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Beats responds to sign-up delays, Ek responds to Beats

By | Published on Friday 24 January 2014

Beats Music

So, in amongst all the ripe hype online surrounding the US launch of the Beats Music streaming service on Tuesday was the customary flutter of Twitter gripes from some users who were struggling to get into the new digital set up, or having trouble getting the new app-based platform to work.

But that, Beats insists, was simply due to the high level of interest in streaming music’s latest arrival. As some users reported a wobbly service within the app, Beats initiated a stagger system for allowing newcomers into the platform, which was probably behind most of the reports on the social networks of users not being able to get in.

Beats Music boss Ian Rogers told USA Today: “We were able to still register people, so we don’t turn them away at the door. We just don’t put them into the main service so they don’t have a bad experience. And then we can email them after and say ‘All right, come on in'”.

Presumably keen to placate those who’ve had to queue outside the virtual Beats club, the streaming service has confirmed that anyone who signed up for the free seven day trial this week will actually get fourteen days of Beats goodness gratis, before the premium-only streaming set-up demands some quality dollars.

Elsewhere in streaming music, Spotify top geezer Daniel Ek has been asked about the arrival of a high-hype new competitor in the US market and, ultimately, beyond. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Ek was pragmatic, conceding that Beats Music was a significant new competitor, but also suggesting that such a high profile new entrant into the market could be good for streaming music in general, making the majority of consumers yet to embrace such services at all aware of what a fully on-demand online music platform offers. Especially in the US where Pandora-style streaming services still dominate.

Which is all fine, suitably sporting and rather sensible. Though he did manage to get a little dig into his quote too. So well done Dan. Said Ek: “It’s a competitor, for sure, but my way of looking at it is, if it gets people to understand the value of streaming, it is ultimately good. Our way of doing this is not just slapping some celebrity brand on it and hoping it will be good. We are a social service; we are a product company. People have tried to put a brand on it and thought that’s enough, and they have failed: Microsoft, Nokia – many big companies”.



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