Report: Apple Launching New Beats Music Service

Apple bought Beats about half a year ago, but aside from having Doctor Dre appear during WWDC last year, not much has come from that acquisition. But a new report on 9to5Mac today says that Apple has plans to launch a new and improved version of Beats’ streaming music service that’ll be baked right into iTunes. This sounds a whole lot like reports that first started circulating back in November…

According to the report, the new version of Beats will be “centered around a user’s music library.” Searching the service will provide results from the combined catalogs of iTunes and Beats, and will be able to mix and match playlists between those catalogs and their own personal libraries. The service will also permit users to store their music in the cloud, and have access to the various kinds of playlists offered by Beats at the moment.

When the service launches, subscriptions will supposedly cost less than $9.99 a month, and will also be available on not just iOS devices, but Android devices as well – a bold move, and the first time that Apple will be connecting with Android in such a way.

Just how the service will truly set itself apart from the rest remains to be seen. One of the main advantages of one music streaming service over another is its catalogue, and combining the songs of both iTunes and Beats makes the forthcoming service a strong contender. Undercutting the prices of the competition is also a great way of getting people to flock to your service, and if there’s one thing Apple can afford to do, it’s undercut the competition. It’s just that so frequently they don’t, charging a premium for their goods and services.

At the moment, we’ll have to wait and see what the new service really is – and chances are we won’t hear much more, at least not officially, until WWDC this summer. That’s the projected launch time the post offers, so be prepared to hear much more about this new service sometime in June.

[Source: 9to5Mac]