 "Apple reportedly closing deals with music labels for its music streaming service")
Rumours about Apple’s music streaming service have just become louder. Apple is reportedly close to inking a deal with Warner Music and Universal Music Group to kickstart a service where you can stream music.
Apple has been trying to offer the two record companies a per-stream rate as low as half of what Pandora gives, according to reports that have emerged over the last few weeks. A CNET report now reveals that the music service would offer new revenue streams too.
It is being suggested that the service will be connected to iTunes and will also be available on mobile devices.
An Apple music streaming service soon? (Image Credit: Audio Advice)
Apple will in all probability offer a faster way of listening to consumers, thereby potentially pushing to download sales from iTunes. The company is also mulling over adding audio ads to the service to boost revenues.
The report though suggests that nothing about the deal is final yet and could go either way. While there is a strong possibility that the deal could be inked sometime next week, sources caution that there are equal chances that they might fall through. Apple is also trying to rope in Sony Music Group to sweeten the service’s offerings too.
Apple will be aiming to make this service a summer release, although patterns suggest that the service could well be announced in June at its annual developers’ conference. The company seems keen on rolling out the service in as many countries as possible, including France, Germany, UK and Australia.
The path of music streaming in association with iTunes will be an alien one for both Apple and the music labels. While music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify have met with some amount of success, it is still fuzzy. Besides the fact that Apple will be aiming to generate revenue through advertisements, it needs to tie up iTunes in a strong way, making consumers want to purchase music legally off iTunes after streaming it.
Apple is supposedly making the service like Pandora’s by not offering on-demand listening. The company is also planning to build unique features inside the service, like the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song.
Rumours about Apple’s music streaming service have been floating around for years. Now, with bigwigs like Google’s Play Store and YouTube as well as Amazon wanting a piece of the music streaming pie, it looks like Apple has stepped up its act.
Earlier last month it was revealed that Apple was in talks with Beats Electronics LLC, the audio technology firm co-founded by influential hip-hop producer Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, on a potential partnership involving Beats’ planned music-streaming service.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Iovine during a visit to Los Angeles in late February to find out more about Beats’ ‘Project Daisy’, a music subscription service the company announced in January but with scant detail, the sources said.
Could Beats have an angle in Apple’s music streaming service too? We will need to wait and see!
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