According to a report from TechCrunch, Apple plans to shut down the Beats Music streaming service it recently acquired through its acquisition of Beats. The report cites several sources close to the situation including “several prominent employees at Apple and Beats”:
Many engineers from Beats Music have already been moved off the product and onto other projects at Apple, including iTunes. It’s not clear when exactly Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre’s music service will be shut down or what Apple will do with streaming, but every source with knowledge of the situation that we talked to agreed Apple plans to sunset the Beats Music brand.
Update: Apple tells Re/code that the streaming service is not shutting down. However, Re/code says that the branding could be altered at some point in the future.
What exactly Apple has planned for the Beats Music team and product is unclear. The report points out that Beats executive Ian Rogers had been put in charge of iTunes Radio previously, so it’s possible Apple has plans to wrap Beats Music streaming features into its iTunes products. While Beats Music didn’t get any stage time at Apple’s recent iPhone and Apple Watch unveiling, Apple did just recently launch a new dedicated Beats Music Apple TV channel. It also started advertising the Beats Music app to new iOS customers alongside its other iOS apps and pushed the service on its website and elsewhere.
When Apple acquired the company, Tim Cook and other Apple executives spoke on several occasions about the talent behind the Beats Music streaming service being a big motivating factor in the deal. After officially announcing the deal, Apple said that it planned to continue offering the Beats Music app on iOS, Android and Windows devices and up until now there has been no indication the service would be shut down. Apple has also been pushing the Beats headphones business heavily on its website, but it’s unclear at this point what Apple has planned for branding on that side of the business.
Beats by any other name would sound as sweet
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) September 22, 2014
Earlier this year we reported that Apple was transitioning the Beats team to Apple while eliminating redundant positions. At the time, our sources close to the situation said that Beats Music executives Ian Rogers and Trent Reznor would stay on at Apple alongside Beats Music co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Apple confirmed that report in a statement by noting that it offered all Beats employees positions, but that some would be temporary due to overlap at the companies.
[hulu id=afboob5-lp_y1qlezezrrg width=512]
Walt asks point blank: You keeping the Beats Brand?
Eddie Cue: We are.http://t.co/YLcBfjAK5L
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) September 22, 2014
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I’m interested to see what it will transition to… rolled into iTunes Radio and iTunes Radio gains more functionality? I’m a current subscriber of Beats Music, so I guess I’m going to be along for the ride.
Given Tim Cook’s deep admiration for the Beats Music service, i’m sure the tech is coming to iTunes or some other Apple-branded service real soon. I hope sooner rather than later.
Or, it could be damage control. I can’t wait until they kick Iovine and Dre out of Apple. Two people Apple doesn’t need.
You mean, shutting down the Beats brand, not the service, as the “sources” stated. Comprehension skills, my friends. Comprehension skills.
Well that was quick.
but they just added it to the apple tv?
Right. I can see a rebranded iTunes radio being beats with the iTunes matc functionality
Would be great if I didn’t have to pay the $15 for my family and just get that included with my iTunes Match fee…
Sure Pete Mrsich it would be great if included with iTunes match and maybe they could give us a hand job every morning too! Thats not too much to ask considering all streaming services are about $10 a month. How do you suggest they pay the record labels the fees after only a $25 a year fee when every other streaming service is $100 a year or more?
Hmmm… Tim Cook was just going on about how great it was on Charlie Rose, talking up the qualify of curation. Odd to then close it immediately after that and adding the app to Apple TV
U2 payback.
Does no one see the potential correlation to this super secret project between Apple and U2, on some new music format and the potential tie into the Beats Music brand? I find it hard to believe the two are unrelated…
Exactly.
They’ll shut both Beats Music and iTunes radio down, and combine into a new product. Both services lacked greatly. I’ll venture a guess that it’ll be “Apple Music” as they’re working on getting away from the “i” names
They normally do music related announcements during their October event. Could this link to U2s mention of a different format of music?
This is bullshit. Beats is the only decent streaming music service. Booooo…..!!!
What did Apple bought then? Headphones? This deal turns every day more strange. It was too much money for both a small streaming customer base and a pretentious headphone line. Now they blow out Beats Music (without pushing iTunes Radio). Must be something else behind to justify the price, otherwise it’s It is the most useless and expensive purchase of history
Just cancelled my Beats Music sub through AT&T. I enjoyed the service though felt the app wasn’t up to Apple standards as far as user experience goes. Put me into the same camp as Cory. Apple Music sounds simple and would allow Apple to redo the application to Apple standards and deliver integrated support in iTunes.
Apple Tunes soon to follow.
As much as they are moving away from the whole “i” thing, iTunes is too iconic to change it’s name now. Same with the iPhone, iPod, and iPad…and iMac for that matter.
Well how the heck else is Bono going to save album sales…what a dumb band for Apple to love getting into bed with.
give it a rest… we got it that you don’t like Bono, me neither but give it a rest buddy!
Beats buys Mog, Apple buys Beats and kills the name and service. Mog and Beats has never had that many subscribers. Apple wanted the talent and deal cutting capabilities of a Jimmy Iovine.
Combine iTunes Radio and Beats and you will have good subscription service. I much Prefer iTunes Radio to Pandora. I’m not sure how interested Apple is in a direct competitor to Spotify.
I still think Iovine and co were brought in to help with deals with the television and music divisions of the same companies that Iovine has been making great business deals with for a long time.
I agree that we will see Apple Music soon, and will the trial of what they want to do with Apple Video to bring in the next generation of Apple TV’s
I really hope they don’t remove all the cool functions of the Beats app. Beats offers the best recommendations and great album and band descriptions.
Wouldn’t it be interesting is APPLE decided to include Beats into the fold for free to apple users, yet ask customers on the other platforms to pay for the services. Win-Win as far as gaining value and dollars from customers outside the Apple ecosystem, more customers possibly coming over to iOS and Mac to take advantage of free streaming services being offered also.
I don’t think Apple would add a Beats Music channel to Apple TV if it were planning to shut it down so soon!..
Was thinking about subscribing to Beats Music… But never mind lol
If they rebrand it, they should call it AppleJams…
I imagine the whole thing will turn into a 3 billion dollar write down on their future earnings. Apart from the urban brand caché of the headphones, which is worth maybe 500 million, I just don’t see any value in the music streaming. There were far better and much cheaper options available, such as Songza which was quickly snapped up by Google.
Spotify right now is doing a real good job, so I hope it can surpass what they can do. It would better with siri integration. right now, i pay $5 a month with spotify because they allow college students to pay that amount for a length of four years. I know Apple would not charge such a rate.
While they are rebranding it…. they could get rid of that web-based Flash player…
Beats music can definitely use some genius recommendation and combine it with my music library.
Apple Beats, coming to you soon.
It doesn’t sound like they’re killing Beat, just repurposing it. Beats as a service, not a product. iTunes 12, with Beats Radio.
Lol, was this a surprise to anyone? Nope. Business as usual. Buy out the competition and then disband them. This is why we need to break the major corporations up. If there are not six or more companies of equal size and economic fire power, no company should be allowed to buy one in their competition bracket, and all five or less companies in that economic bracket ought be broken up into smaller sized companies.
This way we may have competition.
I just did a trial glad I didn’t pay for it. I was going to do the 100.00 a year too. The selection sucks compared to Spotify. I hated the wheel in the middle of the album art too. Now that Spotify revamped it’s OS on the Android, I went back to Spotify.