Apple Inc. showed off a new streaming-music service that will give users access to a vast inventory of songs for $9.99 a month, seeking to regain ground against upstarts that have lured listeners by offering unlimited access to music.
Apple Music will be available starting June 30 with 30 million songs, the company announced on Monday at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. It was the highlight of the annual event, where Apple executives showed off updated software and new tools for Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple Watch to 5,000-plus software engineers.
The new service is aimed at bolstering Apple's efforts at a time when the music industry's revenue from streaming is on pace to exceed sales from downloads, according to MusicWatch. Though Apple remains the largest music retailer in the world, its place as an industry leader is being challenged. Spotify has more than 60 million users — with a quarter of them buying the $9.99-a-month ad-free subscription, while music is the most popular genre on YouTube's video service, which attracts more than 1 billion users a month.
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