Apple Inc. will march to the beat of its new streaming service. The company will officially shut down Beats Music on Nov. 30 after launching Apple Music on Android earlier this week.
The company is encouraging Beats subscribers to switch over to Apple Music before Beats goes offline.
“Your subscription will be cancelled, but you can move your picks and preferences over to Apple Music right now,” the company wrote in a blog post. “All the pros that curated music for you are still crafting more amazing experiences. Plus, on Apple Music, you’ll get even better recommendations based on music you already listen to and love, 24/7 global radio with Beats 1, exciting material from your favorite artist, and more.”
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Beats began its slow decline in June when Apple stopped taking on new subscribers after the Apple Music iOS launch.
The company is reassuring Beats subscribers that migrating their content between services should be simple and they will receive the same features, plus access to an expanded catalog and unlimited radio.
There has been some question as to whether music listeners would pay for Apple’s service once their free trial of Apple Music ended or switch over to Spotify. Apple Music currently has 6.5 million paying subscribers four months after its launch, which makes it the second most popular music streaming service behind Spotify’s 20 million paying customers. And remember, the service just launched on Android, the most popular operating system in the world.
However, Android studies have shown Android users are less likely to purchase apps and subscriptions than iOS users. The $9.99 Apple Music subscription fee may be too steep for those listening to Spotify’s freemium service, which has interruptions for ads.
Apple Music has also come under fire for not being as social as Spotify. Apple Music’s Connect was supposed to be a combination of Twitter, Instagram and SoundCloud, where artists, DJs and tastemakers could post status updates, photos, videos and even full songs. But few artists are participating on Connect. Of those who do, many simply repurpose content from other social media channels.
Users also complain that Apple Music lags behind when it comes to sharing playlists with friends, favoring lists by media partners and expert curators.
With YouTube entering the streaming music market this week, Apple has another stiff competitor in addition to Spotify, Deezer, Google Play All Access and other streaming services.