Beats’ Daisy Gets $60 Million To Go Independent, Plus They’re Talking To Apple

The buzz around streaming music is heating up incredibly at the moment. Late last night Beats announced that they've received a $60 million investment for their Daisy music service from Len Blavatnik's Access Industries among other investors. Daisy will become an independent company and launch late this year. Plus, news has leaked that Apple's CEO Tim Cook recently met with Jimmy Iovine in an "informational" session.

Beats Receives $60 Million Investment for Daisy

In an announcement issued late last night Beats Electronics LLC broke the news that they have:

"secured a $60 million investment led by Access Industries (the industrial group founded by Len Blavatnik), Marc Rowan, James Packer and entities affiliated with Lee M. Bass for a new music service powered by Beats, internally dubbed 'Daisy'. With this new capital, 'Daisy' has become a stand-alone company and is set for launch in late 2013."

"This investment group brings significant expertise in music and subscription business, complimenting and extending the advantages already bestowed upon 'Daisy' from its close relationship with and initial investment from Beats.

Len Blavatnik states:

"Beats has the vision, the brand, the management team and now the investor group to effectively change the expectations and experiences of a music subscription service…I’m looking forward to taking on this exciting challenge together."

"Investment Bank Moelis & Company acted as the exclusive financial advisor and placement agent for this raise."

Len Blavatnik and Access Industries bought Warner Music Group last year for $3.3 billion in cash. Blavatnik also made a play for EMI though Universal won that round.

Earlier this year Beats named former Topspin head Ian Rogers
will be CEO of "Daisy" and Nine Inch Nails
frontman Trent Reznor as the music service’s Chief Creative Officer.
In 2012 the company also purchased digital music service MOG, which will
provide the platform for "Daisy".

News Leaked that Apple & Beats Held Meeting

In a related news leak Reuters' Poornima Gupta and Ronald Grover report that "three people familiar with the situation" confirmed that Tim Cook and Jimmy Iovine held an "informational" meeting in late February and discussed Daisy as well as a "broad range of music-related topics":

"Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine during a visit to Los Angeles in late February to find out more about Beats' 'Project Daisy'…"

"Apple's Internet products chief Eddy Cue, a key player in setting up its iTunes Music Store, also joined the meeting, at which Cook expressed interest in Daisy's business model and its rollout plans, although the two did not discuss specifics of a deal, the sources said."

Convenient timing given yesterday's news leaks regarding Google's plans for both YouTube and Google Play streaming music subscription services.

[Jimmy Iovine's grinning mug via Wikipedia.]

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at All World Dance: Videos and maintains Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.