Apple in Talks to Sign Drake, Pharrell Williams, and David Guetta as iTunes Radio Guest DJs

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According to a new report from the New York Post, Apple wants to sign Drake, Pharrell Williams, and David Guetta as guest DJs for its upcoming (revamped) iTunes Radio service.

In addition to launching a new streaming music service, Apple is also said to be relaunching iTunes Radio. The report notes that Apple wants the above artists to guest DJ on the revamped iTunes Radio service and they are willing to pay for it. The deal with Drake alone is rumoured to cost around $19 million.

Apple is reportedly building a new streaming music service, said to be called Apple Music, based on the Beats technology they acquired. The company has been visiting record labels to make deals for its upcoming streaming music service ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next week.

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The new music service will reportedly offer Ping-like social tools for artists, but the company will not offer a free tier for users like many competitors. The service will reportedly cost $10 per month following a lengthy three-month trial.

“The tech giant wants to offer a three-month free trial period for its $10-a-month subscription service to get customers to sample its new offering. So far so good, but it also wants the labels to give it rights for free during that time.”

The report also claims that Apple wants the rights to music labels’ songs for free during the trial period. Apple is also looking to add lyrics in its new music service, however, they are not willing to pay the record labels extra for them.

“Apple’s plans appear aimed at taking the best of Pandora, Spotify and YouTube and blending it into something that will outgun them all. There are plans for streaming music (and video), artists’ pages, a YouTube-style post-it-yourself destination called Apple Connect and a well-documented reboot of iTunes Radio.”

All will be revealed in just over a week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is set to kick off on June 8.

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