Apple to unveil revamped Beats-based music streaming service at WWDC 2015
Apple Inc. plans to unveil its new music streaming service at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), set to take place sometime in June. Reports from both 9to5Mac and TechCrunch claim that Apple intends to launch the Beats-based music streaming service at the upcoming WWDC and not at its March 9 “Spring Forward” event.
Anonymous music industry sources familiar with the launch timeline told 9to5Mac that Apple’s music streaming service will be unveiled in beta form during the event keynote, expected to take place on Monday, June 8.
A separate anonymous source confirmed the June 8 launch date to TechCrunch.
It’s unclear when Apple’s new music streaming service will become available. According to 9to5Mac’s sources, “Apple currently plans to launch the new music service as part of an iOS 8.4 upgrade for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch following WWDC, but a final decision has not yet been made. It’s possible that the service will be bundled into iOS 9 this fall, which is expected to have a significant focus on bug fixes and stability improvements.”
Apple’s new iTunes music streaming service is based on Beats Music, technology the iPhone maker acquired as part of a $3 million deal when it bought Beats Electronics last year. While the new service will feature aspects of Beats Music, including curated playlists, cloud-based libraries and customized offerings based on individual music taste, Apple has dropped the Beats branding and redesigned the software from the ground up for its iOS platform. According to the report, a cross-platform version (Android and Web), is also due for release and it is this development process that has delayed the release until June. Apple was originally expected to launch the service in March.
Making its services available on other platforms, notes TechCrunch, is an essential part of Apple’s strategy to sell more hardware. It started with iTunes for Windows and most recently Apple made iWork available to anyone regardless of what hardware they are using via iCloud on the web. Apple does this in the hopes that users will switch to Apple devices to gain access to exclusive add-on functionality once they’ve had a taste of the software.
Apple’s music streaming service is expected to cost $7.99 per month, which is $2 less than the current monthly subscription fee for Beats Music, Spotify and Rdio.
photo credit: Apple & Beats via photopin (license)
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