iTunes: Apple to Integrate Beats Music Streaming, Pandora & Spotify Remain Top Competitors
According to a report from BGR India, Apple is planning to integrate the streaming music service of Beats Music with iTunes.
The same report said that digital music sales of iTunes have gone down by as much as 13 percent to 14 percent since the start of 2014.
Pandora and Spotify were mentioned as providing iTunes stiff competition because these two have a wider music selection that is available through monthly subscriptions.
iTunes is not the only service company for digital music downloads. There are several portals, in fact, which provide the same kind of service for most devices outside of the proprietary Apple products. Therefore, it is understandable that iTunes downloads will take a plunge.
However, the company is planning to rectify the issue with a strategic move that will involve Beats Music, which Apple acquired recently.
There was also a report in September that Apple was planning to shut down Beats Music, which Apple immediately denied. They said instead that some major changes will have to be made without using the Beats brand but the music streaming service will be maintained. Beats Electronics was acquired for $3 billion by Apple in May.
The integration of a rebranded Beats Music with iTunes is likely to happen in 2015 and this move is mainly because of the dip in the music sales of iTunes.
Analysts are saying that this move by Apple does not make sense, since there are only 250,000 registered users in Beats Music whereas iTunes has over 800 million users. The analysts think that it would be better for iTunes to provide streaming service rather than spend more money with the integration. So now, some people think that the initial report about Apple shutting down Beats Music was true, despite Apple saying that they plan to rebrand or modify Beats Music.
Tim Cook said during an interview that Apple acquired Beats Music because Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are "creative geniuses" that can inject a human element when they curate playlists, which is very different from other music streaming services.
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