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

[adammull]

I like Beats. I used Spotify for about a year and then Rdio for two and I just switched to Beats. It's far superior in my opinion and I like subscribing to music. I don't want to just listen to stations.

Hope when they do roll it into iTunes Radio, and thats when not if, they keep the subscribing option. Buying music is dead and millennials don't want it unless it's an actual record they can play on their hipster record player.

 

[Arndroid]

Yet again, macbloomers rushes to post "news" which transpires not to be true at all, in desperation to get article views.

I give up - you fail at journalism massively.

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You're sure about that? If you could care less, this demonstrates that your level of caring is a non-zero value, therefore you must care... just a little bit

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This is a rumors site not just a news site. I know it being right in the name of the site is confusing but it is right there.

The egg is on tech crunch's face not macrumors

 

[Michael CM1]

Apple planning to stop building smart phones. [update: not true]

"Sorry. What we meant was Apple is not making the iPhone 4s to make room for the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. But you can see how similar that is to shutting down the smartphone line."

I know this stuff is rumors. But damn, that's some hard fail somewhere in the "reporting."

 

[Bazilemac]

I like Beats. I used Spotify for about a year and then Rdio for two and I just switched to Beats. It's far superior in my opinion and I like subscribing to music. I don't want to just listen to stations.

Hope when they do roll it into iTunes Radio, and thats when not if, they keep the subscribing option. Buying music is dead and millennials don't want it unless it's an actual record they can play on their hipster record player.

is it really better than spotify? I'm looking for a new streaming service and I don't now which to pick.

 

[bozzykid]

Folks don't realize this but Apple lost a lot of clout in the music biz when Steve died.

Clout has nothing to do with the deals they have with the labels.

 

[adammull]

is it really better than spotify? I'm looking for a new streaming service and I don't now which to pick.

It's pretty good. Really. Download the app. Its a 14 day trial. No Credit Card needed.

 

[flat five]

What is the difference between Beats and the 9000 other apps like Pandora, Slacker, Spotify etc that stream music for a monthly subscription?

And why would anyone pay for any of them when you can get it for free (with ads) from iTunes Radio or ad free if you have iTunes Match?

beats has the best playlists.. by far (subjective, i know.. just in my personal experience & tastes, beats playlists usually get me excited beyond just providing some background noise during work)..

open beats today and am immediately suggested this playlist:

i just can't get playlists like that with pandora and definitely not itunes.. and this is pretty much an everyday thing for me (great lists).. if i'm not into their suggestions, i have plenty of saved playlists to revisit..

and yeah, i get it that this example is hiphop and people will say "what do you expect.. it's beats and it's all rap" (or whatever)... i do listen to a lot of rap (maybe 40-50%) but i'll also listen to classic rock occasionally and jazz (bebop era).. those lists, again for me personally at least, are equally sweet both in terms of song selections as well as sequence.

----
but really, my main point was in response to what you asked about itunes.. for me, it's pretty bad and just about every time i've tried it, song selection/sequencing seems weak and worse, songs tend to repeat within very short amounts of time (as in after 30 minutes)

 

[adammull]

What is the difference between Beats and the 9000 other apps like Pandora, Slacker, Spotify etc that stream music for a monthly subscription?

And why would anyone pay for any of them when you can get it for free (with ads) from iTunes Radio or ad free if you have iTunes Match?

Is this a serious question?

See this is where the Apple PR machine has done a masterful job at promoting iTunes radio. It plays stations. With ads. And that's it.

Spotify premium, beats, rdio provide true subscription music. Want to listen to any album you can think of? Queue it up. Download it for offline. Make playlists. It's the iTunes store, per se, except instead of paying $1.29 per song you pay $10 a month.

They're totally different things. Pandora and iTunes radio are the 21st century version of radio. They're not real subscription music.

 

[Michael CM1]

is it really better than spotify? I'm looking for a new streaming service and I don't now which to pick.

I like Beats better because of the playlists. There was one called "Rappers criticized by Bill O'Reilly." That was hilarious and actually had a diverse batch of songs. It still needs work, especially once you add a bunch of stuff to your library, but I'm a fan. You can always pay for Beats and then use Spotify's free version.

 

[mabhatter]

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.

I think they will morph it into a premium Apple service. Right now Beats is $99 per year. Apple just shook up iCloud pricing, but didn't mention the other services that have previously been bundled. Usually the October program was Music (before iPads). Apple has tried several things do far.. I think they will keep iTunes Radio and file locker at the low tier for $25 and do something special for $99 and the full Beats experience.

 

[flat five]

I like Beats better because of the playlists. There was one called "Rappers criticized by Bill O'Reilly." That was hilarious and actually had a diverse batch of songs.

ha, yeah.. the example i put up a few posts above was one of those kinds of lists.. that one is "the rappers eminem thanked at the 45th annual grammy awards"... (eminem won best album that year and instead of getting up there and thanking producers/god/mom/etc, he just rattled off a list of influences)

 

[TsMkLg068426]

I am still confused why Beats is not part of iTunes or iTunes Match when it is part of Apple now not going to pay extra when Apple can simply just make it part of iTunes.

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I think they will morph it into a premium Apple service. Right now Beats is $99 per year. Apple just shook up iCloud pricing, but didn't mention the other services that have previously been bundled. Usually the October program was Music (before iPads). Apple has tried several things do far.. I think they will keep iTunes Radio and file locker at the low tier for $25 and do something special for $99 and the full Beats experience.

Why do that? If they are going to make tiers for music they might as well start streaming movies and TV Shows like Amazon Prime for that price since I can get Prime Music for the same price.

