Beats Music is here, though not after a little lollygagging. The new music streaming service from the headphone-maker now has an iOS app on the Apple App Store as well as an Android app in Google Play.
The new Spotify-baiting service was only available on the US app outlet to start, but its Android equivalent made an appearance shortly thereafter. We're assured it will be hitting the Windows Phone marketplace before long.
Update, January 30: A week after initial launch, the Beats Music app has found its way to the Windows Phone Store.
Boasting a music library of around 20 million songs, Dre's Beats Music will set you back $9.99 a month after a free seven day trial. The company is yet to confirm international pricing, although we'd expect it to follow Spotify's lead and hit £9.99 in the UK and $11.99 in Australia.
Last night a DJ saved my life
Beats' big thing is using your phone to deliver expert curation and personalised music discovery - basically your Beats headphones want to be your own personal DJ.
An introductory blog post explains, "A great DJ picks the right song and knows the only thing more important than the song playing right now is the song that comes next. A great DJ gets bored before you do and knows when to switch gears to keep you listening."
The gang behind the app can't remember a "robot" ever found them "magic" rather than obvious choices ("You like Pantera? Have you heard of Black Sabbath?").
The result is a mix of music experts from across the music media and interrogative questions to work out what of these expert picks are right for you right now.
Sentencing
As well as highlights, genre options and creating your own playlists, there's also a cool 'sentence' feature which is a bit like that game consequences but instead of an hilarious story you theoretically end up with the perfect playlist for your situation.
You fill in the blanks in "The Sentence": I'm [somewhere] and feel like [doing something] with [someone] to [genre]. Then hit play for an infinite playlist.
Spotify has been busily preparing for this new player in the music streaming game - it has removed all restrictions on its free service so you can listen online or on your phone for free for as long as you like, and yesterday hit the go button on bands selling their merch commission-free through the Spotify interface.
- Worried? Spotify? Never. We'll bring you an indepth comparison of the two services very soon - in the meantime, here's what Beats Music is up against.
