Apple has rubbished rumors of shutting down Beats Music but chances are that the tech giant may consider rebranding the service.
Apple may have several secret plans for its high-priced acquisition of Beats Music but none of them involve shutting the service down. The Cupertino tech giant responded to a report by TechCrunch that speculated Apple's future plans for Beats. An Apple spokesman denied the speculations.
In a statement issued to Venture Beat, Apple corporate communications lead Tom Neumayr said Monday's report by TechCrunch is "not true," affirming Apple has no such plans for Beats. Neumayr did not elaborate on the subject.
Apple acquired Beats Music and Beats Electronics for a whopping $3 billion ($2.6 billion cash and $400 million stock) in May. The acquisition, which was the biggest ever in the history of Apple, includes Beats' popular headphones and the music streaming subscription service.
In a separate report by Re/Code, people familiar with Apple's plans revealed that the tech giant will not shut down Beats but it may "modify it over time, and one of those changes could involved changing the Beats Music brand."
The report further emphasized that the Beats headphone brand is a brand in itself and Apple has no plans to change that. As for the music streaming part, Apple is considering rebranding mainly because of its less fan following. Beats Music was not popular until it was acquired by Apple and served only a few hundred thousand subscribers. Giants like Spotify have 40 million users and Pandora has 75 million listeners.
As for the Beats evolution under Apple's ownership, sources expect the service to be integrated more heavily with iTunes and feature a new design along with some exclusives like the U2 album, which can currently be streamed only on Beats Music.
