Apple reportedly asking music labels to take smaller revenue cut from Apple Music

Apple is supposedly renegotiating its licensing deals for Apple Music and iTunes with major music labels. Apple is hoping the labels are up for reducing revenue shares from streaming to bring them closer to the rate that Spotify pays labels. The deals with the record labels are said to expire at the end of the month but there’s a likelihood it will be extended if the parties can’t agree on new terms—at least according to the sources of Bloomberg who asked not to be identified since they’re sharing private information.

Streaming has been seen to be a source of hope for the music industry after a decade of decline in this digital age. With the help of the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, the industry grew by 5.9 percent last year worldwide. Under Apple’s existing deal, labels get around 58 percent of revenue from Apple Music subscribers, which is considered a higher cut than other services. But labels are supposedly amenable to the cut, if Apple meets other requirements. Apple overpaid labels to placate those concerned that the streaming service will cannibalize iTunes, which as shown hasn’t quite happened. But labels are still asking for precautions. Apple won’t comment about the report.

Apple rumoured to be unveiling its own smart home speaker at WWDC 2017

When it comes out, Essential Home will be the first smart speaker to come with Siri. Apple has to catch up now.

While Apple has the HomeKit platform, it doesn’t have its own smart home speaker like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and soon-to-arrive Essential Home. But that might change and it’s going to happen sooner than later. It’s being rumoured that Apple will be unveiling a Siri-powered speaker at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week. But you mustn’t expect it to be available immediately. It’s being pegged for a fall release.

Making its own smart home speaker will be advantageous for Apple in terms of getting users to stay exclusively with its products. It’ll serve as a hub for all the HomeKit accessories and will help in a way promote its other products. For example, it will use Apple Music in place of the other music streaming services when you ask it to play a song. The product is rumoured to be getting virtual surround sound technology and conflicting reports are out about whether it’ll have a screen or not. If there is any truth to the rumours, we’re about to hear about it pretty soon.

Source: Mashable

Google tipped to be introducing iOS version of Assistant, launching in US first

With Google I/O just a few days away, it seems this new rumour leaked at an appropriate time. According to Android Police, Google plans to launch a standalone Google Assistant app for iOS platform. It’s said the app might combine the chat functionality of Google Assistant, which we’ve seen on the Google Allo app, and the voice-controlled version seen on Android. There aren’t that many details yet about this supposed launch but it’s said the app will first be available in the US.

It seems ideal to launch at the company’s developer’s conference as they just released Assistant’s SDK late last month. If this rumour is true, it might entice more developers to integrate with the app’s functionality.

Amazon Prime Video might be coming to Apple TV soon

Rumour has it Apple and Amazon have called a truce—at least when it comes to Amazon’s video streaming service. Amazon has been competing fiercely with the likes of Apple and Google in the video streaming space. It’s even gotten to the point where Amazon doesn’t have its Prime Video service on Apple TV or most Android TV devices and Apple TVs and Chromecasts aren’t even sold on their site.

But it looks like Amazon and Apple have at least reached an agreement when it comes to Amazon Prime Video’s availability on Apple TV. It’s presumed that Amazon will be creating an app for Apple TV and even a mobile Prime Video app for iOS. The app is rumoured to be coming out this summer. Let’s hope this is true.

Source: The Next Web