 

[i0Nic]

I've been trying out Beats for the last week and I'm really liking it. I've been an Rdio user for two years and I also use Spotify too, but not 100% sold on either one.

Beats is not perfect but seems to combine a lot of the things I like best about Rdio and Spotify.

Though I do wish it had a 'trending' section to see what my friends are listening to, like Rdio's Heavy Rotation featured which they changed into Trending. And artist radio would be good.

 

[Michael CM1]

ha, yeah.. the example i put up a few posts above was one of those kinds of lists.. that one is "the rappers eminem thanked at the 45th annual grammy awards"... (eminem won best album that year and instead of getting up there and thanking producers/god/mom/etc, he just rattled off a list of influences)

I need to create "Artists with first names mentioned in Mambo No. 5." Or that Petey Pablo song.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the service rebranded about this time next year as Music. Merge it into the OS more and with iTunes. What I really wish is that my music library on my Apple devices was seamless with a Beats Music subscription. If I check "add to my library" using Beats, then it shows up like an album would the same way ripped and purchased tracks do now.

 

[MarcoCapa]

Ahem, maybe you mean Life is too long to listen only to a genre of music?

Both... Too long because is boring.... Too short because you will probably not be capable of listening to many great artist in the time that you have on this planet...
A little bit phylosophic for a thread about Beats!

 

[Tech198]

Is this just bloggers, articles getting it wrong, and want to be first in line again?

or do they know what they are doing, knowing very well that they want to upset the the ones who would believe it...

Doesn't make sense for a company to pay all that money, the shut it down without even giving it a chance themselves..

Image the cry from Apple fans

 

[sdsvtdriver]

I tried to sign up with Beats to check it out and all I every saw was "User registration: username not reserved"

Tried through the app and got "We're having connection problems".

I gave up.

 

[69650]

New music streaming service called "Apple Beats" ?

 

[gadgetguy03]

Why do that? If they are going to make tiers for music they might as well start streaming movies and TV Shows like Amazon Prime for that price since I can get Prime Music for the same price.

I wouldn't take business cues from Amazon.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/amazon-loss-widens-as-bezos-keeps-spending-to-build-new-services.html

"Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’s strategy since Amazon’s inception has been to invest heavily to expand and earn customer loyalty. While the approach has disrupted industries from bookstores and electronics outlets to providers of Web-computing software, it’s been expensive. Amazon began posting quarterly losses in 2012 after being consistently profitable for almost a decade."

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New music streaming service called "Apple Beats" ?

A premium service with 1TB iCloud space, iTunes Match, and Beats called...


Apple Core

 

[winston1236]

So Apple, the king of reduction is going to keep two competing music services. right

 

[TimUSCA]

It's actually pretty easy to click on the link and read the entire techcrunch article. Always amazes me that people would rather bother to pointlessly speculation on a MacRumors summary, than simply click on the link to get the larger story.

Did it maybe occur to you that the "update" on TechCrunch wasn't there when I originally commented? It amazes me how douchey some people can come off when they're securely behind a computer screen. I read the article on both MR and TechCrunch. My assumption was correct, and nothing in either of those stories contradicted or supported what I said.

 

[koban4max]

Apple did not need hep with promotion. 10 million iPhone 6 sales in one weekend? That had nothing to do with them having bought Beats. We haven't seen what their plan with Beats is yet. Could be bigger than any of us have imagined. Or I could be totally wrong and the buyout was simply to get the people/talent/knowledge.

who knows.

 

[macUser2007]

beats has the best playlists.. ...

Playlists suck compared to the MOG Artist Radio, which Beats killed.

Beats should be killed itself.

I want my money back (more importantly, I want the great service that MOG provided before Beats bought it).

I HATE Beats.

 

[pheenix11]

Is this a serious question?

See this is where the Apple PR machine has done a masterful job at promoting iTunes radio. It plays stations. With ads. And that's it.

Spotify premium, beats, rdio provide true subscription music. Want to listen to any album you can think of? Queue it up. Download it for offline. Make playlists. It's the iTunes store, per se, except instead of paying $1.29 per song you pay $10 a month.

They're totally different things. Pandora and iTunes radio are the 21st century version of radio. They're not real subscription music.

If you want to listen to a particular song on Spotify, can you? Or can you just listen to a certain artist on shuffle? Because that's what their website makes it sound like.

I have two modes of music listening. I either want to listen to a particular song in which case I just buy it on iTunes and have it or I want to listen to a particular genre which is where Pandora or iTunes Radio serve the same purpose for me.

I don't want to trade playlists with people. I just don't get the appeal of a Spotify. If it was true on demand listen to whatever you want in any order at any time I can see the appeal. But from how they describe it on their website it doesn't sound like that.

 

[adammull]

If you want to listen to a particular song on Spotify, can you? Or can you just listen to a certain artist on shuffle? Because that's what their website makes it sound like.

I have two modes of music listening. I either want to listen to a particular song in which case I just buy it on iTunes and have it or I want to listen to a particular genre which is where Pandora or iTunes Radio serve the same purpose for me.

I don't want to trade playlists with people. I just don't get the appeal of a Spotify. If it was true on demand listen to whatever you want in any order at any time I can see the appeal. But from how they describe it on their website it doesn't sound like that.

Forget what they describe. Yes it has all that crap too. I click magnifying glass. Type in artist. Pick album. Listen.

You can listen to anything you want in any order or rhyme or reason you want. It's a digital jukebox.

It's subscription music. No idea why they don't market it this way.