Apple expected to launch music streaming service at WWDC

Gadget giant Apple starts its worldwide developer conference (WWDC) today and the big product announcement is expected to be the launch of a music streaming service to rival Spotify.

The rumour mill is always at its most speculative and frenetic near a major Apple event and the Daily Telegraph has been especially proactive this time. The paper reports Apple is expected to launch a music streaming service on the back of its Beats acquisition. Apple, of course, is already the leading digital music retailer through iTunes, but as streaming overtakes downloads Apple needs to act to protect its position from the likes of Spotify.

It remains unclear how speculative the Telegraph report is, as Reuters seems to think it was derived from “industry sources” but the report doesn’t seem to refer to them, instead claiming to merely be aggregating existing rumours, including a $10 per month price and other goodies such as celebrity DJs and original content.

The Telegraph also reckons Apple Pay is set to arrive in the UK sometime this summer, with the latest iPhones already having the capability. This will coincide with Samsung introducing mobile payments via a smart watch if other rumours are to be believed. Lastly there is the totally unsurprising leak that the next iPhone(s) will appear towards the end of September, as they have for the past few years.

UPDATE – 13:30, 8 June 2015: The music streaming story seems to have been confirmed by the head of Sony Music.