Apple is planning to develop an online radio streaming service to compete with Pandora Media’s similar service.
Apple is in the early stages of negotiations with the major record labels for the service.
The new service from Apple’s is likely to work on the company’s hardware, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers, as well as on PCs which use Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
The service will not work on smartphones and tablets that use Google’s Android operating system, according to Wall Street Journal.
Apple’s radio service would have advertising, carried through its iAd platform similar to Pandora.
Several online music services that include Spotify and Clear Channel Communications’ iHeartRadio, have recently added Pandora-like custom radio features.
Previously, Apple had planned to launch a Pandora competitor in the past but dropped the plans due licensing costs.
Launched in 2000, Pandora allows users to create about 100 custom radio stations composed of music that is similar to an initial song selected by a user.
For the three months ended 31 July 2012, Pandora posted a net loss of $5.4m while revenue rose 51% to $101.3m.
