Apple has filed a trademark and logo protection application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for four Beats radio channels – Beats 2, Beats 3, Beats 4 and Beats 5. The applications were made public yesterday, giving rise to a possibility of Apple adding these channels to its Apple Music library. At present, Apple broadcasts the Beats 1 radio channel on its own music streaming platform, Apple Music. Despite a much-hyped launch, Beats 1 has found users complaining about the channel repeating music too often for their liking, along with only playing Electronic, Hip-Hop and Alternative.
On an average, tracks are repeatedly nearly four times on Beats 1, throttling the variety of tracks that the channel plays. With Apple’s filing for trademark for other Beats Radio channels, Apple Music listeners can hope that there will be a wider variety of tracks on broadcast, and lesser looping of songs from the genres. Presently, Beats 1 is broadcasted out of New York, Los Angeles and London, and plays to 100 nations every day. If the new stations are indeed added to Apple Music’s portfolio, they may also focus on localised music and a wider variety of languages, on top of broadcasting a wider variety of tracks. The new channels may also lead to each channel playing a specific genre of music.
A month earlier, Apple Music completed its entire takeover of Beats, shutting down Beats Music and engulfing its music services in entirety. Existing Beats Music users could import their libraries to Apple Music, which succeeded in presenting almost all of Beats Music’s collection on its own platform. Apple Music has expanded its outreach since launch, rolling out to Android devices and Sonos, lately. Apple’s push in the music streaming has also seen rumours of Apple planning to take on Tidal’s playground in streaming high fidelity, lossless audio.
In a report we published earlier, Apple is testing its Hi-Res music streaming potential, reportedly pushing for audio equipment makers to manufacture platform-specific audio products that will connect to Apple’s devices via the Lightning port. The reason for Apple taking the proprietary route is that, while Hi-Res audio will please the audiophiles, it takes a faster mode of data transfer, seeing that Hi-Res audio will contain more information than normal tracks playing today, and hence, requires a faster connection than the standard port to facilitate uninterrupted and flawless listening.
While both the Hi-Res audio and the new Beats stations are yet to be confirmed for inclusion in Apple Music by Apple, it is probable that Apple may announce these features in the next few months, in light of growing competition in the music streaming industry.