Beats Music may become part of iTunes

When Apple bought Beats it was, in all likelihood, for reasons other than the fact it makes very popular headphones. It’s pretty likely that one of those reasons was Beats’s own music streaming service, Beats Music, which provide Apple with a leg-up into an industry they had previously had no part in.

We first heard reports that the service might be rebranded last month, but Apple denied immediate plans were in place. Now reports from the Wall Street Journal have indicated that Apple is backtracking on those claims, and the tech giant might end up merging the service with iTunes to try and combat decreasing music sales.

Music piracy is something the industry has been concerned about for many years, the increasing popularity of all-you-can-eat streaming services has played a part in declining music sale because why would you pay for your music when you can get more than you’d ever need for a mere £10 a month?

iTunes itself has suffered a 13-14 per cent decline in sales this year alone, and if bringing Beats music into the fold is going to help keep the service afloat then I don’t think people are going to complain about it. Just one thing Apple, can you go ahead and make it available internationally fairly soon?

Tom Pritchard