Apple is widely speculated to launch its new cloud-based service called iCloud at WWDC 2011 to compete with Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Google’s Music beta.

BusinessWeek has provided some interesting details about Apple’s cloud based service.

BusinessWeek reports:

Armed with licenses from the music labels and publishers, Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars.

By signing deals with music labels and publishers, Apple will be able to store a single master copy of a song, which will save significant upload time for the user and storage requirements for Apple. According to BusinessWeek, this will also help Apple to race ahead of Google and Amazon in the race to the cloud. Music Label and publishers are hoping that Google and Amazon will fall in line once Apple launches its cloud based service.

But BusinessWeek points out:

Apple no doubt has paid dearly for any cloud music licenses, and it’s unclear how much of those costs it will eat or pass on to consumers.

According to rumors, Apple is planning to charge $20 per year for the digital locker.

Based on what you’ve heard so far, would you pay for Apple’s cloud based service? How much would you be willing to pay for it? Let us know in the comments.

[via BusinessWeek]