Beyond its line of bass-boosting ear pieces, Beats has also broken into the competitive market for subscription streaming-services, with a mobile offering that, unlike Apple’s iTunes and iTunes Radio, offers ad-free, on-demand music listening for about $10 per month. Beats Music is just a few months old and only available in the U.S.
Music has long been one of the cornerstones of Apple’s business, with its iTunes store and the iPod music player that reignited the company’s growth more than a decade ago. Yet digital-download sales fell for the first time ever last year as people turn to streaming services. Twenty-three percent of wired Americans streamed music on subscription services. .
If the discussions result in a deal, it would be the biggest purchase for Apple to date. Apple previously bought companies for far less, including the $400 million purchase of Next Computer Inc. in 1997 as part of an arrangement to bring Jobs back into the fold.
Beats would give Apple a sexy brand among affluent music consumers and a cash-cow headphones business. Bundling a free trial for Beats Music with a pair of expensive headphones or wireless speakers wouldn’t be a bad way to get people hooked on streaming. In the end, an Apple-Beats deal could be about nothing but a stream thing.
sources: Bloomberg, c/net