Later this year Apple is expected to launch a new music streaming service, which will incorporate technology from Beats Music, and is going to mark the end of the streaming service that Apple adopted when it acquired Beats. As per a new report the upcoming service isn’t going to have a free subscription tier, one where users can listen to music as long as they can put up with advertisements, apparently those who want to use it will have to pay up.
Many music streaming services, like Spotify, allow people to access music even if they’re not willing to pay. Users get an ad-supported experience and are also limited to only a few skips per day.
According to sources who spoke with Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine and Apple’s Eddy Cue, the company is telling music labels that it can aid them to “get behind a paywall,” labels are reportedly not happy with how easily people can access music freely through services like YouTube and Spotify.
If this really is the case then it looks like Apple won’t allow subscribers to listen to music for free, once their trial period is over, and if they want to access the new service they’ll no other option but to pay for it. Rumors suggest that Apple is going to debut the service with a lower subscription price, like $8, to undercut rivals like Spotify.
It is also claimed that Apple is willing to work with labels to bag exclusive releases from high profile artists. This would delay the record’s arrival on other music streaming services thus giving Apple’s upcoming service a leg up on the competition.
Apple is expected to launch its new music streaming service this June at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2015.
Filed in . Read more about Beats Music and Wwdc 2015.