AppleInsider Staff
Adding to an earlier report regarding Apple's much rumored "iRadio" streaming music service, another potential stumbling block has been detailed regarding Sony's unwillingness to agree to "skip song" terms.
Citing sources familiar with the ongoing negotiations, CNET reports Apple and the world's second-largest music label Sony are working to finalize terms pertaining to the supposed streaming service's song skipping feature.
While it appears Sony is open to the idea of allowing users to skip over tracks, the two companies have yet to reach an agreement as to how much Apple should pay for the functionality. The publication notes iRadio's feature set closely resembles that of popular Internet radio option Pandora, including the ability to rewind songs and skip to the next selected track.
The details come after a report published earlier on Friday outlined the many challenges Apple faces in attempting to get its music streaming service off the ground. While Universal Music Group is said to have already signed a contract with Apple, Sony and Warner are holding out for more.
Meanwhile, Google announced its own Internet radio service on Wednesday. Dubbed "All Access," the search giant's solution is more akin to existing offerings from Spotify and Rdio than Pandora in that it has a premium subscription tier.
Apple's iRadio is believed to be a hybrid of sorts, combining free music discovery with possibly for-pay on demand features, as well as the ability to purchase songs from iTunes. As with any music streamer, content owners are concerned about royalty rates, and Apple's supposedly low-ball initial offer likely set back proceedings, which in turn pushed back a quick. launch.
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19 Comments
When something comes on the radio that you don't like, you jump to a different channel, Sony should know that skipping songs has been around for decades.
When something comes on the radio that you don't like, you jump to a different channel, Sony should know that skipping songs has been around for decades.
Assuming any of this is even true, it may be an issue of time and payment. To the labels there's a vast difference in someone listening to say 15 seconds and someone listening to 1.5 minutes. Especially when many songs are between 3-4 minutes long. In the latter case you've listened to a good half or close of the song. So Sony may feel like that means they should get a count for a play. But Apple might be saying no on the grounds that really it's no different than when someone plays a preview in the iTunes store and that rule should apply (ie it's only a 'play' if they go over 90 seconds or 30 for the songs under 2 minutes or whatever that whole system is)
"Sources familiar with the matter"... LOL
It's simple. Sony gets a special alert in iRadio:
"I'm sorry but Sony Entertainment restricts your ability to listen to their music. Please send them an email asking for this ability at sonyceoemail@sony.com. In the meantime, use our filters to exclude them from your playlist."
Solved.
Good I don't own a single Sony product and I do not need one!
Squeeze him (Sony) Apple Squeeze lol
I am also looking forward to see Apple dominate that Samdung in a huge huge way in coming months and years :)