Apple is reportedly planning to integrate the music streaming service in Beats Music into iTunes next year, sources told WSJ.
Apple's high-profile acquisition of Beats in May has created a string of rumors building around the future of Beats Music. The latest report by the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reported that the Cupertino tech giant is reportedly planning to integrate the acquired music-streaming service in its iTunes as early as next year. The report is much in line with TechCrunch's report from last month, which outlined a similar future for Beats Music.
The Beats headphones clearly have a prominent future at Apple, with the tech giant making ample space and eliminating competition from its retail and online stores. The big question is what's next for Beats Music? If the WSJ report is true, Apple will re-launch Beats Music as a part of iTunes, a move that will help stabilize the plummeting digital music sales from iTunes.
"Digital music sales at Apple Inc.'s iTunes store have fallen 13% to 14% worldwide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the fragility of the music industry's nascent recovery," WSJ reports.
After TechCrunch reported the possible integration of Beats Music and iTunes, Apple's corporate communications lead Tom Neumayr denied such a move on the company's behalf. Then, however, reports hinted that Apple might modify the service over time instead of putting it to rest.
If Apple proceeds as reported, the company will have a common platform for downloads, online radio and paid streaming service, which makes sense as iTunes is well established with 800 million users and 400 million credit cards than Beats Music's 250,000 paid subscribers.
In a separate report earlier this week, Re/Code reported that Apple is planning to slash the subscription price of Beats Music in half in a bid to compete with the rivals. The standard for music streaming subscriptions in the industry is $10/month, same as Beats Music, but a rumored $5 a month subscription will be quite a deal for music lovers.
