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It’s hard not to think longtime streaming music services such as Spotify and Rdio aren’t at least a little bit scared of Beats Music, the new kid in town which launches today with a whole lot of music industry street cred behind it.
As announced last week, Beats Music officially launched Tuesday priced at $9.99 per month for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone with a free 30-day trial to access the streaming music service’s more than 20 million songs.
The deal gets even sweeter for AT&T users on a family plan, because Beats Music is offering an exclusive $14.99 per month plan for such customers, which allows up to five people to stream to as many as 10 devices for one low price.
Beats Music arrives on the scene right on the heels of rival Spotify switching to an unlimited, ad-supported model for free listeners on both web and mobile — a move clearly designed to lure cheapskates, even though they’ll still have to listen in a station mode similar to Apple’s iTunes Radio.
Late last week, Rdio announced a similar move, although for now its free streaming is limited strictly to the web and only for U.S. listeners. By comparison, Beats Music appears to be taking a more mobile-first approach — in fact, users have to first download the app in order to even sign up at all.
To its credit, Rdio continues to offer Stations free on mobile devices — the web-based service allows unlimited listening to albums, playlists and stations, although users will have to listen to “in-stream messages,” which is a mix of “new feature announcements, messages from partner brands, notifications about exclusive content and other helpful tips.”
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