoping to get you hooked on anywhere, anytime music streaming.

If these new music deals truly are in place, and Apple really has bought the iCloud.com domain, and it really has finished work on its software, we're likely to find more about this new cloud-based iTunes service at WWDC next month, tying in quite nicely with rumours of a June launch.

From Cnet