AppleInsider Staff
Apple is reportedly planning to entice consumers to sign up for its new streaming music service by offering a number of try-before-you-buy options, including a lengthy trial period and revamped iTunes Radio stations.
Potential customers could try the new service — Â which is thought to be based largely on Beats Music — for free for as many as three months, according to Re/code. Beats currently offers a two-week free trial.
Additionally, labels and artists could make some portion of their catalogs available for non-subscribers. One song from an album might be available to stream for free, for instance, while a subscription would be required to listen to the rest.
Finally, iTunes Radio could play a larger role with more human-curated stations.
Apple is still negotiating with record labels for new streaming licenses, a process which could delay the service's launch. Many believe that Apple prefers to introduce the service during next month's Worldwide Developers Conference.
Recent reports suggest that Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who previously served as Beats Music's creative director, is in charge of the project. Beats co-founder and music industry luminary Jimmy Iovine is said to be working to secure exclusive content for the service's launch, which has proven to be a successful strategy for iTunes in the past.
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25 Comments
This actually sounds pretty nice. And the fact that Trent Reznor oversaw the Beats app and is now overseeing development of this gives me confidence that's it's not going to turn into the soulless UIkit assemblage that Apple's native apps have tended to gravitate towards in recent years.
[quote name="jakeb" url="/t/186183/apple-to-give-the-first-hit-free-with-its-new-streaming-service-report#post_2721400"]This actually sounds pretty nice. And the fact that Trent Reznor oversaw the Beats app and is now overseeing development of this gives me confidence that's it's not going to turn into the soulless UIkit assemblage that Apple's native apps have tended to gravitate towards in recent years.[/quote] Hmm...somehow I doubt Trent Reznor will be overseeing user interface design. That's not his responsibility.
Ad-supported can work. It has worked for terrestrial radio for decades.
If they are not making money now, then there are not enough ads.
[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/186183/apple-to-give-the-first-hit-free-with-its-new-streaming-service-report#post_2721424"] Hmm...somehow I doubt Trent Reznor will be overseeing user interface design. That's not his responsibility.[/quote] Depends on how the team is structured, but if he was essentially the product director at Beats, I think there's hope that a little of that UI flair will make it into the new product.
Hmm...somehow I doubt Trent Reznor will be overseeing user interface design. That's not his responsibility.
he actually knows quite a bit about software