It has been a fun and highly profitable ride but reports surfaced over the weekend that Apple will stop using the iTunes brand on Monday.
The old branding, synonymous with music and video, will be replaced by Apple Music, which will debut Monday at the gadget makers annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple Music will come pre-installed when iPhone customers upgrade their phones to the latest version of iOS. The Apple Music app will mark Apple’s first foray into the world of streaming music. Previous all iTunes music was only available for purchase.
Apple Music will feature some elements of the music streaming app Apple acquired from hiphop mogul Dr Dre’s Beats Electronics company, for which it paid $3 billion last year.
Among the features to be included will be a personalization function that logs data about a user’s specific music tastes and then offers suggestions, similar to features offered by Spotify and others in the streaming music market.
The service, just like Spotify, will carry a $10 price tag.
Along with the leak about Apple Music, reports are that the company is also in talks with media companies about offering them better terms than the current 30/70 split, where Apple makes fully 30% on all music and video sales.
The shift is aimed at creating the largest catalog of streamable and downloadable content, long a goal of Apple yet has proved tricky given content-owners’ refusal to play ball with Apple’s pricing.
Stay Connected
