Apple is planning to unveil a hot new redesign of Beats Music at WWDC. The new streaming service is aimed at killing rival’s like Spotify and Pandora, but rather than relying on an Apple software veteran to redesign Beats Music, Nine Inch Nail’s frontman has been tapped to lead the redesign.
Nearly a year after acquiring Beats for $3 billion, Apple plans to overhaul its music strategy behind the Beats Music redesign, reports the New York Times. Reznor, who was the chief creative officer for Beats, has been made the point main for overhauling the iOS music service to include the streaming service.
Early rumors claimed the biggest selling point of Apple’s music service could be the price tag. While Spotify and Rdio cost $10 per month, Apple was aiming to sell its service for $8 per month, but the company has been unable to convince label executives to go along with their pricing.
Apple’s inability to secure a lower price than rivals is a sign that the company’s leverage has weakened in the music industry. Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, told the New York Times the labels are happy Apple is trying to play catchup for once.
“They’re used to being a shaper rather than a responder,” Sacconaghi said. “This is one of the few times where Apple is playing catch-up and not necessarily coming from a position of strength.”
The new app, code named “Copper”, is being made in collaboration with Reznor, Jimmy Iovine, and other Beats and Apple employees. The new service could include some of Beats Music’s features like curated playlists, and more visual appeal. Full details are expected to be revealed at WWDC in June.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
12 responses to “Trent Reznor is rebuilding Apple’s Spotify killer from ground up”
I don’t have a lot of confidence in a product designed on a high level by that many people.
Tunein Radio is da bomb.
best $10 i ever spent. I use it to listen to Echoes every night and I don’t have to subscribe to Echoe’s paid service (which doesn’t have an app mind you)
Letting Trent Reznor design software is as good idea as letting Homer Simpson design cars…
Haha Spotify Killer. Sure. You wanna bet? He is building someting but it´s not gonna kill Spotify. Look – Apple are simply too late to the game
Trent apparently did a great job with the current Beats offering, so no worries there. I am a beats subscriber and I love the UI of the app. Sure, there are some things that need a cleanup but overall, I hope the redesign follows some of the design principles that make the current app a pleasure to use.
Second, as far as “killing Spotify”, Apple doesn’t need to kill anything. That being said, being built into iOS and having integration features (i.e. Siri, etc) not offered by any other service will bring folks in droves.
but Siri already has integration with apps. You can say “Siri open spotify” and she does.
Right. But asking Siri “What is playing” used to includes links directly to Beats music as well as Spotify to that particular song, and of course iTunes. How nice would it be to tell Siri as a subsequent command, “add to my playlist” which should absolutely be possible.
it should be free to iTunes Match subscribers just like how iiTunes Radio is ad free for Match subscribers but even that was a flop too. Apple should just buy Spotify and Pandora and call it a day. You can’t innovate with competition this fierce and especially when the playing field is not level. Apple is just late to the game.
Who? Never heard of him or his band. Doesn’t fill me with much confidence.
Look here children and you’ll see the rare reverse-hipster in his natural habitat. He’s never heard of bands you have.
Seriously?? … “Early rumors claimed the biggest selling point of Apple’s music service could be the price tag.” this is the dumbest crap I’ve read in a while. Like people give a damn over a price differential of two-packs-of-gum-a-month. What happened to Apple’s biggest selling point being a seamless and fully integrated experience? Two-bucks … pffft.