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Apple’s New Music Streaming Service To Debut Next Week At $10 A Month

Apple’s New Music Streaming Service To Debut Next Week At $10 A Month

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Apple is indeed announcing a new music streaming service next week, and it will offer unlimited access to songs at $10 a month. The new service's setup will reportedly be similar to Spotify's in terms of functionality and capabilities. But unlike Spotify, however, Apple's service will not offer a free, advertising-supported on-demand option, but instead will offer that via iTunes Radio, which will likely acquire programmed or human-hosted channels.

 

Over the past few months, a lot of reports have surfaced indicating that Apple is making a move to introduce a new music streaming service. Having acquired Beats Music last year, Apple has been expected by some circles to integrate Beats into its existing music services (iTunes), or transform it into an entirely new service altogether.

 

And now, it appears that Apple has a finalized product ready for the masses. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple will be rolling out the new music streaming service via a software update on iOS, and through a standalone offering for the Android  mobile operating system. The new channels that will be offered will be hosted by some of the more celebrated artists and personalities today, including talents from BCC Radio 1. Dr Dre, one of the minds behind Beats, is purportedly one of the hosts.

 

As for the pricing -- $10 a month should bring Apple's new service at competitive terms with Spotify and Rdio. But since the service brings with it Apple's branding, it has a good chance of attracting a very big user base. It might not hit Spotify's numbers yet, but it just might gain enough sign ups to threaten its more established rivals.

 

And let us not forget that Apple may find a way to funnel its hundreds of millions of iTunes customers, which consists of members of a spend happy demographic, to sign up for the new service. And remember that Apple users have always been a love-your-own bunch, which means they are more likely to try anything new from Apple.

 

Also, the fact that Apple's new service offers a wide selection of human-hosted channels gives it another dimension. One can never really underestimate star power, and as its past track records shows, Apple has always been a bit clever in using personalities and celebrities in promoting its products or services. 

 

The Wall Street Journal's report does not specify if Apple will only be introducing the new service next week, or already be rolling it out to users by then. Guess we will just have stay tuned for more developments soon.