I Signed Up for Dr. Dre’s Beats Music, Should You? Posted by Lucas G. on 01/21/14 | Filed under Top Stories, Opinion, Dr. Dre, Technology

Something new from Dr. Dre! I repeat something new from Dr. Dre! Don't be stupid, it's not Detox (haven't you learned by now?) but another big step for his Beats By Dre brand. Following the trailblazer Pandora, Spotify, and iTunes radio, Beats By Dre just released Beats Music, Dre's version of pay-for-stream radio. I could spend this into highlighting all the features, or I could just let the press release do the work:

“Beats Music combines the emotion only a human created playlist can give you with the best personalization technology can deliver,” said Ian Rogers, Beats Music CEO. “With this you get not just the music experience only a talented DJ or music expert can deliver, but also the right one for you right now.”

HOT 97 and Power 106 join some of the biggest brands in music, including Rolling Stone and Pitchfork, and all major record labels to contribute more than 20 million songs for users to choose from to create their own personal listening experiences. Through extensive research and studying music trends, HOT 97 has created amazing playlists for music lovers to enjoy. Beginning January 21, 2014, Beats Music will be available on all iOS, Android and Windows phones, as well as online, for a $9.99 monthly subscription fee.

Well, that sounds pretty fucking epic, but anyone who has bought a McDonald's burger knows that they always make it sound and seem much better than the actual product. Is that the case with Beats Music? That's what I am here to figure out. Now before we start it should be noted I am not a big music streaming guy. I am constantly changing what songs go on my iPhone and always have something I like; only in the rarest of rare moments, when I need a change up, do I pop on Pandora or Spotify (but quickly run out of skips). So honestly, I could never, nor would I, spend $120 bucks on Beats Music because I would use it like 10 times the whole year. They are however giving a free trial, so I downloaded and did a quick run through to see if it was actually worth it for all those streamers out there. So, was it?

Well, not really, no. There were some positives, but I found myself thinking, "why would I pay for this when Pandora does it better for free" over and over again. Now, to be fair, Beats Music does some things Pandora doesn't. First, you have unlimited skips; this was actually a nice one (especially since the selected songs kind of sucked but I'll get to that later). Now I think with Pandora, you get unlimited skips if you pay, but for us free users, those skips are a precious commodity. That feeling when you are halfway through a song and want a new one but don't want to waste a skip is gone, and so too is that "I wish I could hear it again" feeling because Beats also has a back button so you can replay any song.

Also, perhaps the best feature of Beat Music are the playlists/albums. At the "highlights" section, there are a bunch of playlists and albums available for stream that are based on stuff you like. So for example, I could listen to Dre produced cuts (a playlist) or B.I.G's Ready To Die in full. I'm still learning the system, but it looks like you can follow and have followers which (I'm assuming) means you can also listen to other peoples playlists; just another way to get more streaming music. The design is interesting and user friendly and the concept is neat, but overall, I kept finding myself thinking "something doesn't feel right".

I think my main problem with Beats is that the music selection (and process to make a station) seems a bit arbitrary. Instead of picking a song or artist, Beats has you make a sentence with a few interchangeable parts. So the sentence reads, "I am at [my computer, my bed, home, work, gym, beach, subway, party, shower]  & feel like [ dancing, kicking back, starting a riot, getting it on, cleaning, being blue] with [myself, my family, strangers, my boo. my inner child, my friends] to [genre]". From that sentence they then customize a playlist for you. It sounds great in theory, but other than the kind of music you listen to, I wonder how much these specifics really matter. It seems like they only pick the music based on that last, music oriented, theme. How does "at subway" or "at the beach" really effect the music? I found that you could only change the type of song by changing the genre and the location; mood or people had no effect.

Also, even though they have 20 million songs, there doesn't seem to be alot of diversity. I chose "hardcore hip-hop" and got Ja Rule's "Down Ass Bitch" featuring Ashanti; in what world is Ja Rule and Ashanti hardcore hip-hop? I also got about six 50 Cent songs which is more than frustrating; seriously, it seemed like every other song was from Fiddy. I love Pandora because they show you shit you might not know about, but it seems like Beats keeps the list pretty standard; I don't need to pay $120 for someone to tell me about Murder Inc. There was rarely a song I didn't know or hadn't heard, and to me that is the biggest failing. If you are going to release a service similar to another, already established identity, you have to do it better.

Bottom line, while Beats Music might be trendy and have some big names attached, in the end, it just doesn't seem worth your money. Pandora only costs like $36 a year and Beats Music will set you back $120 a year, and in no way, shape or form is Beats three times better than Pandora.

There is no question that this kind of service is the future of music but right now, none of the services offered by Beats Music makes it a must have. You have one of the most popular, recognizable brands out there today and creating a Pandora knock-off seems like a waste; instead of trying to catch up to the game Beats Music should look to change it. I'll probably mess around with it, as the free trial is seven days, but unless I really start discovering some incentives, once they ask me for money I'm gone. Bottom line, it just isn't worth the price.

CHECK OUT BEATS MUSIC FOR YOURSELF 

Note: If you do decide to check it out, look for the RefinedHype playlist. Not sure how or where to find it, but it's out there.

RefinedHype has merged with The DJBooth. It's the same articles you loved on RefinedHype, new address. For more info, check out the official announcement.