It’s been a while in the making but Beats Music, the subscription streaming audio service from Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, is finally launching. The service will go live on January 21 for Android, iOS, Windows and the web starting at $9.99 per month for individual plans.
Beats Music is hoping to differentiate itself among other streaming outfits by helping listeners find exactly what they want to hear at any given time. Ian Rogers, the chief executive of Beats Music, believes that most streaming services fail because they rely too heavily on algorithms to build playlists and they are built by people that don’t fully understand music.
Beats uses algorithms as well but they also rely on their editors and guest programmers to help shape playlists. Guests like Rap Radar, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork weed out the crap and leave only the good stuff, Rogers noted.
One key feature is called Right Now, which allows users to fill in the blanks of a sentence based on their mood and the type of music they want to hear. It sounds a lot like Songza’s “situations” in its description, but we’ll have to wait to get our hands on the final version before drawing any solid conclusions.
AT&T customers will have access to an exclusive family plan that will let up to five users stream to 10 devices in total for just $14.99 per month. What’s more, those on AT&T can try the service free for 30 days (up to 90 days for families) while non-AT&T users are limited to a 7-day free trial. It’s worth pointing out that there is no free tier like you’d find on other services.
