Apple Close to Striking Deal with Record Labels for iRadio
Apple is close to signing a deal with both Warner Music and Universal Music Group for its rumored streaming music service, reports CNET.
Content negotiations between Apple and record companies were said to have stagnated because the Cupertino-based company was offering low royalty rates, but CNET's sources say that Apple's music service will bring alternate revenue streams in addition to unique features that are not offered by other streaming music services.
That includes a quick way for consumers to buy a song they hear, potentially boosting download sales from iTunes, as well as a revenue share of new audio ads Apple is planning to add to the free service, according to sources.
The product would be tied to iTunes, and available on mobile devices.
The service, according to sources, most closely resembles Pandora because it doesn't offer on-demand listening. Apple is building some unique features, such as the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song, according to one person briefed on the company's plans.
Though Apple is approaching deals with Warner Music and Universal Music Group, the sources caution that the negotiations are not final and could fall through. Apple also needs to work out a deal with Sony Music Group, but is continuing to aim for a summer launch, as was suggested last week.
If Apple is able to complete the negotiations in time, its annual Worldwide Developers Conference could be an ideal occasion to announce the new streaming music service. WWDC dates have yet to be announced, but the conference typically takes place in June.
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to the Apple leaker and prototype collector known as "Kosutami." In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium accessories in the future. Kosutami has revealed...
Top Rated Comments
Just in time for Samsung to announce "S-Radio"
:D
Of course when Google releases something it will be declared the greatest thing since sliced bread. :rolleyes:
Look I have zero interest in anything that doesn't offer on demand streaming, so this probably won't be for me. But these days with Apple no matter what they do it gets knocked, and things get knocked before they even get released. I swear Tim Cook could get on stage and announce a cure for cancer and people would complain about it.