Rumors of an Apple-made "iRadio" music streaming service have been swirling for months now, suggesting that the Cupertino firm is prepping a radio offering similar to Pandora. Apple hasn't made any official announcements regarding such a service, but reports have claimed that the company has been working hard to get record labels on board with its plans. According to a new rumor, Apple has cleared one of the last major hurdles standing between it and iRadio, signing the third and final major label that it needed to gain support from.
A source speaking to AllThingsD claims that Apple and Sony Music have reached an agreement on the upcoming iRadio service. This agreement follows ones that Apple reportedly recently scored with Universal and Warner. AllThingsD says that Apple may still be working to strike a deal with Sony/ATV, the music publishing division of Sony, but the issues preventing a deal with Sony/ATV are said to be smaller than the ones that divided Apple and Sony Music.
Details on Apple's iRadio service are still light at this point, but it's expected to be offer Pandora-like streaming music for free (likely with ads, of course). Now that Apple has secured deals with three major record labels, it's said that the Cupertino company could make an official announcement regarding iRadio as soon as WWDC next week. With Apple's iRadio, Amazon's continued focus on MP3 sales, Google's new All Access offering and other streaming options like Pandora and Spotify, it certainly looks like music streaming is shaping up to be one of the next big battlegrounds in mobile. Are you currently signed up for a streaming music service?
Via AllThingsD
