Apple has appointed Beats chief creative officer Trent Reznor as development head of the redesigned Beats Music app that will supposedly be releases as a part of iOS 8.4, claims a report from The New York Times. The Tim Cook-led company is determined to position Beats Music as a leading service in the digital music initiative.
Revamped iTunes Radio
The report is in line with Reznor’s statement in October, in which the executive suggested he was on a secret project for Apple and planned to be in the music delivery field.
Jimmy Iovine will work with Reznor and other employees from Apple and Beats on the development front. The app will continue with its tent-pole features, which at present are there in the current Beats Music version, such as human curated playlists, but they will get a new look and a new name as per the report.
A revamped iTunes Radio is another app for Apple’s digital music platform that will continue to offer free-to-stream service. According to the report, Apple has hired D.J. Zane Lowe to reconfigure the service. Lowe, a Grammy-nominated taste-maker, is known for setting in motion the careers of Adele and Gnarls Barkley and is one of the most celebrated personalities of BBC radio. Music executives believe the service will be more focused towards regional programming with Lowe as its voice.
Will Apple overcome rising competition?
It is widely believed that the Beats Music streaming service and iTunes Radio are the focal point for now as the company is worried about its declining digital music sales. However, failure to fix the deal indicates the loosening grip of Apple over digital music, an area in which the company was the forerunner with music downloads. According to Toni Sacconaghi, financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, Apple’s struggle to bring down the pricing of its music service is primarily due to its late entry into the segment.
Apple still lags competitors such as Spotify and Pandora but revived its iTunes-based service so it could offer an opportunity to catch up. Apple is facing competition from newcomers, and it’s high time it should start modernizing its offerings to retain its position.
