SAN FRANCISCO (APP)- Apple is expected to unveil a ramped up music service on Monday that builds on the iPhone maker’s strengths in a challenge to Spotify, Pandora and other established players.
In the biggest overhaul of iTunes since it was launched in early 2003, the service was anticipated to include an option of subscribing to streaming music for $10 monthly.
Analysts and industry insiders believe rebranded “Apple Music” will be introduced on Monday during a keynote presentation kicking off the company’s weeklong Wordwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“I absolutely think we will see a streaming music service,” Gartner analyst Van Baker told AFP.
“Apple is late to the game on this but it may not matter.”
While iTunes transformed the way music was distributed and sold, it also put Apple in a position to build extensive relationships with labels and artists.
The popularity of iTunes and Apple devices means that a broad audience could be provided an easy way to simply switch on the new music service, according to Baker.
Apple Music will likely have benefited from talent and technology acquired when Apple bought Beats Electronics and its streaming music service in a $3 billion deal in May last year.
An Apple streaming music service would grab headlines at an annual gathering at which the California-based company courts creators of fun, hip or functional apps that help drive the popularity of Internet-linked mobile devices.
Google showed off an array of innovations at its annual developers conference, which took place at the same downtown San Francisco venue less than two weeks ago.
