Apple confirmed with a press release on Tuesday that Steve Jobs will appear on stage with other Apple executives at the WWDC keynote on Monday, June 6, to officially unveil iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud, the upcoming cloud service from Apple. It had been previously reported that iOS 5 would be released publicly this Fall, with betas seeded throughout the summer to developers. The OS will reportedly feature new music, location services, “completely revamped” notifications and widgets, as well as a heavy cloud-based underlying structure. New features called “Photo Stream” and “Media Stream” are also rumored to be included, as well as the new MobileMe which would reportedly be a mix of Facebook and uStream for social functionalities and video sharing.
CNET is now reporting that Apple has cut a licensing deal with Universal Music Group that will allow Apple’s online music store to offer songs from the largest of the four top record companies. Apple now has the rights to offer recordings from all of the major labels. Apple has also reached agreements with some other large music publishers. According to CNET’s sources, revenue from iCloud’s music service will be split with the labels getting 58 percent and publishers getting 12 percent. Apple will take 30 percent.
Streaming will not be available on Monday but will be offered soon. Stay tuned for updates.
