During its short-lived history, Beats Music was unavailable to those outside of the United States, causing a plethora of issues and a collective public outcry. (App Advice)
On November 30, 2015, Beats Music, owned by Apple Inc., will efficaciously shut down permanently, marking the end of its one and three quarter year lifespan. This course of action is indisputably a reflection of the new-found success that Apple Music has recently discovered in its nascent stage of release. Originally named “Daisy,” Beats Music was never primed for success from its very beginnings dating back to 2012. Its main points of difference, an algorithm based curator that would devise playlists and a personalized experience based off listening habits, was undoubtedly ineffective against the phenomenon deemed the “free trial” that powerhouse Spotify employed. Similar music streaming firms such as Zune and Rdio have also consequently ceased its operations in response to the market demand for music streaming that has seemingly hit its plateau.
In response to Anand’s open ended question at the conclusion of his warranted critique of Beats Music, there is not a seed of doubt in any sane individual’s mind that Apple Inc.’s 2014 three billion dollar purchase of Beats Music was a horrendous undertaking and is nothing short of an ignominious abomination. Despite the fact that the subsidiary of Beats only had 300,000 active subscribers at the time of the purchase, Apple Inc. was somehow capable of justifying this quasi-“audacious” endeavor to its stakeholders and upper executives. To put the subscriber figure into perspective, incumbent rival Spotify had over 15 million active subscribers in the United States alone in a maturing market in 2014.
Affording consumers the opportunity to test its service for free for a limited amount of time, Apple Inc. has improved upon its previous endeavor with Beats Music. Its 6.5 million subscribers are a testament to its undeniable success.
Nevertheless, a glass half full argument does hold true for this investment. Shortly after Apple Inc. announced its intentions to discontinue Beats Music in the summer of 2015, the gargantuan firm announced that it would be releasing a novel product, commonly known as Apple Music today. Almost half a year after its inception, the service has done exceedingly well, garnering well over 6.5 million subscribers to date. While Beats Music never offered a trial service to its consumers, Apple Music offers a free three month trial to prospective consumers. In addition, Apple has also automatically implemented its service into its operating system in all of its reputable products, essentially making it unavoidable for its product purchasing consumers to a certain extent. The list of the improvements upon Beats Music is limitless and it would be superfluous to analyze each respective enhancement. The indisputable overarching theme of all these improvements is that without the failure of Beats Music, Apple Inc. would not have developed Apple Music into the competing entity that it is today. Because of Apple’s ostensibly limitless pocket and Apple Music’s undeniable success, it is easy to argue that Apple’s three billion dollar faux pas is more than excusable in this context. Inadvertently, the firm has also created an entirely new and lucrative revenue stream, inching Apple Inc. towards the possibility of becoming the first one trillion dollar market capitalization company in history.