As we draw nearer to WWDC 2015, Apple’s rumoured relaunch of Beats Music has taken a few twists and turns of late. While it is generally acknowledged that Apple is set to shake the streaming music world up come its WWDC opening keynote, the ins and outs of how it will go about doing that are as yet something of a mystery, with conflicting reports muddying already cloudy waters.
The latest to throw its hat into the rumor ring is The Wall Street Journal, with the publication citing people briefed on the plans when claiming that Apple will launch the new Beats Music incarnate as a $10/month streaming service. The belief that Apple would launch the new Beats Music with a lower price point than it currently commands appear to have been unfounded, with the claimed free tier also not quite what it was first believed to be.
That’s because Apple’s free tier of music streaming will not be a free-for-all option like Spotify’s, with Apple instead offering streaming radio stations of sorts, curated by some of the world’s top DJs. With the industry connections that Apple has at its disposal, we suspect that such a move may not be as bad as it first sounds. Apple has previously had a go at the streaming radio game, with iTunes Radio not proving as popular as had been hoped. That said, with Universal Music, Sony and Warner Bros said to be on board and DJ talent by the spades, Apple may just make a go of it this time around.
The $10/month fee for ad-free streaming will put Beats squarely into competition with the likes of Rdio and Spotify, with Apple presumably believing that its music catalog and iOS integration will be enough to see it win over the competition no matter how entrenched it may be.
The newly relaunched Beats Music is expected to get its first outing at the WWDC opening keynote alongside iOS 9 and Apple’s new Apple Watch SDK. This year’s developer event has a lot riding on it, and Apple will not want to disappoint. With just days to go until the curtain goes up on another blockbuster WWDC, we’ll have all the news as it happens.
(Source: WSJ)
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