As reported on Engadget.
By Sharif Sakr
Excuse us, but we find it hard to swallow some of the hype that swirls around theBeats brand. That sounds harsh, maybe, but it’s borne out of experience. Anyway, we do trust Reuters, and that outlet claims to have it on good authority that Beats is “in talks” with Apple over a partnership involving the forthcoming Daisy music-streaming service that was formerly MOG. The word is that Tim Cook attended an “informational” meeting with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine and “expressed interest” in his business model — whatever that is — and that Apple’s head of Internet products, Eddy Cue, was also present.
In news that is very much related, Beats has also revealed that it’s managed to generate enough buzz around the $12 million acquisition of MOG to raise a further $60 million in investment to help it to launch the rebranded and hopefully expanded service as a separate entity later this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the newcomer plans to tackle the already-entrenched competition, possibly with curated playlists and other MySpace-style ideas, and we’re fully prepared to eat our skeptics’ hats if it succeeds.