Hidden control buttons in iOS 6.1 hint at music streaming service

Users who’ve jailbroken their iOS 6.1 iPads have discovered rather intriguing evidence suggesting Apple could be working on a music streaming service.

Hidden inside the Music app there is a set of ‘radio button’ files with a familiar icon previously seen on Apple Mac iTunes software. The buttons also have the word ‘buy’ in the filename, suggesting that whatever service they are intended for has some kind of storefront.

Interestingly this has only occured on iPads with jailbroken iOS 6.1, iPhones do not appear to have the same files.

Commentators are speculating that these buttons could indicate a streaming service which might be integrated into the Music app. This would allow Apple to compete directly with Spotfify, Pandora and Xbox Music, amongst others.

This theory is based on rumours from a New York Times report in September 2012, which alleged Apple was negotiating with record labels for a possible streaming service launch.

Bloomberg later added weight to the rumour in October and suggested a first quarter 2013 launch, though by now this seems unlikely.

Apparently, according to Bloomberg’s sources, advertising revenue was something of a hurdle for Apple’s negotiations with recording labels and it may be that ongoing problems of this nature have thrown a spanner in the works.

Will we see Apple music streaming before the year ends? Who knows, but Apple is believed to be hard at work on revamping iOS for the next version, expected to arrive in the middle of the year alongside the next iPhone.

Part of that revamp will involve a design overhaul, as Apple’s design guru Jony Ive has been assigned to put his own stamp on the software.

It’s expected that we will see the App Store and iTunes having a complete face-lift and a more intuitive interface as part of this upgrade. Such a change would be the perfect opportunity to introduce new integrated services and the necessary UI changes to implement them.