Apple’s music service will launch with or without proper licenses

Apple can’t wait to get back into streaming music, even if not all the pieces are in place quite yet. The Beats Music relaunch is expected to be announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June, but music industry sources have confirmed to Billboard that Apple has not yet secured the appropriate licensing deals required from the major record labels to be able to stream their catalogs. It’s a piece in the puzzle that can’t be overlooked. Just this month, Grooveshark was forced to shut down after being bombarded with copyright infringement lawsuits for streaming unlicensed content. The fact that WWDC is just a few weeks away had a few critics questioning whether the new service would be ready in time, but 9to5 Mac has confirmed that a Beats announcement is still on the agenda for Tim Cook. Given how much money the iPod and iTunes have made for music labels, a tight timeframe doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple is stressing out over inking these licensing deals. “If any company can pull it off, they can,” one source told Billboard, referring to Apple’s clout in the music industry.