Apple’s long rumored music streaming service may not be ready for unveiling at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, according to industry reports.
For weeks publications like the New York Times had said with certainty that June 8th was when Apple planned to unveil its take on a subscription music streaming service. Now, a report from industry publication Billboard, quoting several music industry sources, says that Apple doesn’t have the partnerships in place to launch a compelling enough service.
“June won’t be the release date. The deals aren’t done,” says one of Billboard’s sources.
The news comes after the Department of Justice began investigating the company for attempting to broker anti-competitive deals, designed to stop Americans from have free online radio. It was reported that Apple was trying to strong arm music labels into pulling their licenses for any service which offers a free tier, such as industry leader Spotify.
9to5Mac, an Apple watching blog, says that Apple is preparing to launch the service not just in the United States but in several international locales too. It was initially rumored that Apple would charge customers $8 per month to stream music, but now it appears like the service will launch at the standard $10 per month mark.
The increase in price points to difficulty arranging music licenses – Apple seems to not only be taking longer to get licenses but also seems to be paying more than it initially planned.
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