Apple isn't shutting down Beats Music, Apple says

Contrary to an article published earlier today by TechCrunch, Apple told VentureBeat it will not shut down streaming music service Beats Music.

Beats Music is the on-demand streaming service Apple acquired as part of its $3 billion purchase of Beats Audio back in May. Since the acquisition, fans have been speculating that Apple could eventually rebrand the service under the much more popular iTunes, but a full shutdown would be very unexpected.

Apple corporate communications lead Tom Neumayr told VentureBeat that TechCrunch’s report was “not true,” but declined to elaborate. What is known is that Apple is definitely not planning to shut down Beats Music.

As for how Beats Music might evolve over the next year, it seems pretty reasonable to assume the streaming service will soon integrate more heavily with iTunes and Apple’s other music projects. One of those could even be the little-known project the company is working on alongside U2, as VentureBeat previously reported.

But Beats Music itself is already beginning to align itself with iTunes, as evident last month when Apple charged Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers with heading up Apple’s ad-supported iTunes Radio service.