We’ve been hearing on and off speculation about Apple’s plans to launch a music streaming service, but just when the trail seems to have gone cold on the subject; new reports have emerged suggesting that Tim Cook and Eddy Cue have held relatively recent meetings with Beats Electronics LLC over a potential partnership. As a company, Beats have managed to propel themselves into an industry leading position in their particular field, but it seems to be the recently announced "Project Daisy" music streaming initiative that Apple are taking a keen interest in.
The Beats music streaming service was originally made public at the turn-of-the year, and although it caused a stir amongst the music loving community, additional information about the intricacies of the company’s plans weren’t made public. The latest reports are stating that Tim Cook took the opportunity to meet with and discuss the service with Jimmy Lovine, who is not only one of Beats’ co-founders but also an extremely influential figure in the music industry.
The meeting is said to have taken place at the back end of February in Los Angeles, with Eddy Cue also being present for the discussions. The inclusion of Cue in the meeting is extremely notable due to his vital expertise and input in the setting up and recent developments of the iTunes online music store. Although, neither Apple nor Beats have come forward to comment on the meeting, it seems that the discussions were centered around the business model for Project Daisy and how the company expects to rollout the service and gain user adoption.
Beats Electronics have been showing signs for quite some time that they are ready to expand their portfolio beyond the products that they have became well known for. Investment to the tune of $60 million from various influential money-men has allowed the company to proceed with Project Daisy, but we all know that Apple is extremely well-placed both from a financial and infrastructure point-of-view to implement their own music service if they so wish.
What is yet to be determined is if Apple and Beats are interested in forming a partnership to get Daisy up and running, or if Tim Cook was merely collecting information from a company who has already done the legwork on a similar project. Regardless of the direction, it seems that the mysterious "iRadio" service could be more than just a myth.
(via Reuters)
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