Apple shutters Beats Music.

[Peter Breuninger]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/22/apple-plans-to-shut-down-beats-music/

From techcrunch:
Apple will discontinue the streaming music service Beats Music it acquired in May, according to five sources, including several prominent employees at Apple and Beats. Many engineers from Beats Music have already been moved off the product and onto other projects at Apple, including iTunes. It’s not clear when exactly Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre’s music service will be shut down or what Apple will do with streaming, but every source with knowledge of the situation that we talked to agreed Apple plans to sunset the Beats Music brand.

The fact that the new iPhones did not come pre-installed with Beats Music, while several other Apple apps came loaded on the 6 and 6 Plus, should have been a red flag. There was also nothing said about Beats Music during the Apple Watch reveal, even though the service’s radio and fire-and-forget playlists could work well on a wearable. In August, Beats Music was being advertised to new users on iOS 7, yet the only time Beats Music got an off-hand mention at the September launch event was when Apple CEO Tim Cook said the new U2 album would be available there.

Instead of Beats Music, the Apple Watch features a unannounced music app [Update: Remote app] with a blue play button (top right in the photo below) that instantly started playing songs when tapped during a demo.

Click above for more.

 

[Steve williams]

So let me understand this.....Apple pays north of $3B to buy the company only to shut it down or did they pay that to get Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre

 

[Orb]

I guess they could take some of the core back end functionality from it and migrate into iTunes as it had some good ideas, and from a market-footprint perspective it is having visibility with a younger demographic; I think quite awhile ago I read an analysis suggesting the age group was creeping higher with regards to Apple's customers/those interested in Apple.
Beats is recognised to being more "in touch" with a younger generation.
Still, if this is handled badly big investment institutions may de-risk; tbh I would say a few analysts probably raised eyebrows regarding the costs involved even before this latest news.

Cheers
Orb

 

[kleinbje]

They officially denied it today according to CNBC

 

[amirm]

Well, the denial is kind of fishy: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102024034#.

My sense is that they must be having discussions around killing it and someone leaked it to media to see if that can keep it from closing.

Apple doesn't need the service. The only value is in Beat headphones. Little known subscription service like that is of little value to Apple.

 

[cpp]

Buy your competitor and then kill it. Classic business 101

 

[still-one]

It is more likely they will revamp the service rather than killing it off.

 

[amirm]

Buy your competitor and then kill it. Classic business 101

Ah. Good thinking. That could have been the strategy behind the whole acquisition. A purchase by Samsung would have been bad. Maybe Samsung was in play and hence the super high purchase price.

 

[amirm]

It is more likely they will revamp the service rather than killing it off.

The question is why. Likely such a service would impact how many tracks they sell outright. Wonder if there is any kind of real business model here to make money.

 

[cpp]

Ah. Good thinking. That could have been the strategy behind the whole acquisition. A purchase by Samsung would have been bad. Maybe Samsung was in play and hence the super high purchase price.

I though of that, the price but then I thought of the lawsuit that Bose filed against Beats which Apple would have to manage and defend, http://litigation.maxval-ip.com/Attachments/CD 1 14-cv-00980_ded.htm. The case is still ongoing, but since Apple killed Beats, maybe the end was actually related to this lawsuit.

 

[KeithR]

its going to be implemented into iTunes is my guess. same technology.