A new gladiator has just arrived in the the music streaming arena and Beats Music has plans on leaving its mark on the music subscription industry. Earlier this week, the much anticipated Beats Music service launched. From the hip-hop artist and impresario Dr. Dre and the chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Jimmy Iovine, Beats By Dre has reinvented the headphone category and they are trying their luck at the much more crowded field of streaming music service. With options like Rdio, Spotify and Pandora – I was eager to try out The Beats Music app and service to see if it’s really worth all the hype. What I discovered was a whole new way to enjoy good music and wrangled down my thoughts to Five reasons why you need to download the Beats Music app now…
1. Easy Listening With A Human Curated Playlist
If you hate logging into your streaming music app and within minutes SKIP, SKIP, SKIP – then a better curated experience is what you need. One of the much talked about features is the notion of curated playlists. Many streaming services use algorithms to determine what similar songs to play – based on sound. However, Beats Music enlists tastemaker curated playlists that suggests music based on how they make you feel. For example, if you only like songs featuring 2Chainz but not a fan of 2Chainz albums – there’s a “2Chainz Guestlist” playlist that archives the hottest songs by your favorite artists featuring 2Chainz on the track. (Which is great, since we all know that featured artists usually put their best foot forward on guest tracks anyways). Beats comes with a host of other tastemaker playlists that gives the option to just listen while someone else does the work.
2. Mobile User Friendly
The first thing you notice about Beats Music is the beautiful design. The navigation is simple and clear, the design templates are brilliantly artful and rich. Unlike Spotify, this is clearly a mobile-first service — and the user experience proves it. Like Spotify you can search for and listen to any album you want. But the Beats mobile app is especially designed to offer myriad ways of browsing, from music offered up based on your history to browsing by an array of genres and activities — if you’re having a party, working out on the treadmill or simply need to thug it out there are hundreds of playlist discoveries on your smartphone just waiting for you.
3. Mad Libs For Music – The Sentence
And then there’s my favorite feature of the app, “The Sentence”. Beats gives you a way to roll the dice and discover music bases on your mood. Remember MAD LIBS – the childhood workbooks of the 80’s? (80’s babies stand up!) By completing a sentence as in: I’m UNDER THE WEATHER and feel like ESCAPING with my FRIENDS to HARDCORE HIP HOP – Based on changing those variables, the app will serve you up hours of music to listen to. I was magically transported to the 90’s classic “Check Yo Self” by Ice Cube. (That’s pretty accurate to me.)
4. A Subscription Worth The Money
Beats Music’s marketing launch officially kicks off today — just two days before the Super Bowl, starring Ellen DeGeneres in an ad to promote the new service. AT&T, which is offering a family plan where up to five people can subscribe for $14.99 a month. The launch was proceeded by a big birthday surprise on Thursday’s episode of “The Ellen Show” where Ellen gave away the new AT&T LG G2 Flex curved smartphone with Beats Music to members of her entire studio audience. The AT&T partnership has put Beats Music in position to gain a huge leg up on competitors, which include Spotify, Rdio and, to an extent, digital radio service Pandora. Everyone else? For $10 a month, you get unlimited streaming and song downloading for offline listening. Downloaded songs expire once you cancel the subscription. You can sign up for a 90-day free trial, but there’s no free, ad-supported version like some of its rivals.
5. Beats Music really has what you need.
If you’re looking for a better curated experience, tailored to your preferences – look no further. The Beats Music app successfully takes the information you enter in order to present you with a variety of albums and playlists that are “Just For You.” You can choose specific songs, albums or artists on your own. Beats Music has launched with a catalog of more than 20 million songs, which is more than it’s competitors at inception and is currently comparable (with expectations to exceed) to its rivals.
Overall, Beats Music is new and has had it’s share of bugs to work through this week (for a moment, Beats Music suspended new subscriptions due to overwhelming demand & technological glitches) but with the stream of technological advances, human programming, celebrity influence and branding power house behind the service – it’s sure to take the streaming subscription service industry to exciting new heights. I’ve never been fully convinced to sign up & pay for a music subscription service, until now. How about you?
Which streaming apps are you currently using? Have you downloaded the new app and taken advantage of the free trial subscription yet?
