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Apr 12, 2001
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beats.png
Apple is planning to discontinue Beats Music, the streaming music service that it acquired as part of an acquisition of Beats Electronics back in May. According to TechCrunch, multiple sources that include "several prominent employees at Apple and Beats" have confirmed that Apple is shutting down the music service.
Many engineers from Beats Music have already been moved off the product and onto other projects at Apple, including iTunes. It's not clear when exactly Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre's music service will be shut down or what Apple will do with streaming, but every source with knowledge of the situation that we talked to agreed Apple plans to sunset the Beats Music brand.
Apple first acquired Beats Music in May, and at the time, announced plans to leave the music service untouched. There were no plans to integrate Beats Music into iTunes, with the company suggesting that it would remain as a standalone service.

TechCrunch suggests that the fact that Beats Music did not come pre-loaded onto the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus serves as a "red flag" that the music service is on its way out. The site also pointed towards an Apple Watch demo that included an "unannounced music app with a blue play button that instantly started playing songs when tapped during a demo," but that icon appears to correspond to the Remote app and not a new music app.

Apple shutting down Beats Music is unusual news given the efforts that the company has gone to in order to promote it in recent weeks, adding it to the list of "Apps Made by Apple" and recommending the app to new iOS users. If Apple plans to do away with Beats Music, it is unclear what further moves it will make in the streaming music arena. Beats Music was seen as the company's answer to popular services like Spotify, aimed at bolstering flagging music sales.

According to one source who spoke to TechCrunch, Apple might be planning to roll streaming music into iTunes, creating a unified Apple music service after shutting down Beats Music.

Update: According to an Apple representative that spoke to Re/code, the company is not planning to shut down Beats Music.
So why would Apple plan to shut down Beats Music, as a TechCrunch headline reports?
Answer: It's not.

Tom Neumayr, says the TechCrunch story is "not true", but wouldn't elaborate.
While the spokesperson declined to elaborate, Re/code suggests that while Apple does not plan to shut down Beats Music, it may "modify it over time," changing the brand name.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Planning to Shut Down Beats Music [Update: Not True]
 

Patriot24

macrumors 68030
Dec 29, 2010
2,813
805
California
I’m sure rolling Beats’ technology, contracts, and subscribers into iTunes/Music.app was the plan from day one regardless of what they may have said at the time - you don't want people bailing off of the service because they think it is going away immediately.

Combine this rumor with the rumors regarding U2’s involvement with Apple around music formats (Iovine and U2 are like peas and carrots) and things start making sense.

I have said and will continue to say that the purchase of Beats was always about the streaming business, not the headphones. Tim all but confirmed this during his recent interviews when he didn't even mention the headphones when listing the reasons why he wanted to buy the company.
 
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TimUSCA

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2006
701
1,539
Aiken, SC
This makes no sense... they JUST added a Beats Music app to Apple TV. Why bother if they're just going to shut it down?
 

BreuerEditor

macrumors 6502
Jul 1, 2008
315
328
New Jersey
So they acquired Beats, added it to AppleTV, and now they're going to kill their music service? Why spend the time and money on the AppleTV integration if you're planning on canning it?
 

ironsienna

macrumors regular
Oct 28, 2010
215
0
The meaning of......(un) healthy competition, Apple style:

You have better services than me but I have money and I can buy you and then kill you and then sell all your belongings under my branding..

Sadly enough, the beats app icon was the only one of the icons Apple recently designed that I was finding remotely appealing...
 
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anaqvi786

macrumors regular
Jun 25, 2013
170
18
At iOS planet
Well this sucks. I thought Apple wouldn't be a jerk and kill Beats like that, maybe they just want more money and they didnt profit off beats, or they just want to integrate Beats with future Apple devices or something.

Even so, they should have at least kept the brand alive.
 

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
Everything just being incorporated into iTunes music no news here! Makes perfect sense

Lets not forget these guys are a lot smarter than you and I#
 

Indy2424

macrumors member
Jan 24, 2011
45
0
I agree with this. I do not believe this at all. There is no reason they would add this to Apple TV if they were shutting it down.
This makes no sense... they JUST added a Beats Music app to Apple TV. Why bother if they're just going to shut it down?
 

TigerWoodsIV

macrumors 6502a
Apr 3, 2010
590
445
Not really too shocking to me. If this is true, I'm sure they'll be rolling it into iTunes and an Apple branded streaming service. Tim Cook seemed thrilled with the service during his interview with Charlie Rose, and why completely discontinue it one way or another.
 

dumastudetto

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2013
4,972
7,038
Los Angeles, USA
This makes no sense... they JUST added a Beats Music app to Apple TV. Why bother if they're just going to shut it down?

Only recently Tim Cook was saying how he stayed up all nite playing with Beats Music because it blew his mind how good it was. It's not something you'd expect him to be saying in interviews if the plan was to shutter the whole thing.
 

Glassed Silver

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2007
2,096
2,567
Kassel, Germany
This makes no sense... they JUST added a Beats Music app to Apple TV. Why bother if they're just going to shut it down?

Between that and their decision to make iPhoto for iOS stop working as soon as you update to iOS 8 without any warnings...
well... what do you say.

Let's call it amazing.

Glassed Silver:mac
 

macnerd77

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2007
268
33
Northern California / Bay Area
I don't think it's going away. I think it will be rebranded into iTunes radio and the current iTunes radio will be shut down or they will merge the 2. They also might be moving all the servers in-house to one of Apples data centers. The engineers in the story could be the old data center engineers.
 

Mac Wolf

macrumors member
Sep 8, 2014
76
0
Wow. And I just started my 14 day free trial a few days ago and was considering paying the $10 a month subscription. It had a really nice layout, no ads, and the "sentence" feature was great.

My guess is it was taking away from iTunes Radio.

Beats was starting to learn my likes and their song suggestions improved by the day. Maybe they'll use that technology and put it towards iTunes Radio. Here's hoping.
 

macgabe

macrumors 6502
Dec 29, 2012
341
296
I’m sure rolling Beats’ technology, contracts, and subscribers into iTunes/Music.app was the plan from day one regardless of what they may have said at the time - you don't want people bailing off of the service because they think it is going away immediately.

Combine this rumor with the rumors regarding U2’s involvement with Apple regarding music (Iovine and U2 are like peas and carrots) and things start making sense.
Please, no more free albums from U2. They should pay me to listen to that stuff. Life's too short for bad music. How about some free chamber music, Vivaldi, or Mozart. There's a thought, Apple could buy the LSO and give us some real music.
 
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