Beats Music rebranding may not be imminent, as Apple still doesn't have necessary licenses

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited May 2015
Despite rumors that Apple could rebrand and relaunch Beats Music as soon as next month's Worldwide Developers Conference, a new report suggests that's unlikely, as the company apparently does not have the licensing deals finalized for such a change.




Citing sources within the music industry, Billboard reported on Tuesday that while a June launch remains "attainable," some at record labels believe it simply won't get done in time. Apple's WWDC will kick off with a keynote presentation announcing new products and the next-generation versions of iOS and OS X June 8.

Apple is said to have been able to secure necessary deals at the last minute in the past. But with just over a month to go until WWDC starts, it seems less and less likely to some in the industry that the Beats Music rebranding is imminent.

The comments would seem to suggest that the licenses Apple obtained for Beats Music are not transferrable. It's believed that Apple wants to rebrand the service to bring it under the company's hugely successful iTunes umbrella, which includes the iTunes Store and iTunes Radio.

Apple is widely rumored to be working on a subscription-based streaming music service built on the Beats Music framework. Recent reports put Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor at the helm of Apple's unannounced project, which could feature artist exclusives and launch with a price tag of at least $9.99 per month.

The current Beats Music service is similar to Spotify, charging users a monthly fee to access unlimited streaming music. Features that differentiate Beats Music include a "humanized" playlist function that allows for sharing and promoting of user-curated content.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 37
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Let me guess: Sony BMG is the biggest holdout.
  • Reply 2 of 37
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member

    Work as hard as you want. I'll never buy a subscription service that is tied to one company's hardware. Let me use it on what ever device I have and I'll buy in.

  • Reply 3 of 37
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    sirlance99 wrote: »
    Work as hard as you want. I'll never buy a subscription service that is tied to one company's hardware. Let me use it on what ever device I have and I'll buy in.

    Beats is on multiple devices, as is iTunes...
  • Reply 4 of 37
    pepe779pepe779 Posts: 84member
    Worse yet, Beats Music won't be available internationally anyway, just like iTunes Radio or Apple Pay. I know I'll get a lot of hate for these comments, but I'm just stating the facts, Apple has essentially become a US-centric company over the last few years and as a result of that their own ecosystem now starts to become fragmented. Honestly I don't care what legal issues prevent them from overcoming these obstacles (not sure they even try), but either they come up with solutions that work all around the world or people will start looking elsewhere, unless they only care about the US market now.
  • Reply 5 of 37
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    pepe779 wrote: »
    Worse yet, Beats Music won't be available internationally anyway, just like iTunes Radio or Apple Pay. I know I'll get a lot of hate for these comments, but I'm just stating the facts, Apple has essentially become a US-centric company over the last few years and as a result of that their own ecosystem now starts to become fragmented. Honestly I don't care what legal issues prevent them from overcoming these obstacles (not sure they even try), but either they come up with solutions that work all around the world or people will start looking elsewhere, unless they only care about the US market now.

    Blame your own countries and the license holders, not Apple. There's only so much they can do.

    PS: iTunes Radio is available in Australia too.
  • Reply 6 of 37
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Beats is on multiple devices, as is iTunes...

    Sure, it is now. If they keep it that way and it's better than what I use now, I'll gladly switch over.

  • Reply 7 of 37
    dimmokdimmok Posts: 359member

    Hurry up and get it done. I Want to get out of Spotify and into this new vehicle to support Apple.

  • Reply 8 of 37
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Blame your own countries and the license holders, not Apple. There's only so much they can do.
    .
    Others companies seem to have managed to do so. I've no doubt Apple could too if they really wanted to. IMO it's a simple business decision thy made to hold off on it.

    EDIT: These are the countries with available music subscriptions from a particular competitor:

    Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.
  • Reply 9 of 37
    markm49ukmarkm49uk Posts: 97member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    Others companies seem to have managed to do so. I've no doubt Apple could too if they really wanted to. IMO it's a simple business decision thy made to hold off on it.



    EDIT: These are the countries with available music subscriptions from a particular competitor:



    Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.



    I agree - Apple are moving too slowly on this front.  Amazon, Spotify and others have managed to 'negotiate' suitable terms or just forced the industry to accept their rules.  Surely Apple is in a much stronger position given the history to do the same - just push it out and sort out the agreements once you have a critical mass - with over a billion iOS devices sold they are in an unstoppable position.  Stop pandering to the industry and force them to adapt to your new model.

  • Reply 10 of 37
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DimMok View Post

     

    Hurry up and get it done. I Want to get out of Spotify and into this new vehicle to support Apple.




    Same here.

  • Reply 11 of 37
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Beats... Iovine... 3,000,000,000$$$

    For what ??
  • Reply 12 of 37
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DimMok View Post

     

    Hurry up and get it done. I Want to get out of Spotify and into this new vehicle to support Apple.


