The purchase of Beats earlier this year by Apple (News - Alert) for $3 billion had many detractors and some supporters, so when TechCrunch reported the company might be discontinuing the Beats Music service, it raised more questions as to what Apple was thinking when it acquired the company. Before the pundits even had a chance to weigh in on the matter, Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr categorically denied the company is shutting down the music service.

In the TechCrunch report Josh Constine wrote, “Apple will discontinue the streaming music service Beats Music it acquired in May, according to five sources, including several prominent employees at Apple and Beats. Many engineers from Beats Music have already been moved off the product and onto other projects at Apple, including iTunes.”

The report went on to say Beats Music is failing to gain traction with its subscription, and Apple didn’t mention the service during the recent release of the iPhone (News - Alert) 6 and iWatch. Additionally the company didn't pre-install Beats Music in the new devices while other applications were included, according to the report this should have been a red flag.

The quick response by Apple can be seen in one of two ways, and both scenarios are viable considering what TechCrunch reported is based on the anemic performance of Beats Music when compared to the tens of millions of Pandora and Spotify (News - Alert) users. The first is Apple wasn’t ready for the news to come out, and a quick denial will quell any bad news while the company is still riding high on the release of the new iPhones. The second is the company really does like Beats Music and wants to stop any negative press that could potentially discourage new customers from signing up to the streaming service.

If you take a listen at what Tim Cook said in an interview with Charlie Rose (which will air Friday night on PBS- you can see the clip at the bottom), it sounds like the latter is the more probable scenario. Apple’s CEO genuinely seems to like the product and can’t wait until it is part of the company. His admiration of how Beats Music curates the music it provides to its subscribers is likely to be integrated into iTunes, which will rebrand Beats into something that can leverage the 500 million users of Apple’s music service.

TechCrunch went on to say, “Another source said Apple plans to make some significant music announcement in the first half of next year.” Since no one but higher ups at Apple and Beats Music know the real facts, saying Beats will be a significant component of Apple’s music services is just as viable as saying it won’t. All we can do is wait until the company makes the announcement and see how it will use its masterful marketing skills to get people to subscribe in record numbers.