“According to a report today from Billboard, Apple does not have the deals in place to launch its long-awaited Beats Music revamp as its new streaming music service,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.
“The report quotes a source as saying ‘June won’t be the release date. The deals aren’t done,’ but our sources say that an announcement at the June 8th WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) keynote is still planned,” Gurman reports. “A few weeks following the announcement, in late June, Apple will release the service as part of two new software products: iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, according to sources briefed on the plans.”
“Notably, sources say that the new streaming music service, in addition to a revamped version of iTunes Radio, will launch in a ‘long list’ of countries in late June,” Gurman reports. “Until then, iTunes Radio would have been in solely the U.S. and Australia. The new iTunes Radio will also include unlimited skipping as part of a paid bundle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Finally, iTunes Radio is going to rollout widely! Pandora won’t be happy. Unlimited skipping in iTunes Radio would certainly be a welcome additional benefit of having an “iTunes Music” subscription.
Related articles:
Apple lacks key music deals ahead of ‘iTunes Music’ subscription service launch, sources say – May 5, 2015
Apple pushing music labels to kill free Spotify streaming ahead of ‘iTunes Music’ launch – May 4, 2015
U.S. feds weigh investigation of Apple’s forthcoming ‘iTunes Music’ streaming service – April 7, 2015
EU regulators already probing Apple’s music streaming plans in Europe – April 2, 2015
Apple’s ‘iTunes Music’ streaming service to cost $9.99/month, no free tier; iTunes Radio to get makeover – March 26, 2015
With iTunes Music, Apple wants to help music labels roll back the tide of free digital music – March 6, 2015
Um… yawn I guess? This complete fumble of music streaming plus other late launch fiascoes such as the thin edged iMac, MacPro, new MacBook, Apple Watch… where is Steve to kick some @ss when you need him?
I assume memory isn’t your strong point then, strange how history so easily re writes itself.
Just remember this from Steve Jobs own mouth MDN:
“We’ve never offered a rental model in music because we don’t think people don’t want to rent music.”
Unless the music rental is EXTREMELY cheap (i.e. iTunes Match $25 per year) people are not going to go for this. And if Pandora and Spotify close shop, people will simply go back to illegal downloading.
Internet radio should not be treated differently than OTA radio.
When Apple started selling music for download, one of the things everyone was up in arms about was the idea of Album Bundling. Labels were for it, but consumers were against it. A subscription based streaming service is just more bundling, and its exactly the same as the bundling everyone hates about the cable industry. Why pay monthly rent on every song in the world when you could not possibly listen to them all in a month, and most likely wouldn’t want to anyway because most people don’t like all music.
I didn’t want 500 channels when I only watch 6, so I canceled my cable subscription, I will not need every song in the world, so I won’t use this or any subscription streaming service.
“Internet radio should not be treated differently than OTA radio.”
While there is something nicely correct and well-groomed about that comment, don’t forget that OTA radio has had to purchase broadcast equipment for tens of thousands of dollars, maintain this equipment, pay the salaries of engineers and operators, lease or purchase the land for such equipment and operations, and license its frequency, as well as be subject to inspection and hardware upgrades. All an internet radio station needs is an ISP and a heavy-use bandwidth contract, plus perhaps a few thousand dollars of equipment.
I personally don’t give a flying fuck about internet radio. I do listen, exclusively, to local radio, which is superb here in the Boston area.
Just as an aside, I’m afraid I don’t feel any desire for an apple watch. I can easily see why one would desire one and how snazzy/useful it is.
It absolutely makes any other attempt at a wearable (Samsung stupid-watch etc) look crude and pointless.
I went and had a fitting and it really looks way less bulky than the ads show. As is typical for Apple it looks stunning and is really useful for those who are busy and being bombarded with stuff grabbing their attention. Piss easy to use too.
I am retired and so apart from the health stuff , which can be handled by a high quality fitness band feeding into the health app on my 6+.
To those who have received their A-Watch, congratulations for having good taste and a brain 🎉🎉🎉
Whoops, sorry all wrong thread 😔
I’m more interested in the 4th generation TV. It’ll be neat to see what they do with it, especially with the acquisition of PrimeSense and the rumored new remote.
Apple: now bloated corporation slowly rolling out stuff that neither creators nor consumers truly love.
Time to reset the direction of Apple. Cook, please make ad-free, non-subscription, high-quality products that make people’s lives easier — NOT more dependent on high speed internet connections 24/7. Make your software intuitive again. Make it “just work” again.