Apple pushing deals with music companies before global developers meet
03 Jun 2013
With the Worldwide Developer's Conference scheduled for next week, Apple is aggressively pushing music companies to sign music streaming deals.
The company's music streaming service is reportedly one of the key focal points of the conference. WWDC 2013 would open 10 th June at 6pm UK time.
According to commentators with additional details becoming available, it was looking like iRadio would be more like rival music streaming service Pandora than Spotify.
Discussions with the iPhone maker had ground to a halt in recent weeks according to commentators.
If reports were to be believed, music publishers were seeking to use the deadline of WWDC as leverage to secure more favourable deals with Apple.
The New York Times reports, among the demands from the publishers were: "higher royalty rates and guaranteed minimum payments".
According to earlier reports, Apple had already signed a deal with Universal Music.
The Wall Street Journal said, Apple had also managed to secure a deal with Warner Music Group this weekend.
Under the deal Apple would give Warner Music Group 10 per cent of ad revenue over twice what Pandora paid.
Meanwhile, Apple had reportedly signed a deal with Warner. According to CNET both sides reached an agreement earlier today, suggesting Apple was working overtime to have the product ready for a potential unveiling at WWDC. The New York Times referred to that timeframe in its own report.
The company had already signed another massive label with Universal Music, however, Sony though, remained a significant holdout at this time.
Apple has already promised to showcase upcoming releases of iOS and OS X at the developer conference, and if things worked out in time for the keynote, iRadio could be another major focus of the company's presentation, according to commentators.
