Contradicting a report from Tech Crunch, Apple said Monday it s not shuttering its recently acquired Beats Music service. But that doesn t mean that the iPhone maker doesn t have other changes planned for the subscription song company.
Citing unnamed sources, Tech Crunch reported on Monday that Apple plans to shut down Beats. The online news site reported that Apple has already transferred employees from Beats to other projects.
It s not clear when exactly Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre s music service will be shut down or what Apple will do with streaming, but every source with knowledge of the situation that we talked to agreed Apple plans to sunset the Beats Music brand, Tech Crunch reported.
But Apple denied the report of planned shutdown.
It s not true, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayer told SiliconBeat.
Instead, according to Recode, citing its own anonymous sources, Apple is considering simply discontinuing the Beats Music brand — rather than shuttering the service — and making other, more minor changes.
Neumayer declined to reveal to to SiliconBeat Apple s plans for the site, whether Apple plans to drop the Beats name or incorporate the streaming music service into Apple s own iTunes music offerings.
Although it was a digital music pioneer and still dominates sales of digital songs and albums, Apple has been in danger of being left behind as the industry has shifted toward streaming and cloud-based music. Its acquisition of Beats was seen by some industry experts as a way of preparing iTunes for the future.
Apple completed its purchase of Beats, including Beats Music and its headphone making Beats Electronics unit, in August. Apple initially reported that the deal would cost some $3 billion.
