Apple May Kill Beats Music

Well this is interesting. According to a new report Apple is mulling over a possible decision to shut down Beats Music, the music streaming service it got as a packaged deal when it purchased Beats earlier this year. Apparently many engineers have been shifted from Beats Music to other projects at Apple, such as iTunes, but it is not known for sure right now when the service will bite the dust. TechCrunch reported this possibility today citing “several prominent employees” at both Apple and Beats.

Apple acquired Beats among rumors that the former was developing a music streaming service of its own. When the acquisition was announced there was speculation that perhaps Beats Music was the main reason why Apple sent a few billion dollars on the company but if this report is to be believed the reality may have been different.

One source cited in the report claims that Apple may incorporate the streaming side of things into iTunes, which is understandable as Beats Music is the second streaming service that Apple is running besides iTunes. It would make more sense for the company to simplify things and we all know just how much Apple loves simplification. When Beats was brought on board its CEO Ian Rogers was handed over the reins to iTunes Radio, his time is already split between the two services and isn’t solely spent on Beats Music.

Some found it alarming that while the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus came with several apps developed by Apple pre-installed the company decided not to pre-install Beats Music on the new smartphones. The service wasn’t even mentioned at the event on September 9th, where the Apple Watch was also unveiled, and it has an unannounced music app instead of Beats Music which starts playing songs immediately when the icon is tapped.

All these signs point to a possible sunset of Beats Music with the streaming end being incorporated into iTunes, which has over 800 million users and more than 400 million credit cards on file. It seems like the logical step, does it not?

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Apple, Audio
Tags: Beats Music, iTunes, itunes radio