On January 21st, Beats Music will arrive on iOS, Android, Windows, and the web for a $9.99 monthly subscription. The service, originally known as Daisy, uses a combination of algorithms and human curation to suggest songs, and claims to have a staff of music experts “hand-selecting your playlists while you stream.” The company’s betting that curation will set Beats Music apart from the music streaming competition, like Spotify and Rdio, and it’s not alone in that bet as AT&T has an exclusive partnership with Beats Music for a special $14.99 a month family plan.
Jimmy Iovine, whose career as a recording engineer, producer and music executive stretches from John Lennon to Lady Gaga, was proudly showing off some of his hits one afternoon last month at a boutique recording studio here. He passed through rooms where Eminem and Gwen Stefani made records and pointed to the console on which Dr. Dre recorded his landmark 1992 album, “The Chronic.” The studio walls were crammed with pictures of Steve Jobs, Bono and other celebrities sampling the bass-heavy Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, which — at up to $450 apiece — have become a billion-dollar success story.