Skip to footer

iTunes Beats for Android? Apple leaks hit the right note.

Apple is reportedly developing a streaming music service that would integrate with iOS, iTunes, and Apple TV, but also with Android devices. Could this integration launch Apple to streaming music stardom?

|
Michael Dwyer/AP/File
Beats Audio equipment is arranged for a photo next to an Apple laptop at Best Buy in Boston. Apple announced Wednesday, May 28, 2014, that it is acquiring Beats Electronics for $3 billion. Beats, the headphone and music streaming specialist, also brings the swagger of rapper Dr. Dre and recording impresario Jimmy Iovine.

iTunes for Android?

Apple is reportedly building the Beats Music streaming service into its iTunes app with special engineers focused on an Android version of the hybrid app. The move would pit Apple directly against streaming music giants Spotify and Rdio, with potential for widespread appeal given the bi-operating system usability.

Sounds harmonious.

The report comes via 9to5Mac citing unnamed sources close to the matter. According to the sources, ever since Apple bought Beats Music streaming service, the tech company has been working to configure it into a paid streaming service that will be integrated into iOS, iTunes, and Apple TV. Given that Beats initially developed an Android app, Apple reportedly has a team of engineers working specifically on a version that is Android-friendly. This will mark the first ever in-house Apple app for Android.

Tough luck for Windows Phone and Web users, however – Apple apparently isn’t planning a new Microsoft or Web browser-friendly version of the app just yet. The original Beats Music app is still available for both.

The service will mix together users’ iTunes libraries and the array of Beats Music features. Users can search for songs within their own library, but also open up that search to any songs in the Beats Music library, and similarly weave together songs from both sources in users' personal libraries. There will be pre-made playlists for different moods and activities, as well as the resurgence of a social networking aspect in which users can follow friends and artists.

9to5Mac added, however, that not everything is jiving with the project just yet. Sources say Apple executives frustrated some long-time employees by putting Beats engineers in key positions. There has also been some confusion with the direction of the integration and app, which apparently has led to delays in release. Now sources say the app is likely to launch at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference in June. Previously, it was said to be ready to launch by March.

Perhaps the bigger question is whether Apple can compete in the busy streaming music game. Though iTunes is certainly a successful Apple venture (last summer Tim Cook said the service has 800 million accounts – though he didn’t mention how many are active) it hasn’t always whistled a happy tune. Ping, its music social network initiative, notoriously flopped, and the music download service recently got flack for releasing a U2 album to every user – whether the user wanted it or not.

But Apple is ready to win back any lost customers with something that is music to any ear: lower prices. The service is hoping to offer a subscription service for $7.99 per month. Talks with music services are still ongoing, but if this new service can undercut Spotify, Apple could have a hit on its hands. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to iTunes Beats for Android? Apple leaks hit the right note.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2015/0204/iTunes-Beats-for-Android-Apple-leaks-hit-the-right-note
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe