Beats Music will be native iOS app starting with spring 2015 update - 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.