by Oh, Beats — we hardly knew ya. For a while there it looked as though Apple would use the Beats streaming music service as its own entity, preferring to keep its own brand attached to iTunes Radio. But that’s no longer the case (if it ever was), according to a new report from TechCrunch. Indeed, only a couple of months after acquiring the service in May, Apple is reportedly getting ready to shut it down.
“Many engineers from Beats Music have already been moved off the product and onto other projects at Apple, including iTunes,” the report says. “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.”
These sources allegedly include “several prominent employees at Apple and Beats.” It’s been thought that Apple acquired Beats for a head start into iTunes music streaming since the day rumors of the buyout first leaked, but recent events seemed to conflict with that initial assessment. After all, Apple recently created a dedicated Beats channel for Apple TV, and it notably added Beats as a “Made By Apple” app.
But some of the signs were there already; indeed, TechCrunch points out that the absence of Beats as a preinstalled app on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus served as a red flag. It’s also unclear how this move will affect the headphone side of the business, which Apple has been promoting in its retail stores and via a new dedicated subhead on the online store.
[UPDATE] Not so fast. According to recode.net, the TechCrunch report is in error. Their article states, “Tom Neumayr, Apple’s PR rep, says the TechCrunch story is ‘not true’ but wouldn’t go beyond that.” It’s speculated that Beats Music may simply be rebranded.
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