Apple to shut down Beats Music on November 30th

posted by Alan F. / Nov 13, 2015, 9:09 AM

Apple to shut down Beats Music on November 30th

With Apple Music thriving, Apple has posted on the Beats support website that Beats Music will be shut down at the end of this month. According to the post, the service ends November 30th with the cancellation of subscriptions. Apple says that those who were using the soon-to-be defunct music streamer can move their "picks and prefrences" to Apple Music. The support site includes a link to instructions on how to do this.

Apple acquired Beats Music as part of its largest acquisition ever, the $3 billion purchase of Beats Audio that it announced in May 2014. Despite quickly assimilating Beats' headphone unit into the company, leaks made prior to the announcement of the transaction hinted that Apple's main target was streaming Music service Beats Music. At the time, leaked documents showed that the streaming music service had only 111,000 subscribers.

On the support site, Apple hinted that the human curators who worked on Beats are now doing a similar job for Apple Music. The latter launched on June 30th and offers a free three-month trial. After that expires, Apple charges $9.99 monthly for an individual account, or $14.99 for a family of up to six members. At last count, Apple Music had 6.5 million subscribers in October.

"Beats Music ends on November 30. Your subscription will be cancelled, but you can move your picks and preferences over to Apple Music right now. All the pros that curated music for you are still crafting more amazing experiences. Plus, on Apple Music, you’ll get even better recommendations based on music you already listen to and love, 24/7 global radio with Beats 1, exciting material from your favorite artist, and more."-Apple

Besides the streaming music service, Apple Music includes always on global radio station Beats 1 and a feature called Connect. This is essentially an online bulletin board where artists can interact with fans.

source: Apple via CNET

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15 Comments

2. zeeBomb

Posts: 2318; Member since: Aug 14, 2014

RIP dre Spotify FTW

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 9:16 AM 3

3. Planterz

Posts: 2120; Member since: Apr 30, 2012

DAFUQ? Whatever. Wouldn't be the first blitheringly idiotic move made by Apple (nor their last). I can't imagine this will make their stockholders happy. Pay way too much for a name brand only to kill it off months later? Myself, I'm gonna put down a parlay bet on the underdogs on UFC 193. $10 could net me $1200. The chances are practically nil, but it'd net me more than betting on Apple being brainless sh!theads.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 9:30 AM 0

4. darkkjedii

Posts: 31055; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

Waste of 2 bill, but Dre came up.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 9:32 AM 3

5. Acer_Predator unregistered

hahah it EVEN DIDN'T started it was JUST to pay of dr dre and put of and vanish ''beats'' from global market .. now it will be nicely R.I.P.-ed under apples ground and apple can keep going That little pay of to dre is like dust for apple ;)

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 9:38 AM 1

6. justReLaxx

Posts: 31; Member since: Nov 03, 2015

How about noooooooooooooooo you freaky greedy bastard!!

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 11:22 AM 0

7. PHYCLOPSH

Posts: 652; Member since: Jun 28, 2014

I don't care for Beats or Apple music for that matter.. Hacked Pandora w/o ads and 128k playback on Android ftw

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 11:56 AM 4

16. Xardas2

Posts: 8; Member since: Sep 15, 2015

I remember wanting to try out Pandora years ago but didn't work in UK think was US only. Has this changed?

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 7:00 PM 0

8. cncrim

Posts: 1588; Member since: Aug 15, 2011

Ouch 3 billions dollar.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 12:06 PM 0

9. ameran

Posts: 344; Member since: Dec 04, 2013

Apple Music will be next.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 12:11 PM 5

10. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

I am curious to ask anyone who wants to answer. Would you want Apple to put Beats DSP Hardware into the iPhone/iPad/iPod devices and stop using cheap headphones and include a pair of iBeats with the phone and iPod device?

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 2:51 PM 0

12. TheWeasel

Posts: 403; Member since: Dec 26, 2014

Beats are like Apple, but even worse. Whereas Apple will sell you their product at a very high price, but at least it performs well and is somewhat worth some of the price, Beats products are expensive and are not actually good earphones. Even if you listen to bassy music, like I do, Beats are known for having over-boosted and muddy sounding bass. They don't have a nice, tight bass. Even Beats Audio was actually just setting the equalizer to sound bad when it was turned off so that you would think it vastly improved the quality to turn on Beats Audio. Beats is even better than Apple at giving you less for more. I wouldn't mind one bit if Beats all suddenly disappeared one day. Apple Earpods aren't much better. They are alright, nothing special, but they aren't too comfortable with their hard plastic design. I had a pair of $25 Skullcandy in-ear buds that had nicer bass and were more comfortable than my friend's Earpods.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 4:01 PM 1

17. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

true, $50 headphone from monoprice can easily beat $300 beat's headphone.. if u really care about sound quality, try B&W, Sennheiser, Shure, Grado, Denon, AKG, Audio-Technica, Etymotic or Beyerdynamic

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 9:33 PM 1

14. bigdawg23

Posts: 467; Member since: May 25, 2011

I had Beats Music and dumped it before Apples purchase. I have bother Apple iPhone and Galaxy Note 4 & 12.2. When it comes to Beats for music, I don't care for them. Now this is my personal prefernce on how music sounds to me. My stock Apple headphones work for me just when doing a conference call or going to bed listening to music. As a traveler and need for Noise Cancelling, my choice is Bose. I have QC15 and 20. To me the sound replay is much clearer and crisper. I like the complet blocking of annonying folks on the plane and in the airport. Also when staying at hotels with thinner walks blocks the annony neighbors. I tried Beats headphones and unless you want hard bass, they are not that good. I listen to all sorts of music and I mean everything Lamb of God to Tom Jones and everything in between. So head phones with wide range is a necessity for all the different forms of music.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 5:04 PM 0

15. TheWeasel

The thing is, even if you want boosted bass, Beats won't even do a good job at that. The bass is overpowered and muddy, instead of tight and crisp sounding. There isn't a scenario where Beats are your best choice, unless you wanted them for the status symbol, which is pretty pathetic.

posted on Nov 13, 2015, 6:08 PM 0

20. ProblemSolver15

Posts: 372; Member since: Jun 14, 2010

I think if they did this and included a pair of beats ear buds in the box of every device they'd be canabalizing the sales of the actual beats headphones themselves, seeing as a large population of people have and purchase apple devices each year. They'd never sell any headphones because people will just keep the ones that come in the box.