Apple Music UK: will Apple’s Spotify rival get international rollout at WWDC 2015?
Apple’s previous attempt at streaming music, iTunes Radio, was launched two years ago but still hasn’t made it out of the US and Australia
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Apple is about to launch its new streaming music service, taking on Spotify and others — and Apple confirmed at launch that it would be available in the UK and 100 other countries.
The app will launch at the end of June. It will cost $9.99 per month in the US, and local pricing will be available closer to launch, Apple said.
Apple’s new streaming service will integrate and partly improve on iTunes Radio, which was launched two years ago at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference. But that first foray into streaming music never made it to the UK, with Australia the only place outside of the UK to get an international rollout.
Though reports indicated that the company could launch the service in the UK and elsewhere in early 2014, the development and release of Apple Music seems to have been derailed by the acquisition of Beats. That signalled a new direction for Apple's music services, towards a more streaming-focused, Spotify-like approach.
Apple’s attempts to launch its music services internationally are thought to have been held back by licensing agreements, which have to be negotiated on a country-by-country basis. Since different people own the license to stream music in each country, getting one artist or company on board in the US doesn’t mean that Apple can stream their music wherever they want.
But Apple is thought to have been working hard on those licenses, which were a large part of the reason for acquiring Beats for $3 billion last year. The new service is set to be a bigger part of the presentation than previous music services, and so is expected to have an accordingly large rollout.
The company has reportedly been hiring UK-based staff for its music service. Zane Lowe, its most recent high-profile music hire, will be working from Los Angeles — but other Radio 1 employees hired by the company around the same time are thought to be working from London.
The company is also widely expected to launch its Apple Pay service in the UK at the WWDC presentation. That contactless payment system was revealed at the same event last year, but is only available in the US so far.
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