iTunes Finally Allows Streaming ... At Least to Grammy Voters

Despite protestations by the Cupertino Claque to the contrary, Apple Kremlinologists assume that Steve Jobs and Co. have had a music-streaming strategy ready to go, should the competition force it. That hasn't been necessary yet: The various DRM-encumbered music-streaming services haven't done much to challenge Apple's digital-music-selling dominance. And all evidence suggests that the current model has shifted plenty of the remaining industry power to Apple.

But now we have the first early semipublic signal that Apple is ready to start streaming music to at least one audience: the Grammy-picking music-industry elite. Yesterday, voting members of the Recording Academy, the Grammy organization, received a mass email. The relevant excerpt:

"As many of you are aware, over the past four years we have endeavored to provide a way for Academy voting members to digitally access nominated music during our final voting period, and we are happy to share our strongest solution to date. We have formed a new partnership with our friends at Apple. A password-protected member area has been created on iTunes where full streams of nominated music will be available in those categories where master rights and publishing rights for all nominated recordings have been cleared. This area will be accessible by all members in North America, and this application will work across both windows and Mac platforms. ... you can listen to full-length previews of available tracks by double-clicking on the track name. You will not be able to download the music."

Will Apple decide that what's good for Grammy voters is good for everyone? Are Grammy voters now iTunes guinea pigs? Stay tuned.

(Disclosure: I am a member of the Recording Academy, which is how I know about this.)