Apple Reveals 'Revolutionary' Spotify Rival

Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) has announced its long-awaited music streaming service, Apple Music, promising subscription access to tens of millions of tracks.

The big reveal came from CEO Tim Cook at the company's annual developers conference and is seen as its belated challenge to the likes of Spotify.

"It will change the way you experience music forever," Mr Cook told the audience.

Users will be able to stream songs or save them for offline listening.

Apple Music will also feature a 24/7 global radio station called Beats One, broadcasting from LA, New York and London.

Former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe is of the figures involved in that project.

Apple Music will also recommend songs.

The company boasts the suggestions will be curated by the "world's leading music experts", rather than a computer algorithm.

The price in the US will be $9.99 (£6.50) per month, with the first three months free. A family subscription costs $14.

It launches on Apple devices on 30 June and on Windows and Android devices in the Autumn.

A Connect feature, designed to let musicians share photos, music and other updates with fans, is also a key part of the service.

Apple Music will appear as an update to the existing Music app on iPhones and iPads.

Rapper Drake and Beats headphones co-founder Jimmy Iovine were among the music industry big-hitters who appeared on stage to promote the new service.

Apple bought Beats Electronics and online music streaming service Beats Music for $3bn (£1.8bn) last year.

The San Francisco event also saw Apple announce that its Pay system is coming to the UK in July.

It means people will be able to tap their iPhone, Apple Watch or iPad to instantly purchase goods.

Over 250,000 individual outlets will support the system, including big names such as M&S, Costa, Waitrose, the Post Office and Boots.

The system will work with nearly 70% of UK credit and debit cards by the autumn.

HSBC, NatWest, Santander, TSB, Lloyds, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) are among the banks on board.

Passengers on London's transport network will also be able to use it to pay for travel.

Apple also revealed the new version of its Mac operating system, El Capitan, and announced a raft of new features for its latest mobile operating system, iOS9.

These include split screen apps for iPad and a more intelligent Siri 'personal assistant' that Apple says is 40% faster and more accurate.

Apple's recently-launched Watch is also getting a boost.

Apps will now able to run 'natively' on the watch itself, rather than a linked iPhone doing most of the work.

The company says it will allow developers to come up with more sophisticated, powerful apps that take full advantage of the device.

Apple's news aggregation app was also shown off at the San Francisco conference.

It curates a personalised version of the news based on a user's interests and will launch first in the UK, US and Australia.