'Industry Scuttlebutt' Hints Apple May Be Planning February Revamp for Beats Music

beatsApple might be planning to unveil both its revamped music subscription service and its new branding alongside the upcoming 2015 Grammy Awards, reports Re/code, citing some "industry scuttlebutt."

When will Apple show off the new version of its subscription service and its new brand? Here's a guess backed up by some industry scuttlebutt: February -- presumably timed to the Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 8.

News of an upcoming rebrand first surfaced yesterday, after TechCrunch reported that Apple would be shutting down Beats Music. An Apple representative quickly refuted the claim saying it was "not true." Re/code went on to suggest that while Apple won't be shuttering Beats Music, the company may have plans to "modify it over time," changing the brand name.

Apple first acquired Beats Music back in May, and at the time, announced plans to leave the service untouched. There were no plans to integrate Beats Music into iTunes, with the company suggesting the streaming music service would remain as a standalone product. Beats Music was largely seen as Apple's answer to popular services like Spotify, aimed at improving declining music sales.

In recent weeks, Apple has made quite an effort to promote Beats Music, adding it to the list of "Apps Made by Apple" and recommending the app to new iOS users. Apple also added a Beats Music channel to the Apple TV last week alongside the release of iOS 8.

Thus far, there is no word on what Apple is planning for Beats Music, but a source at TechCrunch has suggested that Apple might roll the streaming music functionality into iTunes.

Popular Stories

hikawa phone grip stand apple%402x

Apple Launches Second Limited-Edition iPhone Accessory in a Month

Friday November 21, 2025 3:53 am PST by
Apple has begun selling the Hikawa Phone Grip and Stand, a new limited-edition iPhone accessory designed with accessibility in mind. Designed by LA-based Bailey Hikawa to celebrate the 40th anniversary of accessibility at Apple, the grip uses magnets to securely snap onto any iPhone with MagSafe. Apple says it can be removed with ease, and doubles as a stand with two different viewing...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...
Apple Shopping Event 2025

Apple Announces 2025 Black Friday Event, Here's What You Can Get

Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others. During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Two Breakthrough Features

Wednesday November 19, 2025 7:26 am PST by
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include two standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
General Black Friday Deals 25 Red

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
ipad black friday 2025

The Best Early Black Friday iPad Deals

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:20 am PST by
Black Friday is just over a week away, and iPad deals have finally started to flood in at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. Below we're tracking discounts on every current generation iPad, including lowest-ever prices on M3 iPad Air and M5 iPad Pro, plus steep markdowns on iPad and iPad mini. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a ...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Wednesday November 19, 2025 4:00 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...

Top Rated Comments

camnchar Avatar
146 months ago
"Industry scuttlebutt" -- my favorite source.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PatriotInvasion Avatar
146 months ago
Anyone else notice that the Apple Watch OS home screen looks strikingly similar to the Beats Music setup layout?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jfischer Avatar
146 months ago
Not scuttlebutt again! Ruining everything!

You're thinking of Scuzzlebutt.

Scuzzlebutt is a basket-weaving monster who lives on top of a mountain in South Park. He has a piece of celery as an arm and Patrick Duffy as a leg.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ValSalva Avatar
146 months ago
Will we get another free U2 album?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mr666 Avatar
146 months ago
The danger in "re-branding" is that people who were already a bit confused are then totally unable to get their heads around the choices for "multi-media", as it was once called, or "A-V" if we go back 50 years.

Right now, new Mac OS users are confused as to why iTunes categorizes and plays movies, QuickTime plays but doesn't categorize movies, and iPhoto categorizes but doesn't play movies. Add to that the annoyance that iMovie is really i-Create-Movie-Projects, not a full tilt app for everything about movies, and you have a tangled mess. One app strictly for movies and one strictly for music would settle the dust a bit, and ensure that new users don't throw up their hands and go right back to Windows. The syncing of all data (contacts, email, music, movies, photos, etc.) should be handled by one centralized app, not by iTunes or anything else. The problem would be what to call an "i" app that is dedicated to sync..... hmmm... wait a moment. I sync I know the answer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISync
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
3282868 Avatar
146 months ago
But for those who sync their iPhone and iPad content (apps, contacts, calendars, etc.) through iTunes... are they going to be told to sync their iPhone to "Music"?

The iTunes application on OSX is a very beefy app that does A LOT of things. For better or worse, stuff just kept getting added over the years.
Revamp "iSync", it's there, has been well before the iPhone as a conduit for syncing Contacts, Calendars, etc. in OS X with non-Apple devices.

A lot of us at Apple agree, iTunes should be "stripped down" to music. iBooks has its own bookstore, iMovie could handle Movie and Television purchases, the OS X App Store could bridge with iOS App's, allowing iSync to handle syncing.

For those of us using iTunes 12 beta, notice how this is halfway achieved? Each store is now accessed by the category you are in, that is you cannot access the Movie Store if you're in the Music section in iTunes.

The only issue would be non-OS X systems, and that is why Apple has not changed iTunes. Engineers would have to create MS counterparts for iMovie, iBooks, App's, etc. unless they leave iTunes for Windows untouched (which they could).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)