5 things to know about Apple’s duet with Beats

Published May 29, 2014 1:37pm ET



CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook looked like he wanted to dance Wednesday as he discussed his company’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics. The deal, by far the most expensive in Apple’s 38-year history, will give the iPhone and iPod maker a line of trendy headphones known for their hip appearance and thumping bass sound.

But Cook seems most excited about the potential of Beat’s still nascent music-streaming service, which currently has more than 250,000 subscribers. That’s paltry compared to the more than 10 million people subscribing to Spotify’s rival streaming service, Cook is confident that will change once Beats has access to the data that Apple Inc. has accumulated while selling more than 35 billion songs to more than 800 million iTunes accounts during the past 13 years.

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