For those of you on the cutting edge of the music scene, you know the role that Apple plays in your musical entertainment. Well, the iPod creator is not satisfied to simply offer you the latest tunes on its well-known iTunes platform. Now, the company is taking it to the cloud – the iCloud that is. 

According to this Appolicious report, the tech giant has already solidified deals with the largest major music companies to secure the rights to their songs. The original story was featured on CNet, which highlighted the last obstacle for Apple in its quest to dominate the music streaming industry. Universal Music was the last major company to sign, taking the Apple iCloud dream closer to reality. 

The New York Post revealed that Apple has made between $100 and $150 million in advance payments to the music companies to seal the deals. Not a bad incentive at $25 to $50 million a pop to get on board with the iCloud concept. 

Those of you on the edge of your seats concerning the streaming music service will have your curiosities satisfied on Monday when Apple announces the details of the iCloud service at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference set to take place in San Francisco. 

This Digital Trends piece speculates on the features of the iCloud service, suggesting that Apple will not go the way of the Amazon Cloud Player or Google Music and demand that you upload your entire music collection to the cloud, but instead use a music matching service that allows you to copy your iTunes library onto its servers. PC Mag suggests that this could be ideal for those music lovers without a clean library to get a fresh start. 

TechZone360 reported earlier this month that Apple had successfully signed a deal with EMI Music. This cloud licensing deal helps Apple move closer to its goal, and is the second of the four major deals Apple needed to close to launch its new service. 

We reported earlier this week that while Steve Jobs is out on medical leave, he is still set to be present on Monday when Apple plans to reveal its iCloud service. According to a company statement, Jobs will give the keynote address, while the company is also set to reveal Lion – its next generation software.What to know more about what the iCloud holds for you and the rest of the market? Check out the latest news from the WDC on Monday!

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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TechZone360 and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell