Apple has been rumored to release a Spotify-like music streaming service for quite some time, but complicated licensing negations with the record labels have kept the product at bay. Multiple reports from this year alone have suggested that Apple is finally starting to gain momentum; it seems clear that some kind of ‘iRadio’ is in the pipeline.
Previous speculation has said that Apple wants to release its upcoming music service sometime in 2013, and now a new report says the company is “pushing hard” for a launch this summer.
In an article about the financial battles between record labels and Pandora, The Verge reports:
Sources say that the labels believe web radio is bigger than Pandora and the market will expand soon. Apple is coming.
Now multiple music industry insiders have told The Verge that significant progress has been made in the talks with two of the top labels: Universal and Warner. One of the sources said “iRadio is coming. There’s no doubt about it anymore.” Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch.
The New York Post reported earlier this month that Apple was trying to lowball the labels so it only has to pay half the royalty fees Pandora pays to stream songs. Apple recently met with a high-profile music industry executive, according to another report.
Google is rumored to be working on its own music subscription service too. Looks like it’s a race to see who launches first.
Source: The Verge
