Apple Inc. (AAPL) is preparing to reboot its music streaming business, according to Bloomberg.
The news agency reported that Apple will announce a thorough makeover of its service at its upcoming developers’ conference in June, hoping to revive a business after a difficult year in which some key executives, such as former Beats CEO Ian Rogers, have left the company.
It’s not like Apple Music is completely at a standstill: it now has 13 million paying customers after adding 2 million new users between February and the end of April, the company said on the analyst call after quarterly earnings last week. But its main rival Spotify is reportedly still far ahead of it with an estimated 30 million paying subscribers
Bloomberg suggested that the view within the company is that its music business is proving to be less than the sum of their parts: it bought streaming service Beats two years ago to complement its download-focused iTunes business, launching Apple Music in June last year. Bloomberg said that combining the best parts of both businesses has been a tricky process, and cited concerns that the quality of the customer interface is falling short of the high standards that Apple usually holds itself to.
Bloomberg’s sources said the company wants to do more to integrate its streaming service with iTunes and make the customer interface more intuitive to use. It also wants to expand its online radio service.
Revenues from streaming overtook downloads in the U.S. for the first time last year.
