Airplanes are becoming more like electronics retail stores, where you can try things out before you buy them. The latest example is Southwest Airlines, which will allow passengers to test-drive Apple’s Beats Music for free on its aircraft equipped with an Internet connection.
Southwest said that starting on Monday, people flying Southwest with tablets and smartphones could use Beats Music free over its in-flight Wi-Fi network.
When passengers first connect and open a web browser, Southwest’s webpage will show a prominent Beats Music button. From there, Beats will ask some questions about the listener’s location, mood and musical preferences to make a playlist automatically.
After three songs, Beats will ask for the passenger’s email address to keep listening. From there, passengers will probably receive some emails from Beats Music including more information about signing up for the service, according to a Southwest spokeswoman.
Airplanes are becoming sort of a venue for tech and mobile companies to promote new products and services. T-Mobile US recently announced a partnership with Gogo, a provider of in-flight Wi-Fi, to offer T-Mobile subscribers access to free messaging services and voice mail over the Wi-Fi network.
Apple’s partnership with Southwest is not necessarily an example of what Apple has in store for Beats. Southwest had been in talks about a partnership with Beats a year ago, well before Apple acquired the company, according to Southwest.
The $3 billion purchase of Beats was Apple’s biggest acquisition ever, but Apple has been relatively mum about its plans for the music-streaming service. The Beats Music app was not included on the latest iPhones, nor did it appear anywhere on the Apple Watch that Apple recently introduced. Rumors abound that Apple plans to discontinue the Beats Music brand and make the streaming service part of iTunes.