Apple may already be the big player in online music sales, but it currently has no dog in the music streaming hunt, with the likes of Spotify and Pandora ruling the fledgling market. That doesn’t mean that the Apple juggernaut isn’t looking to crawl its way into the space that has already proven unpopular with music labels.
Rumors of a streaming audio service from Apple have been abound ever since iCloud was just a Twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye. The thought of the entire iTunes library being available at the tap of a button has to be extremely interesting to any music lover, especially if they have already found the competing services to be lacking in some way or the other, depending on which side of the fence you currently stand. Apple already has its foot in the door at all the major players required to make a streaming service work, but nothing has come to fruition just yet. Now though, according to reports and multiple sources, that is about to change.
As part of longer look into the music industry as a whole, TheVerge spoke to various people within it, with some of them confirming what we already knew: Apple is working on an ‘iRadio’ service that would rival Spotify and Pandora.
Such a service has been on the cards for a long time now, and with each press event put on by Apple, we’ve expected to see what the company has up its sleeve in the streaming marketplace. So far we’ve been disappointed, with iCloud and iTunes merely beginning to touch, rather than come together in some sort of audio streaming nirvana. This summer may be the time that all changes, according to TheVerge‘s sources and we can only hope they’re right.
Multiple industry insiders have reportedly told TheVerge that iRadio is no longer a rumor, and that it is very, very real. So real, in fact, that Apple is pushing for a Summer launch for iRadio following talks with two of the big players in the music industry; Universal and Warner. The wait may be almost over, and Spotify et al will no doubt be watching on just as eagerly as the rest of us!
If iRadio does come to fruition, we’ll definitely keep you in the loop. Stay tuned to our coverage here at Redmond Pie!
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