Beats Music will launch a new music streaming subscription service in the US on 21 January 2014. Beats Music offers more than 20 million fully licensed songs from major labels including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group and independent labels. A collection of editorialised playlists from some of the most well-respected music brands in the world, including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, DJ Mag, Country Weekly, Hot97/Power 106 amongst any others.
Developed and led by Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre, Luke Wood, Trent Reznor and Ian Rogers, Beats Music lets you stream your music or listen offline. Led by radio programming vet Julie Pilat, the Beats Music genre lead curation team includes:
- Former Pitchfork Media editor-in-chief Scott Plagenhoef
- Former digital content director at XXL Carl Chery
- Veteran Detroit radio music director Suzy Cole
- Recording Academy music blogger Arjan Writes
- Former Rhino Records A&R Director Mason Williams
- Los Angeles hip-hop radio personality Fuzzy Fantabulous
- Country music writer Ken Tucker
- Former Programmer of L.A.’s hugely successful Latino 96.3, Jerry Pullés
Key features of Finding Music on Beats Music
- Just For You – Selection of music based on your musical preferences, time of day, activity and additional cultural and contextual clues. This is delivered at least four times a day.
- Right Now – Answer four specific questions about your location, activity, surrounds and musical preference at the moment with a continuous playlist.
- Highlights – Editorial staff recommend playlists or albums compiled based on time of year, news, cultural milestones, and worth new releases.
- Find It – Seek out playlists or individual songs by genre, activity or curator.
“Popular music is created in bite size pieces, one song at a time – but most people need more than four minutes to be truly satisfied,” said Jimmy Iovine. “It takes a highly curated, uninterrupted sequence of songs to achieve a fulfilling music experience, where the only song as important as the song you are listening to is the song that comes next.
“Beats was created so people could hear the music the way the artists intended, but speakers were just the first step,” said Luke Wood, President of Beats Electronics. “Beats Music is the final piece in making that vision a reality.”
A free trial of Beats Music will be offered followed by a US$9.99 per month subscription fee. It will be available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone as well as on the web. In the meantime, visit https://beatsmusic.com/ to claim your name before Beats Music launches.
