With sales in Apple’s iTunes Store down 13% in 2014, Apple is reportedly moving forward on their plans to revamp and rebrand their recently acquired Beats Music service.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that sales from Apple’s iTunes Store have fallen between 13 and 14 percent so far this year. That’s much worse than last year, when global revenue from music downloads fell 2.1 percent.
The report also repeated an earlier rumor that Apple is looking to lose the Beats Music branding for the streaming music service, and will instead repackage the service as a part of its current iTunes offerings. The WSJ indicates Apple will relaunch a completely rebuilt Beats Music next year, and it will be integrated into iTunes.
The news closely follows an earlier rumor that claimed Apple is negotiating with record companies to cut the price of its music subscription service to $5 per month. Beats Music currently runs subscribers $9.99 per month, or $99.99 for a full year.
As sales of downloaded music tracks continue to decline, music streaming services have become increasingly important as a source of revenue for the record labels.
