Katie Marsal
Though it will remain a paid subscription service, Apple's Beats Music will reportedly come preinstalled on every iPhone after an update to iOS next spring, according to a new report.
The major push for Beats Music will begin as soon as March of 2015, unnamed sources reportedly told the Financial Times. The change of Beats Music to a native iOS app would be a major push against competing streaming services like Spotify, which currently have a larger share of subscribers.
Wednesday's report suggested that the Beats Music push and corresponding iOS update could be tied to the launch of the Apple Watch, which is scheduled to launch in early 2015. A beta of iOS 8.2, with support for the WatchKit development tools, was supplied to developers on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, it was said that Apple apparently plans to retire the Beats Music brand next year, though the subscription streaming service it acquired as part of its blockbuster $3 billion buyout of Beats will remain active. Those rumors suggested that Apple is looking to brand the subscription service more in line with other first-party offerings like the iTunes Store, iTunes Radio and iTunes Match.
Before it was owned by Apple, Beats Music also got off to a slow start, with just 110,000 subscribers as of March. Its performance since being acquired by Apple remains unknown.
It's also been reported that Apple hopes to boost Beats Music subscriptions by cutting the price to just $5 per month. Apple is said to have pitched a proposal to music labels suggesting that a lower price point could grow music subscriptions considerably.
Currently, a subscription to Beats Music costs $9.99 per month, but if users are willing to sign up for a full year, it costs $99.99 for 12 months.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
60 Comments
If this is true, tt will be interesting to see if this Beats Music service will be available worldwide or just in the USA?
Though it will remain a paid subscription service, Apple's Beats Music will reportedly come preinstalled on every iPhone after an update to iOS next spring, according to a new report.
Oh my, I can just hear the ranting and raving over a preinstalled app that ‘nobody wants’ and cannot be deleted. Did Bono come up with this idea?
There are still threads on the Apple discussion forums kept alive by malcontents railing over not being able to delete the Newsstand app. And that’s been going on for a couple of years now.
Yep, the trolls are already going apeshit over at MacRumors about ‘more bloat’ and still not being able to delete Newsstand. So utterly predictable.
Get out the lawn chairs, put the beer on ice, make the popcorn. It’s gonna be a three ring circus with clowns and confetti canons... and maybe midgets too.
You know the old saying, "If you can't beat'em, stab'em!"
Just installed to see what the Beats Music app was all about. Looks like it wants to you to create an account and then immediately asks to sign me up to a subscription. Deleted it. I'll just stick with iTunes Radio until they surprise us with its early retirement in favor of Beats. Then, I'll just switch to Pandora.
current beats subscriber - awesome service if apple kept it at $10/month but allowed for the user to keep an album each month it would be a steal.