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Apple Denies Report That It Will Shut Down Beats Music

apple beats
From left: Jimmy Iovine, Tim Cook, Dr. Dre, and Eddy Cue. Apple

Apple denies a TechCrunch report that it is shutting down its Beats Music streaming service.

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Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said rumors of Beats Music's shuttering were "not true" in a statement to Re/code's Peter Kafka. However, Kafka adds that Beats Music may be rebranded in the future.

Beats Music is similar to Spotify, Rdio, and other streaming music services. You pay $10 a month for unlimited access to songs from all the major record labels. The service was one of the key reasons Apple bought Beats Electronics for $3 billion earlier this year. Beats also makes popular headphones and other audio accessories.

It's more likely that Apple will take the Beats Music technology and incorporate it into iTunes or iTunes Radio. Shutting it down wouldn't make any sense, especially considering Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told Charlie Rose that he was so impressed with Beats Music that he "couldn't sleep" after listening to it for the first time. That doesn't sound like a product Cook would want to kill off.

Beats Music also has a neat feature that Apple might want to incorporate into future products. "The sentence" gives users the opportunity to select music based on their activity or location (think "I'm on a boat" or "I'm on a rooftop and feel like going back in time").

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Here's what Beats Music looks like on the iPhone:

Beats Music
iTunes

News of the shutdown is particularly surprising because Apple just incorporated Beats Music into Apple TV, its set-top box. That's not something you do to a product you're about to kill.

Apple
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