Beats Music, founded by legendary producer Jimmy Iovine, rapper Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, is set to become available in the United States come Jan. 21. Beats Music will be a streaming music service that only asks for a measly $10 per month and will offer the listener essentially any music they could possibly want. According to an article published by the New York Times, the service is described as the following:
"On its surface, Beats Music — which has $60 million in investment behind it and is an affiliate of Beats Electronics, the headphone company — is not radically different from Spotify, Rhapsody or any of the dozens of other music apps already out there. For $10 a month, it offers access to practically all the recorded music under the sun, with playlists galore to keep its customers tuned in. Since it has licensing deals with the same record labels as its competitors, it essentially has the same music, too.
Instead of being a mere utility for music, though, Beats comes across as more a digital playground, or maybe a nightclub. Its interface, built primarily for mobile use, is full of sleek graphics over a jet-black background, and it is organized in four swipe-able panes that each deliver a constant feed of fresh songs in different ways, tailored to each user.
The idea is that bold visual appeal and the expertise of its programmers (or “curators,” in its preferred buzzspeak), in serving up just the right song or playlist, will create excitement among the millions of listeners who have been unseduced — or just confused — by streaming music."
The interesting thing about the service that sets it apart from other streaming services is its' ability to determine what you'll like using their editors and guest programmers along with your profile information and listening habits, according to the article. I love that they thought this through because I cannot even verbalize how many times I've flipped on Pandora and used up all my skips almost immediately because it had no idea what the hell to choose for me despite having used the service for quite some time. The article also goes on to say Reznor came up with some kind of interactive listening game called Right Now:
"A byproduct of that concept is Right Now, which in prototype was tantalizingly called 'the sentence.' In it, a user generates an ad hoc playlist by completing a musical status update with four variables: a place, an activity, a person and a genre of music. 'I’m at the beach & feel like pre-partying with my friends to dance-pop,' for example, yields the Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga and Janet Jackson. Not bad."
Whoa.
Each of these guys have more money then you'll ever see in your lifetime. The Beats crew, rom left, Ian Rogers, Luke Wood, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and the chairmen, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. (photo by Stephanie Diani)
Billboard.com got their hands on a beta version of the program and walks you through the whole process of using it! The first step is opening the app and choosing the genres you like:
"Once it learns which genres you're partial to, Beats serves up a home page, stocked with personalized suggestions. All the albums and playlists on this page is 'blessed by humans,' said Beats Music Chief Executive, Ian Rogers, in an interview with Billboard. 'Someone truly loves that album that's being recommended to you. It's like the Staff Picks endcap at Amoeba Records.'"
The next step is the app getting to know more about you and what you want to hear:
"Beats is using advanced machine learning algorithms to fine-tune what it recommends to individual listeners in its lean-back streaming radio feature. The Right Now tab (bottom left screenshot) is one way it does this. A sort of 'Madlibs for music,' users select where they are, what they're doing, whether they're with friends and what mood they're in. The service then serves up an endless playlist designed to suit those circumstances (bottom right). The radio algorithm is capable of generating 1.5 million customized playlists, Rogers said, many of them adjusted by staff curators. 'We want to give you the right song for right now,' he said."
The next step is essentially surfing around the app and checking out playlists. The cool thing about the playlists is that they're done by "big names" from music websites, labels, radio stations and the like. While you're digging on some jam it's also figuring out what you like and what you don't.
My impression from reading the above information is that Beats Music could be an interesting venture into the world of streaming music. It seems like there was a lot of thought going into not only the layout of the program , but kept the listener in mind throughout the whole thing. Nobody wants to turn on the radio and have to skip through nine or ten songs before finally landing on their jam, only to have to repeat that process ad fucking nauseam for however long it takes for them to get fed up and exit out. I want to turn it on, hear what I want to hear and get introduced to some sick new music I haven't heard yet! That's what it sounds like this is going to be, and pending the whole thing works out I'd gladly pay $10 per month.
