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Apple’s Beats Branded Spotify KILLER Is Coming In June
Apple plans to take on Spotify with its Beats music subscription service –– and it could be here as early as June
Spotify is a HUGE deal these days and has, to some extent, contributed to ongoing dips in Apple’s once hugely lucrative digital music business, iTunes. Google attempted to regain some footing in the music space with its All Access Music service, as did Amazon with a similar offering. And in 2015 Apple will join their ranks with a completely revamped Beats Music service.
“Based heavily upon cloud streaming, Apple’s new service is centered around the user’s music library. A new search feature will be able to locate any song in the iTunes/Beats catalog, and users will be able to stream music from the catalog as well as add songs to their personal libraries. Users will be able to select specific tracks to store on their iOS devices and/or computers, or keep all songs solely in the cloud, reports 9to5Mac.
“Apple will also deeply integrate Beats Music’s Playlists, Activities, and Mixes features into the new service, letting users access a vast array of pre-made, human-curated playlists to fit various activities. Surprisingly, Apple is likely to also update Beats’ social networking features, allowing people to follow other users and artists as they did with the failed Ping social music network.”
Beats will be hardwired into all Apple’s products, reports suggest, from iOS to OS X to Apple TV. The revamped service will apparently cost $7.99 a month and is expected to launch sometime in June –– though like Apple Pay it will most likely be a US exclusive at first.
“It will allow users to search through the iTunes and Beats catalogues at the same time — allowing them to stream music from the cloud or play it straight from their device. Users will also be able to access Beats’ curated playlists — which the company marketed as its selling point when Beats Music was launched in early 2014,” reports The Independent.
The revamped Beats application will apparently mirror the look and feel of Apple’s current Music application.The existing Music application will also re-designed to integrate the service, as well as iTunes and Apple’s popular Apple TV platform.
“It will also continue to offer the Beats Music app for Android. That will be the first time that Apple has developed an app for Google’s operating system — though Tim Cook has said in the past that he has no issue with developing for the platform,” the report added.
Reports claim Apple will look to undercut Spotify, which charges $9.99 for its service in the US and £9.99 in the UK, with a base-level charge of $7.99 in the US and £7.99 in the UK.
Richard Goodwin
13:35, 6 Feb 2015