6 months ago, Apple acquired the subscription music service Beats Music. Now Apple is working to launch a new music service that will be entirely Apple-designed but will leverage Beats’ technologies and music content. Multiple sources, including the music industry, have provided the first details for the new service.
Apple has decided to deeply integrate Beats into iOS, iTunes and the Apple TV. The users will be able to search any song in the iTunes or Beats catalogue, and they can also add music to their personal catalogue. As the new service is heavily based upon cloud streaming, the users can keep songs in the cloud or keep them on their devices. Moreover, Apple is planning to create an opportunity to use a vast array of pre-made playlists for different activities, besides the creation of personal playlists. Apple is likely to update Beats’ social networking features which will allow users to follow other users or artists. As for the design, it will be Apple’s approach.
It is worth noting that Apple will let users merge Beats Music account with their iTunes/Apple ID profiles, which will make the transition easier. Also, Apple plans to retain its iTunes Match, iTunes Radio and iTunes Store services, but some iTunes’ functions will be overlapped.
The Beats Music application is originally an Android app. This way, it can be said that Apple offers an Android application developed entirely in-house. Now we can see a work of Apple engineers on an Android app for the new Apple-branded service. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc., has commented on this situation as follows: “Apple has no religious issue against developing an Android application…If we thought it made sense to do that, we would do that”.
Thereby, Android users will have the opportunity to have a small taste of Apple’s software. Tim Cook said in an October 2014 earnings call that Apple-Beats deal is “off to a great start with some wonderful plans we’ll share with you in the future”.