Apple plans to push Beats to every iPhone from 2015

Apple will incorporate the subscription music service it acquired from Beats into its iOS operating system early 2015, thus making it available on hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads.

The move could increase the pressure on Spotify, the market leader in music streaming and it will also be Apple’s first major leap into the subscription music industry at a time when iTunes downloads are in decline.

According to sources cited by the Financial Times, the inclusion of the Beats service into an Ios software update could be introduced as early as March.

Apple purchased Beats’ headphones and music apps for $3bn in May, in a bid to re-establish itself as a leader in digital music, which has fallen as iPod sales and iTunes downloads have declined.

The firm’s new Beats service will operate on a paid subscription model and will form part of Apple’s new music plan, which will include downloads and iTunes Radio in a bid to challenge Spotify, Pandora and Soundcloud.

Spotify’s paid streaming service has over 10m subscribers and the firm has agreed deals to bundle its app on HTC phones and on phones operate by telecom companies such as Vodafone and Spring, though Apple’s huge customer base could give the California-based company an advantage.