Beats Music is getting some promotional support from an unlikely source: Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based budget airline is now throwing in free Beats streaming complete with curated playlists to round out its on-board entertainment options.
Southwest is known for its low prices and perks like free checked bags. Now the airline is throwing in free Beats Music on its in-flight Wi-Fi, which is also free if you’re using it to stream songs. The subscription-only Beats is normally $9.99 a month, so the partnership opens up the service to a new audience as Apple seeks to rebrand it.
The deal includes hundreds of curated playlists that Beats Music subscribers already know and love, plus the service’s unique fill-in-the-blank feature, The Sentence. It creates a custom playlist for you based on what you’re doing, where you are, taste in music, and more. You get to fill in that sentence, Mad Libs-style.
While Southwest doesn’t offer TVs, you can use your own devices to access the airline’s entertainment portal. Southwest passengers can stream Beats on the iOS or Android apps, or using a web browser.
The airline is going all out to promote Beats, even adding the service’s logo to one of its Boeing 737s. Southwest is throwing two free concerts on two of its Monday flights, so lucky passengers can party with Cobra Starship and Elephant Revival.
Why this matters: Apple is reportedly overhauling Beats Music to integrate it with iTunes and build the service into a true Spotify rival by early next year, so Southwest may want to reconsider that Beats logo on its Boeing plane—or at least be ready to change it out at a moment’s notice.