Apple officially unveiled its new music streaming service Monday at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.  Agreements were reached with the three major US labels, the company said, but those deals were not secured until the days leading up to the unveiling.  According to Rolling Stone, agreements were still not in place with Sony, Warner Music Group and Universal as late as Friday, as the labels pushed to get a bigger piece of the pie in Apple's streaming revenue as compared with existing deals with Spotify.  The global leader in music streaming, Spotify shares 55 percent of users' subscription fees with the majors, but reportedly wanted 60 percent of subscription fee revenue from Apple.

When Apple purchased Beats Audio late last year, it was a foregone conclusion that Apple would rebrand the service and launch it as an Apple product.  The major labels saw an opportunity, meanwhile, to increase their share of streaming revenue by forcing Apple to pay more.  If they were able to convince Apple to pay a higher rate, the labels surmised, then the other streaming providers like Spotify, Rhapsody and Rdio would be more inclined to increase their payout when their contracts come up.  At Monday's unveiling, Apple did say that they had wrapped up negotiations with the all three major labels, but declined to offer any details about those agreements.

Unveiled Monday, the Apple Music service officially launches on June 30.  Initially, Apple wanted to offer the service for less than the $10 a month charged by similar services, but had to raise that figure when the major labels refused to participate in a lower-cost service.  Instead, the company is offering the service at $9.99 per month, and offering a free three-month trial to woo customers from rival services.  In addition, Apple Music is offering a family plan in which up to six people can share an account for just $14.99 per month.