Pandora, the popular music recommendation service, may soon have a competing service from Apple Inc. (AAPL) new report claims. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that AAPL is looking to introduce its own music streaming service, similar to Pandora, adding on to the iTunes structure in both OS X and iOS.
WSJ claims that “people familiar with the matter” suggest that the service would be integrated into Macs, the iPhone and the iPad and perhaps Windows PCs. This would give Apple continuing dominance in the music distribution industry and would help boost iTunes music sales.
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.
As with all of Apple’s deals with record labels and movie studios, the Cupertino company would be negotiating all licensing deals with the record labels. According to the report, Apple is still negotiating and likely won’t be unveiling the new service at the iPhone 5 media media event. Following WSJs report on the music service, the NYTimes
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