After Apple bought Beats for $3 billion earlier this year, industry experts wondered what the Silicon Valley giant planned to do with the company. There have been various reports and rumors about potential integrations, including changing the iPhone headphone jack to force an adoption of Beats headphones (via Forbes) and a potential rebranding of Beats Music to fit into iTunes' fledgling streaming service. Now according to a report in the Financial Times, there appears to be some clarity on what the intent of Apple is with Beats Music going forward.
According to the report via Billboard, Apple plans to bundle a rebranded Beats Music into an upcoming iOS that will come standard on the update. Something like this was expected when Apple acquired Beats Music in May. Now it appears that there is a timeline for the new relaunch of Beats Music.
As noted by Yahoo, the service will likely be rebranded under the iTunes label and try and compete with the major streaming players contending now, Spotify, Pandora, Deezer and Soundcloud, notably as it undergoes its transformation under the guise of its newly signed record deal with Warner Music Group. Google is now officially entering the fray as well with its new subscription music service, YouTube Music Key.
It is unclear whether or not Apple plans to keep Beats Music entirely at the premium level price range, but if this report were true it would suggest that it would be going towards the "freemium" model that is found with Spotify and Pandora. Having a compulsory downloadable app that costs money to use does not seem like it would be very successful and Apple probably knows that. They also saw the dangers of Trojan horsing content onto people's phones with U2's Songs Of Innocence album.
We will see what shakes out over the next few months with Apple and Beats, but it appears the picture it getting a little clearer.
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