Apple to shut down Beats streaming music Nov. 30
Tech giant closes down $3B acquisition after starting up its own Apple Music service
Apple is shutting down the Beats music streaming service Nov. 30, 18 months after buying the company.
The tech giant is encouraging Beats subscribers to shift their libraries and playlists to the Apple Music service, which just became available on Android.
Apple paid $3 billion US in May 2014 to buy Beats Music and Beats Electronics, the headphones and audio services company co-founded by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
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At the time, it was thought the value to Apple would be in acquiring a streaming music service at a time when sales growth for music downloads was stalled.
Instead it launched its own Apple Music service this June, initially just for iOS devices, luring subscribers with a three-month free subscription.
This was controversial because Apple also planned not to pay royalties to labels and music publishers for three months, a strategy scuttled by Taylor Swift's announcement she would not play that game. The singer said she would not agree to have her music streamed until Apple committed to paying the artists.
In launching Apple Music, the company took on formidable competition in Spotify and rival services begun by Amazon and YouTube.
Beats Music hadn't built its subscriptions since Apple took over.
One of the attractions of the Beats service — your own curated playlists — can also be transferred to Apple Music.
Apple said it would continue to sell the popular Beats headphones.