At the least, experts have said, iCloud will replicate the online music "locker" services already launched by Apple rivals Amazon and Google, giving customers the ability to stream tracks from their iTunes collection over the Internet to their iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Macs.

But some analysts have used the news that Apple has signed deals with major music labels to speculate that the company will up the ante by launching a music subscription service as part of iCloud.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, is among them.

"[iCloud] will be the splashy part of the show," Gottheil said in an interview Tuesday. "They feel that they messed up on cloud stuff -- and I agree -- and will want to make it as big as they possibly can. Apple doesn't tend to repeat their mistakes, and a music subscription service could be a part of iCloud."

iCloud is expected to replace the existing MobileMe online sync and storage service, which costs $99 annually.