Beats Music takes on Spotify in January

Beats is looking to beat Spotify with a new music service set to launch in the new year. Beats Music has been confirmed to launch in the US in January.

Beats boss Ian Rogers beats his chest with a blog post saying the headphone company is "locked and loaded" for the new music service, which has been in beta for around six months. Among the people testing the service are artists and "other influencers."

No details of the service have been confirmed, but it will have the ability to create playlists.

Music fans in the US can now sign up to the forthcoming service and claim their user name, but it's not available here in the UK yet. British Beats fans heading for beatsmusic.com see a message telling you the service is "coming to your area soon" -- I've contacted Beats to shed some light on how soon is soon.

The world of digital music is becoming increasingly crowded with iTunes and Spotify competing with rivals such as Rdio, Bloom.fm and other own brand services tied to hardware like Nokia Music.

Spotify recently answered critics of the streaming business model by finally revealing how much it pays artists with a new Spotify Artists website.

How do you listen to music in the digital age? Beat the drum in the comments or on our Facebook page.