14 DAY TRIAL // Beats has announced that the long rumored Beats Music service is set to launch in the US in the next few months, though it's unclear whether that will be by the end of the year or not. Beats acquired MOG, a music streaming service, more than a year ago, when it was already working on a streaming service or its own.
Since MOG already had a functioning service, from a technical point of view, and apps for all major platforms, it's safe to assume that the reason it took it so long is because getting deals with the music labels is a long and winding process.
For launch, Beats Music will offer a web version of the service, as well as Android and iOS apps. A Windows 8 app is said to come at a later date. One of the ways Beats Music will try to differentiate itself is by offering a high level of curation out of the box.
“You need to start with a great editorial team that has a point of view, but we want to have a situation where we can really scale to the depth of your appetite,” Luke Wood, president and COO of Beats, told The Next Web. “If you really love music, we want something that can go deep with you for a really long time. And that requires a perfect harmony between the algorithm and human curation. Between the man and the machine.”
Thousands of playlists centered around artists, music styles, even moods, are being put together to be available at launch. Beats Music is using an editorial team for this, but also algorithms that can generate playlists to your exact preferences.
The music streaming world is a highly competitive one, as MOG itself found out, and it remains to be seen whether the Beats brand alone will be enough to carry the service. Apple, Microsoft, Google, and even Samsung are trying to get into the same space, without too much success so far, so Beats may have its work cut out ahead of it.