Beats Music Launches

The day is here: we now have a big third competitor in the streaming music market. Beats Music launched today, and its take on streaming music is a $9.99/month service. But whether it can take on Spotify – which boasts more than 24 million monthly users – and Pandora might take more than just a “better service.” To push Beats music to the fore there will have to be some meaty marketing moves; users are mostly already entrenched in the Pandora/Spotify market, not to mention other options like Rdio, Google Play, iTunes Radio, and to pry them out of it will take some serious incentives. Beats won’t have a free tier after a 7-day trial, so it’s counting on users signing up. It’s a big ask; taking on this many established players at once is a bold move. But the wide reach of the headphones and brand name might just be enough to give Beats a leg up in the initial phases of development.