Apple may shut down Beats Music streaming service [UPDATED]

When Apple acquired Beats earlier this year, the Cupertino firm didn’t really make mention of its plans for Beats Music, but it did move the iOS app into the Apple section of the App Store. Unfortunately for Beats Music fans, a new rumor suggests that Apple’s future plans are, well, not to have it around.

A report from TechCrunch claims that Apple is going to “discontinue” Beats Music. This information is said to come from five sources, including some from Apple and Beats. Several Beats Music engineers have been moved off of the service, today’s leak claims, in order to place them on other Apple projects, including iTunes.

Beats Music isn’t even a year old yet, and it’d be kind of strange to see the service given the axe already, especially given how popular features like “The Sentence” playlist builder seem to be. The streaming service is certainly a competitive market, though, and so perhaps Apple doesn’t want to take on larger competitors like Spotify.

Do you use Beats Music? If so, what do you think of it?

UPDATE: A report from Re/code says that Apple may ditch the “Beats Music” branding for its streaming service, but that the service itself isn’t going away.

UPDATE 2: Apple has officially responded to this rumor, saying that the Beats brand might go away but that it plans to stay in the streaming music battle.

Via TechCrunch, Re/code

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