The Beggars Group, one of the largest independent group labels in Europe has published their thoughts on its official blog. The group says that have not come to an agreement with the new service. The group is concerned about artists losing remuneration during the three-month period and doesn’t see any reason for artists to be impacted by “Apple’s customer acquisition costs”.

According to a report published by The Telegraph, chairman of industry lobby group UK Music, Andy Heath told the publication that no independent British label has agreed to allow Apple Music to stream their music during the free trial.

The labels fear loss of revenue from competing services like Spotify as users try out Apple’s new service. Even though Apple will be paying higher revenue share than the industry standard it hasn’t worked out as a compelling factor for record labels who work on tight margins to offer free music during the trial.

It’s not just record labels and independent artists who’ve shared mixed reactions to Apple Music. Taylor Swift’s album 1989 will not be available for streaming on Apple Music just like Spotify. However, Taylor Swift’s other albums released in the past will be available for streaming.

Apple is still negotiating terms with record labels and independent artists. The new service aims to allow users to discover new music, get curated playlists created by humans and connect with their favourite artists.

Apple helped save the music industry from the issue of music piracy by introducing iTunes. Now, the company is on a mission to catch-on the next big trend in the music industry – streaming.

It will be interesting to see if Apple is able to crack deals with these record labels and artists before the official launch of Apple Music on June 30.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) will announce its Q4 FY13 earnings on October 28 during a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT. AAPL CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will discuss the results during the live earnings call.

The company set an all new record this year with the iPhone sales. Apple Inc. sold 9 million devices (iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c) during the launch weekend. Even though Apple did not release individual sales figures many reports published online have suggested that iPhone 5s sales were greater than the iPhone 5c.

Apple witnessed high demand for the iPhone 5s and because of the low yield rates of the fingerprint sensor the shipping date for many customers was pushed to October. The company is still struggling to meet the demand as the online store still mentions shipping in October as opposed to within 24 hours for the iPhone 5c.

iOS 7 has been a huge success for Apple has more than 200 million devices were upgraded to the latest operating system during the first week. Even iTunes Radio saw massive adoption with over 11 million unique listeners. The launch of the new streaming music service could have resulted in boost for the iTunes Match service as with the subscription iTunes Radio goes ad free.

Apple will be questioned about the rumored Apple television set and iWatch and the company as usual is unlikely to provide any update related to future products.

The shares of AAPL have improved in the recent past however it hasn’t recovered to the all time high of $700. At the time of writing the shares are trading at $490.97 and the company’s market capital is valued at $445.8 billion.

On Thursday, CNET reported that Apple is reportedly very close to completing a deal with both Warner Music and Universal Music Group for its rumored iRadio service. Earlier this week, reports suggested that Apple was looking to launch the service as early as this summer, and with new reports of the companies finalizing deals, it appears that the previous rumors may be correct.

With its iRadio service, Apple will reportedly be using a different revenue stream and adding features not seen in other streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora. Initial reports suggested that negotiations slowed because of Apple’s offering of low royalty which have likely been resolved since then. It is unclear, however, if the record labels settled for a lower rate or if Apple offered a higher rate.

That includes a quick way for consumers to buy a song they hear, potentially boosting download sales from iTunes, as well as a revenue share of new audio ads Apple is planning to add to the free service, according to sources.

The product would be tied to iTunes, and available on mobile devices.

The service, according to sources, most closely resembles Pandora because it doesn’t offer on-demand listening. Apple is building some unique features, such as the ability to jump back to the beginning of a song, according to one person briefed on the company’s plans.

It is possible that Apple would launch the new service at the company’s WWDC conference during the summer. Warner Music and Universal Music Group will be enough for the company to launch the service, however, they will also need to strike a deal with Sony Music Group to get the full library of songs. It is possible for the deals to fall through, with content and royalty rate negotiations still continuing, but with all of these reports, it is all but confirmed that Apple will be launching a streaming music service later this year.

{Via MacRumors}

Online music streaming services such as Spotify, rdio, and Pandora are dominating streaming music space, Apple has been rumored to be working on its own radio service similar to Pandora’s, now being called “iRadio” for lack of a better name. These rumors have been circulating around the web for some weeks now. Now in an interview with AllThingsD, Beats CEO and Interscope Chairman, Jimmy Iovine revealed that he had pitched the idea of a music subscription service to Steve Jobs in 2003.

Iovine was close friends with Jobs, having worked with him on multiple products and promotions with artists such as 50 Cent, Bono of U2, Mick Jagger, and even launching a special iPod for U2. Iovine says he is currently working on a music subscription service, not revealing any specific details about the project or what it is going to consist of.

In 2002, 2003, Doug [Morris, former Universal Music head] asked me to go up to Apple and see Steve. So I met him and we hit it off right away. We were really close. We did some great marketing stuff together: 50 Cent, Bono, Jagger, stuff for the iPod — we did a lot of stuff together.

But I was always trying to push Steve into subscription. And he wasn’t keen on it right away. [Beats co-founder] Luke Wood and I spent about three years trying to talk him into it. He was there, not there … he didn’t want to pay the record companies enough. He felt that they would come down, eventually.

I don’t know what [Apple media head] Eddy Cue would say — I’m seeing him soon — but I think in the end Steve was feeling it, but the economics…he wanted to pay the labels [for subscriptions], but [the fees were] not going to be acceptable to them.

Iovine did reveal that his service would be similar to Pandora, in that it would not provide users access to entire albums and artists as Spotify does and would aggregate music based on user’s preferences. Apple’s “iRadio” is expected to be similar to Iovine’s approach, although it could be possible that Iovine is working with Apple to help create the company’s music subscription service as the two have worked together in the past. Iovine was mentioned several times in Job’s biography, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson in which Jobs himself talks about his friendship with the Beats Electronics chief.

{Via MacRumors}

Spotify is finally coming to the United States and has already started accpeting signups for invites in the US. Visitors in the U.S. are now redirected to a signup page where you can enter an email address to be one of the first to receive an invite.

The Sweden-based streaming music service allows users to listen to any music that the company has licensed. Apple’s iTunes on the other hand only allows users to listen to music that they have purchased from the iTunes Store or other sources.

There are free subscriptions in Spotify that are limited by hours of listening time, similiar to Pandora. Then, there are paid subscriptions that offer features such as offline mode, the ability to download songs to iPods and more. Subscription fees range from €5 to €10 per month.

Spotify has been growing steadily since it’s introduction and it will be interesting to see it’s adoption rate in the United States.

Will you sign up for Spotify when it releases? Are you going to be using the service if an app comes to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch? Sound off in the comments below!

{via MacRumors}