Today Apple announced their cloud service that not only covers music but just about everything else. The part that is the kicker allows apple to basically monetize stolen music while creating a "subscription" service.

What Apple has relased is call Match which is part of the cloud service for music.

Match "marries the two disparate ideas of consumer convenience and the monetization of pirated music, providing what could be the 'missing links' between consumers, artists, labels, music publishers and the emerging digital music industry," according to Tunecore CEO Jeff Price. "With its launch, the odometer on the music industry is about to reset itself (again)..And the results, I believe, will be stunning."

Match puts all music from a subscriber into an iCloud account, making it available to stream or re-download.  This includes music that was:

• Bought on iTunes
• Ripped from a CD
• Downloaded via p2p
• Ripped from a friend
• Downloaded free and legally from a band
• Grabbed from an mp3 blog
• Bought on AmazonMP3 or any other download store

Bob Lefsetz commented "Where's the growth now? Certainly not in digital track sales. And for a measly sum you can put everything you've STOLEN in the cloud. The labels made this deal for a percentage of $25 a year, for a service most people won't even use? This is so dumb it's almost incomprehensible. The labels have been snookered by Steve Jobs, who could sense their ignorance and preyed upon them."

It is simply amazing what Apple is able to pull off right in front of everyone's eyes.