App of the week: Beats Music

“It’s time to reconsider your music-shopping ways,” said The Wall Street Journal. Beats Music is far from the first service to allow users to stream music to any Web device from a vast digital library, but its debut last week should help push a generation of listeners away from the practice of purchasing songs or albums one by one. Developed by Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre, and Trent Reznor, Beats offers users access to a catalog of more than 20 million songs for $10 a month, and its focus is on helping listeners find new music they’ll love, said The New York Times. Unlike rivals Spotify and Rdio, it provides no ad-supported free version of the service. But it taps human expertises to choose which songs listeners will be led to, and it provides clever tools to help users define their preferences. Beats is “at least a fascinating alternative to the pack, said Stereogum.com. “Maybe an improvement too.”