Beats Music Bundled into iOS? It Could Happen in 2015

Is Apple hedging its bets on digital music purchases, or is it simply offering more choice to consumers? That’s the question being asked following a report from Financial Times that states Apple will bundle Beats Music into iOS as soon as March 2015.

Apple acquired Beats in May of this year for a hefty $3 billion. That purchase included the Beats Music streaming service as well as the hardware business, which includes speakers and the company’s popular line of headphones.

But while the hardware portion of Beats made sense for Apple, the future of the streaming music service seemed grim for the past several months. Some technology pundits felt uncertainty about how the product fit into Apple’s plans, with a few predicting that Apple would sunset Beats Music at some point.

With a digital music marketplace as successful as Apple’s, why meddle in the traditionally thin-margined streaming market?

It appears Apple isn’t afraid to try its luck in both categories, and that Beats Music isn’t going anywhere. Not only that, but Beats will achieve “bundled” status inside the operating system that runs on iPhones and iPads. That gives Apple’s investment a significant leg up on competing services like Spotify. And, depending on how you look at it, either future-proofs Apple’s efforts in digital music, or appeases those who would have left Beats for a competitor if it had shut down.

There are bound to be some disappointed by this news; particularly those who are fed up with the number of “included” apps in iOS, such as Newsstand, Podcasts, and many others. I’ve seen some people complaining about this already, and I have to admit, it’s a legitimate beef. If you don’t want to use Beats Music, why should it take up space on your device?

We’ll fight that battle another day. In the meantime, let us know what you think about Beats Music possibly making its way into iOS? Good? Bad? Drop us a line with your opinion.