    I'd rather support what ever is the best service regardless of the company. 

  • Reply 13 of 37
    dimmokdimmok Posts: 359member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SirLance99 View Post

     

    I'd rather support what ever is the best service regardless of the company. 




    SCAB!!! just kidding... well outside of the User Interface, the services (content) will be pretty much the same. I mean

    how different can you get outside of music artist exclusives, etc.

  • Reply 14 of 37
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DimMok View Post

     



    SCAB!!! just kidding... well outside of the User Interface, the services (content) will be pretty much the same. I mean

    how different can you get outside of music artist exclusives, etc.


    Haha! Correct. The content will be about the same with most services. My requirements are: Able to use it on what ever platform I want (iOS/Android), have a web based interface that I don't have to download a program to run it, and a good enough UI. The first two are a must.

     

    So for me, right now I use Google Play Music. I got in early when it started so I only pay $7.99 a month. I logged into my girlfriends iPhone and she can listen to it as well. No ads ever, unlimited skips, any song/album at any time, YouTube videos built in, web interface, plays on  my iPhone 6 Plus and Note 4 and iPad Air 2, or any one of the many devices I have which also includes my Chromecast, ATV, Roku. For me it's perfect right now. 

  • Reply 15 of 37
    pfisherpfisher Posts: 758member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Blame your own countries and the license holders, not Apple. There's only so much they can do.



    PS: iTunes Radio is available in Australia too.



    How do you really know that Apple Inc doesn't care to deal with smaller markets? I can see them ignoring many countries because the bang for the buck is not there.

  • Reply 16 of 37
    curtis hannahcurtis hannah Posts: 1,833member
    pepe779 wrote: »
    Worse yet, Beats Music won't be available internationally anyway, just like iTunes Radio or Apple Pay. I know I'll get a lot of hate for these comments, but I'm just stating the facts, Apple has essentially become a US-centric company over the last few years and as a result of that their own ecosystem now starts to become fragmented. Honestly I don't care what legal issues prevent them from overcoming these obstacles (not sure they even try), but either they come up with solutions that work all around the world or people will start looking elsewhere, unless they only care about the US market now.
    Apple has been known for one of the best at international hardwareproduct launches, now within 3 months almost every hardware product is everywhere, but the issue is there slow at software launches.
    Blame your own countries and the license holders, not Apple. There's only so much they can do.

    PS: iTunes Radio is available in Australia too.
    not really, they've had 12 months.

    markm49uk wrote: »

    I agree - Apple are moving too slowly on this front.  Amazon, Spotify and others have managed to 'negotiate' suitable terms or just forced the industry to accept their rules.  Surely Apple is in a much stronger position given the history to do the same - just push it out and sort out the agreements once you have a critical mass - with over a billion iOS devices sold they are in an unstoppable position.  Stop pandering to the industry and force them to adapt to your new model.
    Agreed.
  • Reply 17 of 37
    pepe779pepe779 Posts: 84member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Blame your own countries and the license holders, not Apple. There's only so much they can do.



    PS: iTunes Radio is available in Australia too.



    I think others have already responded to you with roughly the same I would tell you as well, but there's one more thing I don't understand - why are there no legal issues to have iTunes in all countries in first place? How much is iTunes Radio different from iTunes that it suddenly can't be everywhere, when in fact it's essentially only an extension to the existing iTunes service? Something tells me Beats Music will unfortunately be the very same story.

  • Reply 18 of 37
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,423member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pepe779 View Post



    Worse yet, Beats Music won't be available internationally anyway, just like iTunes Radio or Apple Pay. I know I'll get a lot of hate for these comments, but I'm just stating the facts, Apple has essentially become a US-centric company over the last few years and as a result of that their own ecosystem now starts to become fragmented. Honestly I don't care what legal issues prevent them from overcoming these obstacles (not sure they even try), but either they come up with solutions that work all around the world or people will start looking elsewhere, unless they only care about the US market now.

     

    Think about it... Wouldn't Apple desperately want to extend their products and service as widely as possible? The likely obstacles are the music and movie industries, and perhaps European regulatory agencies.

  • Reply 19 of 37
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,423member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    Others companies seem to have managed to do so. I've no doubt Apple could too if they really wanted to. IMO it's a simple business decision thy made to hold off on it.



    EDIT: These are the countries with available music subscriptions from a particular competitor:



    Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela.

     

    Why all the mystery surrounding the name of the competitor?

  • Reply 20 of 37
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,423member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SirLance99 View Post

     

    I'd rather support what ever is the best service regardless of the company. 


     

    I agree with you in principle, but when it comes to computers, smartphones, and tablets I'm not the least bit tempted when an Apple competitor comes out with some new feature first. So the term "best" is somewhat subjective, and should consider criteria beyond price and number of songs.

Sign In or Register to comment.