Apple set to unveil its iCloud storage service

After years of the cumbersome and time-consuming act of syncing downloaded music from device to device, Apple appears primed to change how we listen to music.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January, will take a San Francisco stage Monday to reveal iCloud -- Apple's hotly anticipated cloud storage solution that should allow users access to their personal music collection wherever they are.

The announcement is sure to increase the stakes in the battle between Apple and cloud storage heavyweights Amazon and Google. Cloud storage is one of the most buzzed-about concepts in computing, with the idea that material -- like songs -- is housed on remote servers or rather than your computer, which frees up space and increases portability.

Huge head start

Apple has a huge head start, although, with more than 200 million iTunes accounts on the books, each one click away from buying music.

Apple's service will reportedly scan a user's computer, see what songs have been downloaded and at the time grant access to those songs on the Web, allowing them to be streamed to Apple's devices.

What's not clear: How much Apple's service will cost, if it will be able to be used with music not purchased from Apple's iTunes service and if the service will extend beyond music downloads.

The Wall Street Journal

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has inked deals with several top record labels, which would allow this extra functionality to be built into songs already purchased from iTunes.