Apple Working on Pandora-Like Music Service

Posted on September 7, 2012 by

Apple is working on a custom radio service similar to Pandora, according to The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. The reports claim the service will work across Apple’s product line, including Macs, iPhone and iPad, as Well as Windows PCs.

From WSJ:

Apple only recently initiated licensing negotiations with record labels for its putative service, and even if it does complete deals, it could be a matter of months when such a service might launch, according to these people.

The company has in the past contemplated and abandoned other interactive features, including a Spotify-like service that would have let users rent unlimited amounts of music for a fixed monthly fee. But people familiar with the current talks say they appear to be more serious than those previous tentative inquiries.

As on Pandora, the music would be interspersed with ads, in this case carried by Apple’s iAd platform, which syndicates ads to iPhone and iPad apps.

From NYT:

Apple’s service would likely take the form of a pre-installed app on Apple’s devices like iPhones and iPads and might be able to connect to a user’s iTunes account to judge his or her tastes.