Rumor: Apple is closing doors Beats Music streaming service

Apple plans to discontinue music streaming service Beats Music, TechCrunch claims based on information from multiple sources. Apple doesn’t seem to want to run a music service alongside its own iTunes service.

Five employees from Apple and Beats informed TechCrunch that the plug will be pulled from Beats Music. After the acquisition of Beats by Apple at the end of May, the question was already what would happen to that streaming branch. If Beats Music is indeed shutting down, it appears that the acquisition was aimed at bringing in Beats executives Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, with their contacts within the music industry, and on acquiring the headphone business.

In addition, Apple may be integrating its streaming service teams into its own iTunes business. Some developers of Beats Music are said to have already started working there and the former CEO is now working on iTunes Radio.

After the takeover, it remained quiet around Beats Music. The service also played no role in the announcement of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. Apple would like to focus on its own iTunes service, which has 800 million users. Beats Music came relatively late compared to alternatives like Spotify and Pandora and had 250,000 paid users at the time of the acquisition.

Update, Tuesday: Apple has informed that the Beats Music shutdown report is incorrect. According to Re/code, Apple is considering giving the streaming service a different name than Beats Music.