Beats Music launches today with more than 20 million songs and a pitch built around a familiar problem: Having access to nearly everything does not make deciding what to play any easier.
The subscription service comes from Beats Electronics co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, along with company president Luke Wood, Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who serves as chief creative officer.
Rather than compete only on catalog size, Beats Music is emphasizing recommendations assembled by music programmers, writers, DJs and other human curators.
Algorithms will still help personalize the results. However, the company believes knowledgeable people can provide context and sequencing that an enormous digital library often lacks.
“It takes a highly curated, uninterrupted sequence of songs to achieve a fulfilling music experience,” Iovine said, “where the only song as important as the song you are listening to is the song that comes next.”
That philosophy places Beats Music somewhere between an on-demand library and the carefully constructed mixtape a friend made after deciding your taste needed professional intervention.
Beats Music Puts Human Curation First
The service’s primary recommendation screen, “Just for You,” will deliver personalized albums and playlists several times each day.
Those recommendations will draw from listening preferences, activity, time and other contextual information.
Its most unusual feature is “The Sentence.” Listeners complete a Mad Lib-style statement describing where they are, what they are doing, who they are with and what kind of music they want.
Beats Music then turns those answers into a continuous playlist.
Additional sections include “Highlights,” featuring recommendations from the company’s editorial staff, and “Find It,” which lets users browse by genre, activity or curator.
The curation team includes former Pitchfork editor-in-chief Scott Plagenhoef, hip-hop editor Carl Chery, country writer Ken Tucker and radio programmers from several markets.
Outside partners including Pitchfork and Rolling Stone will also contribute playlists.
AT&T Gives Beats Music a Family Plan
The basic subscription costs $9.99 per month and includes ad-free streaming and offline listening. Apps are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, along with a browser-based version.
Beats has also secured an exclusive wireless partnership with AT&T.
Customers with qualifying multiline accounts can pay $14.99 per month for access by as many as five family members across 10 devices.
The family offer includes a 90-day trial. Eligible individual AT&T subscribers receive 30 days free.
That family plan may become one of the service’s strongest advantages. Most subscription platforms charge close to the full individual rate for each listener, which can make legal household sharing expensive.
Target Brings Streaming Into Stores
Target will serve as a retail partner, selling Beats Music gift cards and helping give the digital service a physical presence in stores.
The arrangement also gives listeners another way to pay without attaching a recurring subscription directly to a credit card.
Beats Music is also promoting flat royalty rates across its catalog rather than differentiating between artists based on stature.
“Beats Music is based on the belief that all music has value and this concept was instilled in every step of its development,” Reznor said. “We want it to be just as meaningful for artists as it is for fans.”
Access Is No Longer the Only Streaming Problem
None of this guarantees listeners will abandon Spotify, Pandora, Rdio or the other services already competing for their monthly subscription.
Beats Music is entering late and charging roughly the same price as several established rivals.
Its argument is that access was only the first streaming problem.
The next one is helping listeners find something worth hearing before they give up and play the same album again.