Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

New report reveals Apple’s big music plans at WWDC 2015

Published May 5th, 2015 4:18PM EDT
Apple WWDC 2015 iTunes Radio Beats Music

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

It’s looking more and more like Apple is going to use WWDC 2015 to reestablish its dominance over the music industry. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman has a big new report outlining Apple’s big music-related announcements for this year’s big developers conference that will include not just the relaunch of Beats Music to take on Spotify but a revamp of the oft-maligned iTunes Radio to take on Pandora.

RELATED: If Apple kills free Spotify streaming, it will make Beats Music even more hated than Tidal

Gurman’s sources claim that the new Beats Music service will roll out “a few weeks after” it’s unveiled at WWDC in June and via the final versions of iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2. The first two betas of iOS 8.4 have mostly been to help Apple test out the new music service’s functionality.

When it comes to iTunes Radio, Apple will also allow users to skip an unlimited number of songs on the new service, but only as part of the paid bundle.

While Apple had hoped iTunes Radio would be a worthy Pandora rival when it came out a couple of years ago, it’s so far proven to be better at frustrating its users than delivering good song recommendations. With both Pandora and Spotify raking in money, however, Apple has decided to move more aggressively against the two big music apps both through revamping iTunes Radio and relaunching Beats Music. Whether Apple’s moves will actually help it regain its hold on the music industry is still very much an open question.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.