Apple to give iPhones a Beats overhaul, take on Spotify with new streaming music service
Service expected to cost $7.99 and could be released in June
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple is to overhaul iOS, iTunes and Apple TV to integrate an app based on the Beats Music service.
Apple acquired the streaming music app when it bought Dr Dre’s company last year.
While Apple has long been expected to bring Beats’ streaming music service to its phones, the two services will be deeply and widely integrated, according to a new report from 9to5mac.
The new music service will be entirely designed by Apple, but will use Beats’ technology and music, according to the report.
It will allow users to search through the iTunes and Beats catalogues at the same time — allowing them to stream music from the cloud or play it straight from their device. Users will also be able to access Beats’ curated playlists — which the company marketed as its selling point when Beats Music was launched in early 2014.
The app will look like it has been made by Apple, with a look like that in the current iOS Music app.
Apple will design new versions of the Music app on iOS to integrate the new service, as well as providing updates for iTunes and Apple TV.
It will also continue to offer the Beats Music app for Android. That will be the first time that Apple has developed an app for Google’s operating system — though Tim Cook has said in the past that he has no issue with developing for the platform.
But it won’t continue to support the Windows Phone version of the app.
Apple is considering charging $7.99 a month — less than Spotify and other rival’s $9.99 a month. Spotify charges £9.99 for its premium service in the UK.
It is unclear when the new service will launch, since the original schedule has been delayed by personal problems with staff, according to reports. Apple had planned to launch the service as soon as March, but June’s Worldwide Developer Conference is now thought to be a likely venue to announce it.
The company has had mixed successes with its recent attempts to launch its own music services, before it bought Beats.
It launched iTunes Match, which allowed users to upload their own music into the cloud, but the service didn’t much catch on. And it is yet to bring its iTunes Radio service to the UK, despite saying that it would be released internationally in early 2014.
Those services are expected to remain in place, and users will be able to merge their libraries and accounts together.
Apple got Beats’ streaming music service when it bought the company for $3 billion in May last year.
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