Report: Apple to launch music streaming service next month

NEW reports suggest that Apple will announce and launch its new music streaming service next month, with two surprising twists.

APPLE’S next big product, the hugely anticipated, much talked about streaming service is set to be officially announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 8.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple will reportedly launch the Beats Music based service towards the end of the month, building it into a redesigned version of the Music app.

The design will be made to look just like the current music app on your iPhone or iPad and will allow users to search through both the iTunes and Beats catalogue at the same time. Users will then be able to select whether they want to purchase the track from iTunes or stream it from the cloud using the new Beats based streaming service. Apple is also looking to include Beats’ curated playlists, a feature which was used as a selling point when Beats Music launched last year.

Steve Jobs believed Google stole the idea of Android from the iPhone.

It’s also thought that Apple will continue to offer and support the Beats Music service for Android. This would be the first that Apple has ever developed an app for Google’s Android operating system, something Steve Jobs famously quoted as being “a stolen product”.

Surprisingly, it’s also believed that Apple Music will incorporate a social layer. The company has previously tried to enter the music social network arena with Ping in 2010 which failed horribly. This time, however, only artists themselves and not users will have their own profiles. Artists will be able to post things such as music samples and share songs from other artists, which anyone with an iTunes account can then like or comment on.

The service will be launching with a free trial, suggesting that their won’t be a free tier for the service. This aligns with reports that Apple was trying to force music labels into killing the free streaming option offered by the likes of Spotify.

While Beats Music isn’t available in Australia, it’s expected that Apple Music will be.