Apple has reportedly signed a licensing agreement with Warner Music Group to create a streaming music service.
Reuters reported that Apple has been considering a music-streaming service to complement iTunes for the past year, but progress has been slow in signing agreements with music firms.
However, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that Apple signed the deal with Warner Music for both recorded music and publishing rights.
As per the deal, Apple has agreed to give 10% of ad revenue to Warner Music’s publishing unit.
The news agencies reported that Apple is also in negotiations for music rights with Sony Music Entertainment and Sony’s separate publishing unit Sony/ATV.
Apple is expected to unveil its iRadio service at the annual developers conference in San Francisco, USA, next week.
Last year, Apple revealed plans to develop an online radio streaming service to compete with Pandora Media’s similar service.
Content from our partners
Apple planned to launch a Pandora competitor in the past but dropped the plans due licensing costs.
Twitter launched a stand-alone music-streaming service called #music that allows people find music of their interest and tweet songs from iTunes, Spotify and Rdio for free.
According to a report from Juniper Research, revenue from mobile streamed music service is expected to rise over 40% to $1.7bn in 2013.
