Apple has secured the rights to stream music from each of the four major record labels ahead of the launch of its iCloud service next week, according to reports.
Following today's surprise revelation from Apple that its music streaming service will arrive at WWDC, it appears that there'll be no restrictions on which artists users will be able to access.
With the Sony, Warner Bros and EMI deals already completed, Apple will ink an agreement with the last major label Universal later this week, according to the WSJ.
Record labels might control the right to the all-important recordings of songs, but there's one more big hurdle Steve Jobs and co. need to clear before next week's big launch.
Labels? Check. Publishers...
With the big-four labels seemingly in the bag, Apple's focus will be on agreeing deals with music publishers, which control the copyright to lyrics, tunes and melodies.
According to the WSJ report, talks with publishers aren't as advanced, leaving Apple facing a race against time to have everything completed in time for Steve Jobs' keynote on Monday.
Rumour killer
Apple took the unprecedented step of emailing the media today to announce what it'll be launching at the Worldwide Developers' Conference, almost a week before Jobs steps on stage.
As well as the iCloud streaming service, we'll get our first look at iOS 5 and the final version of Mac OS 10.7 Lion.
While there's always the hope that we'll see a surprise "One more thing" from Jobs, everything we've heard points to that not being a new iPhone.
Source: WSJ
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