An Apple iRadio service could be imminent, with the iPhone manufacturer reportedly signing its first internet radio licensing agreement within the week.
According to multiple sources “with knowledge of the talks”, Universal Music Group and Warner Music are both close to reaching the final stages of negotiations with Apple over an iRadio service.
Provided Apple can sign agreements with the two aforementioned record companies and Sony Music Entertainment, Apple iRadio is expected to be very similar to the Pandora web radio service, which offers increasingly personalised radio stations according to a selected artist or genre.
Talks with Sony Music Entertainment are said to have not progressed as far as those with Warner Music and Universal Music Group.
The Apple iRadio title is only an unofficial name attributed to the service by the media until the service is announced, but could well be the name the radio service eventually adorns.
According to a financial story published in the New York Post last month, Apple will not receive huge discounts for all three labels’ music as it originally thought. Instead, Apple will pay rates similar to those currently forked out by Pandora.
The two services will be fairly similar, but to set itself apart from Pandora, iRadio is said to features more “on-demand” services. As yet, we’re not quite sure what this will entail.
The Apple iTunes store has been the top music store in the UK since 2008, with the company announcing in February that 25 billion songs had been downloaded from the site. However, the store has faced increasing competition from streaming services like Spotify and Bloom in the past year.
Pandora claims to have 200 million users enjoying its radio service, but if Apple iRadio does launch it will be a very strong threat and rival.
Via: The Verge
