Every few days rumors are published about the impending launch of Beats Music. We know it will be soon. We’ve heard that there will be a subscription component — possibly all-subscription, like Rhapsody and Google All Access.
We don’t know whether Beats Music will be any good. Well, it’ll be good. We don’t know whether it will be a standout in the crowded field Beats is entering. The service will launch within months, and The Next Web reports that The Echo Nest is involved in creating the recommendation engine. Echo Nest is the tech company that white-labels Internet radio curation for Rhapsody, Spotify, and other leading brands.
Luke Wood, Beats Music president, has promised an acutely personalized and expertly curated listening environment. All the lean-forward platforms promise that, and honestly, delivery on that promise is pretty good. Pandora has some extra mojo for many listeners, but iTunes Radio, Spotify, Rdio — they all produce a customized Internet radio experience across a huge catalog that was unthinkable not too many years ago.
So the question isn’t when Beats will come to market, or whether it will be personalized. The question is whether the product development truly contains innovations that will set Beats apart from the pack. Because inducing users to stick around after the trial period is getting increasingly difficult.