Apple Nears Iradio Streaming Deal With Warner And Universal In A Dozen Markets Royalties On Par With Pandora Rates

We’ve heard no end of rumors of a streaming Radio player from Apple.  We even found pay radio buttons in the iPad’s music player app code earlier this year:

The Apple radio service, once rumored for late 2012 to Q1/2013, has now been pushed back to mid-late 2013 because of difficulty signing the labels. Today the Verge says that Warner is all but signed up at rates comparable to what Pandora pays the labels  – which is to say a lot. Earlier reports put Apple’s asking price much lower.

Update: CNET reports that Universal is also close to signing and that Apple is hoping to go into a dozen territories by summer:

We’re hoping that Apple has an announcement to make at WWDC, if not earlier.