APPLE/BEATS SERVICE ON THE WAY?

According a report in 9 to 5 Mac, Apple is working with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's recently acquired Beats to prepare a new version of the Beats Music streaming service that will be a potent competitor to Spotify. The piece suggests it could be online by June.

The project leader is reputedly iTunes VP Robert Kondrk; Beats execs Iovine, CEO Ian Rogers and creative exec Trent Reznor are all said to be working closely on its rollout.

The quality of Beats "curation" and Apple's legendary functionality and aesthetics, combined with what is likely to be a massive marketing rollout, will likely represent the biggest threat to date to Spotify's standing in the subscription space.

The new subscription service, which will be "deeply integrated" into the iOS mobile system, iTunes store and Apple TV, will be priced at $7.99 per month and will be redesigned by Apple. It doesn't have a name yet, but we're pretty sure it won't be called Daisy.

The cloud-heavy system will integrate streaming with users' libraries, with search functions uniting the download and stream worlds. Beats' much-touted curation, which has earned it a lot of fans among stone music geeks (including several in this office), will integrate playlists into a wider swath of its ecosystem.

Existing Beats users will be able to merge their accounts with their Apple and iTunes IDs and move their current libraries to the new services. The report says iTunes Match, iTuens Radio and the iTunes store will remain as they are.

The service will continue to be available to Android users as well as those in the iOS camp.