Apple has reportedly engaged in talks over a "potential music service partnership" with Beats Electronics, according to Reuters. The report, published Wednesday, claims Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and head of Internet services Eddy Cue in February to talk about Beats' new music subscription service.
While it has long been rumored that Apple is considering its own subscription music service, it doesn't appear that Apple is trying to partner with Beats. Rather, the meeting was reportedly "informational," with the Apple executives interested in learning about the rollout plans and business model. According to Reuters, no deal was discussed during the February meeting.
So what, exactly, is the fuss if the two companies aren't working together yet? Iovine claims to have pitched Steve Jobs on a subscription music service 10 years ago, but Apple wasn't ready to pay enough to the music labels at that time. Apple executives Cook and Cue may be picking Iovine's brain in preparation for a future offering from Apple.
Rumors about a subscription/streaming service from Apple date back to at least 2007, but they have popped up more and more frequently as of late. The most recent news on this front came from Bloomberg, which claimed Apple might launch a Pandora-like service in the first three months of 2013. That obviously hasn't happened yet, so it's a reasonable assumption that Apple is still trying to work out the details. If the company gets lucky with licensing deals this year, perhaps we'll hear more about it during Apple's fall media event, which typically focuses on iPods and music.
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