Apple is to install its Beats music streaming service to every iPhone next year as it ramps up the pressure on Spotify.
The tech giant will include the app in the latest update to its iOS operating system on iPhones and iPads, the Financial Times reported.
Beats, which is best known for its association with Dr Dre, was acquired by Apple earlier this year and has 110,000 subscribers.
Its installation on the Apple platforms will allow the streaming service, Beats Music, to reach a vast swathe of new customers with an estimated 200 million iTunes users. It will up the pressure on streaming services including Spotify, which has dominated the market.
However, Spotify has suffered a backlash of late after pop star Taylor Swift pulled her music from the service amid complaints over the amount of royalties she received.
Swift claimed Spotify had undervalued her work, however the company rejected her claim.
Apple paid $3 billion (£1.8 billion) to Dre and other shareholders in Beats in May — slightly less than the $3.2 billion originally mooted.
US music industry veteran Jimmy Iovine, the guru behind the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, was the other big winner in the deal. He co-founded Beats in 2008 with Dre, whose real name is Andre Young. Both men joined Apple as part of the deal.
Carlyle Group — which bought a 50% stake last year when Beats was valued at $1 billion — and the world’s biggest music label, Universal Music, led by Briton Lucian Grainge, also cashed in.
