Now that the long-rumored Beats deal has been confirmed by Apple, folks are wondering what’s to become of the Beats Music service. Although it just launched in January, it has already built up a [small] loyal following of subscribers.
The good news is, it sounds like Apple is going to allow Beats to operate as a separate company, which will include its streaming music service. And according to reports, it has no plans to pull the Android and Windows Phone clients…
Tim Bradshaw of the Financial Times confirms:
Beats Music will still be available on Android and Windows Phone after the deal, @Tim_Cook tells @FT. “It’s all about music.” Story @FT soon
— Tim Bradshaw (@tim) May 28, 2014
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. For one, Apple doesn’t currently make applications for any other platforms outside of iOS. In fact, it’s the only major tech firm that doesn’t, as both Google and Microsoft develop apps for multiple OSes.
It’s also interesting because prior to all of this ‘Beats’ talk, it was rumored that Apple was looking to make some drastic changes in iTunes to reverse slipping downloads. It was even said to be considering launching an iTunes app for Android.
What does all of this mean? For now, nothing. It looks like Beats Music should continue to work as it always has (aside from a few pricing changes). But I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually, Apple found a way to point all Beats users back to iTunes.