With the annual Worldwide Developers Conference just a week away Apple has secured a streaming and publishing license with another high-profile partner, Warner Music Group, which could mean we hear news of the anticipated iRadio service as soon as next Monday.
The deal with Warner, which is amongst the world’s largest music labels owning trendy artists such as Wiz Khalifa, Paramore and Michael Bublé, was inked on Sunday and brings Apple a big step closer to launching its own Pandora-like internet radio service.
Apple has not yet made anything public but having already bagged agreements with respected industry names such as Universal Music, which will be offering streaming content, it’s likely that the company will make the news official at its week-long event which showcases some of its exciting upcoming products.
Apple is yet to reach terms with Sony Music, the remaining of the big three, but is said to offering better financial terms and potential for advertising to the publishers and their artists than leading rival Pandora.
If this news does signify that iRadio will be mentioned in some respect this coming Monday then it will join other expected software launches such as the operating system upgrades for both iPhone and iPad with iOS 7 and Mac computers with OS X 10.9. There may also be some hardware highlights leading up to launch of the iPhone 5s and upgraded MacBook range.