Just one year after launch iTunes Match, Apple already work to another audio streaming service that will compete this time with Pandora or Spotify. The company has just started to negotiate with major US record companies, and its service would offer users the opportunity to listen to "radio stations" that play songs chosen based on the user's preferences. Basically, we are not talking about real radio stations, but radio stations made by these services, but Pandora is extremely popular in the US, and Apple wants to dethrone it. The company's application would be pre-installed in terminals and would offer users the same basic functions, plus new ones that no one knows anything about yet.
In a move that could shake up the growing field of Internet radio, Apple plans to develop a service that would compete with Pandora Media by sending streams of music customized to users' tastes, three people briefed on the plans said late Thursday. Apple, which has already dominated the field of digital music with its iTunes store, is in the early stages of negotiating with the major record labels for the service. Apple's service would probably take the form of a preinstalled app on devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to users' iTunes accounts to judge their tastes.
Considering that Apple has only just started to negotiate with the major record companies, I expect that this service will only be launched with iOS 7 and iPhone 6, the launch in the near future being pointless, even if it were possible. The service prepared by Apple would be very interesting, it could even be available for free considering that Pandora offers a free version, but with ads, so interesting things await us. Even if this Apple service will be launched next year in the USA, it could take another one or two years before it reaches Romania, so for us it is completely useless if it will not be free and we will be blocked from accessing it based on the IP of the
By offering streams customized to each user, Apple's program would compete with Internet radio services like Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio, which is offered by the radio giant Clear Channel Communications. But while most such services operate under limited licenses that restrict what they can do with the music — for example, limiting the number of times songs by particular artist can be played within an hour — Apple is seeking direct licenses with record labels that would give the company more flexibility in using music, according to the people briefed on its plans.
