Beats Music: the streaming music service from Dr. Dre, Trent Reznor and Jimmy Iovine – The Verge

Beats Music lowers its pricing as Apple buys it out

2014-05-28T20:21:45-04:00

The same day its acquisition by Apple was announced, Beats Music has lowered its annual subscription fee. The service now costs $99.99 for a year, down from $119.88 - there was previously no saving on paying the regular $9.99 price every month. That monthly fee remains the same, but Beats has also extended the free trial period from 7 to 14 days. AT&T customers still get a three-month trial.

The pricing revision means that Beats effectively gives you two more months of service than its main competitors, Spotify and Rdio, if you're committed to spending $100 on streaming music. Both rival platforms do offer $5-a-month plans, but Rdio's doesn …

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Beats Music arrives January 21st, family plan exclusive to AT&T customers

2014-01-11T13:31:31-05:00

beats music ui 640

Trent Reznor and Jimmy Iovine's streaming music service is nearly here. On January 21st, Beats Music will arrive on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web for a $9.99 monthly subscription. The service, originally known as Daisy, uses a combination of algorithms and human curation to suggest songs, and claims to have a staff of music experts "hand-selecting your playlists while you stream." The company's betting that curation will set Beats Music apart from the music streaming competition, like Spotify and Rdio, and it's not alone in that bet - as rumored, AT&T has an exclusive partnership with Beats Music for a special $14.99 a month family plan.

…

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HTC narrowly avoids second quarterly loss by selling Beats stake

2014-01-05T04:30:29-05:00

HTC One (verge stock)

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is having some serious financial troubles, and they don't appear to be getting much better. Three months ago, HTC reported its first quarterly loss in company history, and today it narrowly managed to avoid making that two losses in a row. Today, for the fourth quarter of 2013, HTC reported net profit of only NT$310 million (about $10.3 million) on revenue of NT$42.9 billion (about $1.4 billion). But that $10 million profit doesn't necessarily represent a change in the company's fortunes, because it counts the roughly $85 million one-time profit that the company made when it sold its last remaining shares of Be …

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Beats Music subscription service will launch in January 2014, username registration open now

2013-12-04T13:19:51-05:00

Beats-store-dre3

It's been nearly a year since we first heard about Project Daisy - a music subscription service from Beats Audio and Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor - and now it seems the service is nearly ready to launch. According to a blog post from Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers, the service has been operating in private beta and will be ready to open to the public in January of 2014. Simultaneously, the official Beats Music site has just launched, letting users claim their username now in advance of the service's launch.

We're #BeatsMusic. What should we call you? #Claimyourname at http://t.co/t6hLMHMzLV. pic.twitter.com/ifyfWT8qcP
- Beats Music ( …

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Beats COO Luke Wood says his streaming music service will launch ‘within the next few months’

2013-10-07T17:32:41-04:00

Beats-store-dre3

It's been nearly a year since Beats Audio first announced plans to launch its own streaming music service (in partnership with Trent Reznor, among others), and the latest reports are that the project will launch on time in the next few months. The Next Web spoke with Luke Wood, president and COO of Beats, who said that the service would launch "within the next few months" for Android, iOS, and through the web. He also indicated that Windows 8 support would be added down the line, as well.

Wood also corroborated earlier reports that carefully curated playlists and recommendations would be how the Beats Audio service, codenamed Daisy, would di …

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Beats ends HTC partnership, buys back $265 million of shares

2013-09-27T06:47:28-04:00

Beats Audio

Popular headphone maker Beats is buying back HTC's 25 percent stake in the company. HTC originally bought a $300 million, 50.1 percent stake in Beats back in 2011, and the headphone maker then paid $150 million to buy back half of that investment last year. Today's announcement means the close partnership between the two companies is coming to an end, with Beats buying back the final $265 million in shares. In a statement, HTC says Beats will still be an important partner, but it refused to say exactly how important the move is. The company also declined to state the reasoning behind the split and what financial impact the decision has.

HTC ha …

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Beats reportedly looking to end fruitless HTC partnership

2013-08-19T03:40:53-04:00

Gallery Photo: HTC One mini hands-on photos

The popular headphone maker Beats is reportedly attempting to buy back HTC's 25 percent stake in the company. The news comes from a Wall Street Journal report that cites "people familiar with the matter" as claiming Beats is looking to bring in a new investor to provide "fresh funds for growth," and plans on buying back HTC's stake at the same time. Although HTC bought a $300 million, 50.1 percent stake in Beats back in 2011, the headphone maker paid $150 million to take half of that stake back last year.

A tale of two companies

The two companies have had dramatically different fortunes over the past few years. Although both are in buoyant s …

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Beats reportedly trying to partner with AT&T for streaming music service launch

2013-07-08T16:06:14-04:00

Beats Audio

Beats Audio is planning to launch Daisy, its foray into the streaming music market this fall - and there's no question it wants to make a big splash when it does. To that end, the company is working to partner with AT&T and use the wireless carrier's marketing muscle to steal mindshare from entrenched competitors like Spotify. As reported by CNET, Beats co-founder and CEO Jimmy Iovine has been in meetings with executives from both AT&T and the music labels, trying to hammer out a deal that would likely give AT&T customers a free trial period as part of their data plans.

It's a logical plan for Beats and Daisy, as having a good mobile experi …

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Apple reportedly held talks with Beats over streaming music service

2013-03-05T23:52:48-05:00

Windows Phone beats audio

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly met with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine to talk about its upcoming streaming music service, reports Reuters. Apple has been rumored to be working on a subscription service to supplement its iTunes Music store for some time, but details so far have been scarce aside from reports indicating a possible Q1 2013 launch.

Reuters reports that the meeting was corroborated by three people "familiar with the situation." It reportedly concerned Beats' upcoming streaming service, codenamed Project Daisy, in whose business model and rollout plans Cook was said to have been interested. Eddie Cue, Apple's VP of Internet Software and …

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Beats raises $60 million for new music streaming service launching this year

2013-03-05T23:23:33-05:00

beats audio

Billionaire mogul Len Blavatnik is part of a group that will invest $60 million in Daisy, the subscription music service announced in January by the makers of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, music industry sources told The Verge.

The deal could be announced as soon as this week, the sources said. Details about the agreement are few but the pact is only the latest sign that investors are throwing large sums of money into subscription music. Last year, Spotify attracted $100 million in investment on a $3 billion valuation. Blavatnik is the Russian-born entrepreneur that acquired Warner Music Group in 2011 for $3.3 billion. His investment is be …

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