Beats Music Launch Getting Closer

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's Beats "Project Daisy" streaming music service appears to be getting closer to reality. Not only does Beats Music now have a website (although there's nothing on it), but it's hired a number of high profile people as music "curators." It's also openly advertising for engineers and designers.

According to Billboard, among the new hires include:
   Scott Plagenhoef, former Pitchfork Media editor in chief
   Carl Chery, former digital content director at XXL
   Suzy Cole, a radio music director from Detroit
   Arjan Writes, Recording Academy music blogger
   Mason Williams, former Rhino Records A&R director
   Fuzzy Fantabulous, LA hip hop radio personality
   Ken Tucker, a country music writer

They all report to new hire Julie Pilat, a former top exec at Clear Channel.

As I've posted before, the big hook for the new service will be content curation, which Iovine believes is something missing from the other services. The human element promises to provide a better way to discover new music, something that's not only vital for the service but the music industry in general.

The new curators certainly are experienced in their genres, which is a good place to start. Whether high profile and experienced curators will be better than ordinary people steeped in their particular scene is yet to be determined, but it's a good place to start.

There's no date for the launch of Beats Music (or Project Daisy, or whatever it will be called), but it looks like it's not that far away now.

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