After acquiring Beats a while ago, Apple seem ready to clarify what they want to do with it: create a streaming service to compete with Spotify.

The Apple specialists 9to5 Mac report that Apple is moving forward with a project to release a new, paid streaming service to compete with Spotify, all based around the contents and technology acquired when they bought Beats. The idea is not to just release an app, but to “deeply integrate Beats” into the iOS instead, making it a part of it as much as iTunes or Apple TV are. The price of this service will be $7.99 per month, cheaper than Spotify but more expensive than Pandora. It might be introduced next June, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, although if Apple really decides to go all-out it might end up having its own event.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the end of iTunes as we know it, and users will still be able to do everything they’ve been able to do with it so far. This just means Apple will have its own streaming service, something Steve Jobs had long criticized, but the company is now willing to explore with him out of the way.

So far, Apple had had iTunes Radio bundled along with the iTunes app, but this service didn’t really manage to compete with Pandora and Spotify, yet releasing their own service and make it an integral part of iOS might be the real thing, and Apple finally deciding to make a stand.

Via CNET

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