Apple’s forthcoming music streaming service may well take on Spotify AB in more ways than one, including curated channels complete with celebrity disk jockeys.

According to a report Monday, the new service, as yet officially named, will be offered for $10 a month, but will not offer an unlimited, ad-supported version as Spotify does.

There will be some sort of free feature involved with the service, however, which is described as offering “only a handful of songs;” whether this means a limited try before you buy approach (say free for one week) or a limited catalog of free songs isn’t clear.

Much like the abysmal Jay-Z fronted Tidal, Apple is said to be wanting to bring some star power to the new service and is reported to be in talks with rap stars Q-Tip, Drake and Dr. Dre, along with BBC Radio DJ’s and producers, to front a revamped Apple Radio lineup that will be incorporated into the new service.

These new celebrity fronted channels could conceivably make Apple’s new service not just a competitor to Spotify, but also subscription music services from companies such as Sirius XM Radio, Inc. and even Pandora Media, Inc.

Celebrities aside, promotion of the new service could take an interesting twist as well, with the report speculating that as well as being integrated into Apple’s iTunes software, Apple may choose to push those wishing to buy music from iTunes towards the streaming service by prompting them at the point of purchase.

The example given: a user goes to purchase an album for $10 and it’s suggested to them that they instead use the $10 to sign up to the streaming service; the $10 subscription is more valuable to Apple as unlike a one-off purchase that subscription income is ongoing monthly.

Problems afoot?

Getting the new service to market apparently hasn’t been smooth sailing for Apple with the report noting that the tech giant has yet to sign deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group.

Originally it was expected that Apple would launch the new service next week at its Worldwide Developers Conference, but unless the company can summon a rabbit from its hat and seal the deals this week, that launch date is unlikely to happen.

It’s inconceivable though that Apple won’t eventually come to an agreement with the three companies at some stage in the future, the question just becomes a matter of when so they can proceed with launching the product.

Image credit: garryknight/Flickr/CC by 2.0