Apple and Dr. Dre

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The Financial Times was the first to break the news and say that Apple is negotiating the purchase of Beats Electronics , which was quickly confirmed by sources of Bloomberg , Wall Street Journal and Re/ode. According to these publications, the deal would be watching next week confirmed and close the Apple 's largest acquisition to date , worth 3,200 million.

Immediately, everyone started asking what Apple sees the company founded by the famous rapper Dr. Dre and music producer Jimmy Iovine. Will the flashy music head? Will it streaming music service? What is missing from Apple and it is found in Beats Electronics? For some, it comes to acquiring a company whose profits and generous margins marry perfectly with the business of Apple, others interpret that Apple desperately needs something to patch the drop in music sales on iTunes.

The potential of Beats for Apple

When a company buys another, our part of the brain responsible for imagination takes flight. From buying Beats by Apple confirmed, would be bringing their hardware section:

• Headphones for music: Apple renewed the design of the headphones that come standard with the iPhone and iPod showing the EarPods at the launch of iPhone 5. Apple could exploit the technology and know-how to create Beats external headphone brand that Apple sold separately. 

• Speakers: Beats Pill is a portable speaker that works by bluetooth. Apple tried to enter this field with your iPod Hi-Fi but withdrew the product shortly. It was clear that this was not it thing.

• BeatAudio: few know that Beats has licensed this technology to car brands like Chrysler.  The Chrysler 300S features a premium sound kit technology company. Given that Apple is in full swing with it CarPlay not be strange if they had some kind of integration in mind and presence in our cars in the future. 

Then there is the software part, which has curiously been the least discussed in the beginning, but that seems to be gaining momentum. In Appleismo already talked Beats Music, yet another streaming service for iOS and OS X sucking a piece of cake. Although the business model of Spotify and company continue to generate many questions about its profitability, the fact is that it is removing presence iTunes and Apple does not have a streaming service itself. iTunes Radio and iTunes Match are two services that do not supply this lack in so Apple Beats Music can be very interesting to Cupertino.

Apple is negotiating the purchase of Beats Electronics according to Financial Times

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Apple is agreeing to buy Beats Electronics. The company popular headphones and other audio products that many know for the serie Beats by Dr. Dre. As reported by Financial Times, the deal would be announced next week. There may be details that are not yet closed and could make the talks between the two companies would stop. 

The news is definitely shocking because, unlike in the past, Apple is making a major acquisition in terms of price. $ 3.2 billion would be what it would pay for the purchase. So much money for headphones coloring the sound too much and are overrated?

Well if you think it is just for your headphones obviously yes. But there is an interesting detail. Beats Electronics launched its streaming music service Music Beats. And that may be the key. 

After a round of investment made by the company was valued at over a billion dollars. And although it seems that the numbers are not being as good as many expected, the fact is that Apple may have seen the opportunity to integrate it into iTunes and launch the much anticipated streaming music service that many desire.

In addition Beats Music, according to its creators, has more established rivals feature as Deezer, Rdio or Spotify mainly do not have. We look forward to confirming the purchase. And prepare for new EarPods-Apple-by Dr. Dre.

Spotify, ready to beat iTunes in Europe

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The race to be the best digital music service seems to be changing position. Spotify, according to one of their representatives, would be gaining ground in Europe at the expense of the services offered by iTunes.

Spotify has added more than a million active users in the UK for the past four months. This move is part of its attempt to take control and gain ground on iTunes for the service of the European continent's largest digital music. The benefits of Spotify could have exceeded those of iTunes in Europe.

This was stated in a responsible Sportify in Business Insider recently also explains that the service is growing rapidly, much more than expected for your satisfaction. According to reports, downloads sales are declining in large numbers while Spotify is growing greatly throughout Europe and through iTunes, particularly in the UK. In addition, as indicated by the representative, a large part of the new users are also subscribers Spotify premium service.

Kevin Brown, the source of these claims Spotify has indicated that they do not see iTunes as a true competitor. "Actually," he explained, "the real danger is on Youtube." In addition, Brown has not hesitated to criticize the ability to keep out of Spotify to some artists who have had to date iTunes, although this has not been a real disadvantage, he says. These data come on the eve of an expected launch of iTunes Radio in other parts of the world, but do not know if it will be also for Europe and if this will affect this data.

iTunes Radio. Apple empieza a hacer pruebas en Latinoamérica

iTunes Radio, Apple Inc.

Como ya hablábamos en un post anterior -WWDC2014- iTunes Radio se está preparando para la ampliación a otros países.

De manera oficial, iTunes Radio sólo está disponible en EEUU y Australia. Para poder saltarse las restricciones de localización es posible, ubicar nuestra AppleID en EEUU, pero al parecer en Ecuador el servicio ha aparecido de improvisto. Eso significa que desde Cupertino están probando para seguir ampliando su mercado de música por streaming.

Desde Ecuador se ha comprobado el acceso a iTunes Radio a través de iTunes de escritorio para Mac, pero sin resultados con los dispositivos iOS o el AppleTV. Se trata de un acceso intermitente, originado por las pruebas, como ha pasado ya en Reino Unido, donde se espera para este año el lanzamiento, junto con Canadá.

Por el momento, el uso de iTunes Radio ha aumentado hasta alcanzar una cuota de mercado del 8% en EEUU. Se sitúa ya como tercer servicio de música por streaming relegando al cuarto puesto a Spotify con una cuota del 6% -hablando exclusivamente del mercado Estadounidense_. Por delante quedan Pandora 31% y iHeartRadio 9%.

Quizás veamos un movimiento en las filas alcanzando a iHeartRadio en la próxima Keynote. Reino Unido, es el punto de entrada a Europa, y Ecuador, puede ser un punto de inflexión para la Radio de habla hispana.

También se ha rumoreado la expansión de iTunes Radio a otras plataformas como ya lo hizo iTunes con Windows. ¿Android y Windows serán los próximos objetivos de expansión?

Esperemos poder disfrutar de este servicio en España, a finales de 2014 o principios de 2015. 

¿Vosotros de qué servicio streaming sois?