ITunes Match not destined for UK until 2012

UK music executives have told British newspaper the Telegraph that negotiations with Apple over iTunes Match and iCloud have only just started. 

The major labels

"Tentative talks have begun between the major labels and Apple in the UK. Nevertheless, all talks are at the in effect early stages and no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012." said the exec, who wished to remain anonymous. 

The UK saw a similar situation when iTunes launched, with services being rolled out internationally far slower than the US. It looks like the earliest we will see iTunes Match is around Q1 of 2012, if negotiations run smoothly between Apple and labels. 

"The licensing team at the PRS have started talks with Apple, nevertheless are a long way off from any deals being signed. It is very much the early stages of the negotiations and is similar to the launch of iTunes, which began in the US and took a during to roll out to other countries,"

iCloud was announced before this week at Apple's WWDC to great acclaim. The service uses cloud based storage to backup and share files between iPhone, iPad and computer. iTunes Match, the music element of iCloud, searches through your music library and creates a cloud based backup. Many believe that iTunes Match is supporting piracy, by providing illegal downloaders with a means to swap files for legal tracks provided by Apple.