Reports are emerging that Apple has signed a deal with Sony Music which gives them the green light to announce their rumored iRadio service at WWDC on Monday. Earlier reports had suggested that Universal and Warner were already on board and that Sony was the last big hurdle to overcome before announcing the service. Before launching anything though, Apple still has Sony’s publishing arm, ATV to sign on, though as Peter Kafka at AllThingsD points out, this may be a lot closer:
The gaps between Sony/ATV and Apple were supposedly smaller than the ones Sony Music and Apple were looking at a few days ago.
As such, the word now is that Apple is not expected to launch anything, but will unveil iRadio for the first time and demonstrate it to the gathered developers. In recent weeks much has been rumored about the service, but the persistant story is that iRadio will be a streaming radio type offering similar to Pandora, and will be free and supported by advertising by way of iAd.
The best news of all, is that WWDC kicks off just three days from now, so we’ll soon see if any of this pans out. We’re awash with music services of late, but we have to admit we’re more than a little curious to see what Apple could do. How about you?
Source: AllThingsD