Apple iRadio was introduced at WWDC on Monday and despite rumors the platform is actually called Apple iTunes Radio.
The new Apple service allows the tech giant to compete in the online music streaming space while still pushing its industry leading iTunes purchase platform for downloadable songs.
Apple may be the leader in online music sales but the field for online streaming music will be a climbing fight for Apple thanks to the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, and other services that have grabbed the attention of online music listeners.
So is Apple iTunes Radio a Pandora type system with radio playback? Or perhaps an on-demand service more inline with Spotify? It turns out that it’s a free, ad-support streaming music service that is embedded into Apple’s various mobile devices, Mac computers, PC desktops running iTunes, and Apple TV. Those ads are removed for users who already subscribe to iTunes Match, a service that allows Apple users to store music in their iCloud accounts.
One of the features on iTunes Radio is the ability for users to build stations and playlists based on a users’ existing music libraries. The platform also allows users to choose stations based on songs or albums they like.
When a song is heard that a user likes they can add it to a wishlist which can then be used to purchase the song from the Apple iTunes store at a later time.
Basically the service is more like Pandora then Spotify as songs from liked bands will play alongside similar songs from other bands in the same genre of music.
iTunes Radio will debut this fall in the U.S., with other countries following later.
To help Apple iTunes Radio users get a head start the platform comes pre-loaded with songs that are currently trending on Twitter.
Users can also choose to skip songs as they do on Pandora and even to search the history for songs already listened to in the past. Apple hasn’t revealed if skips will be limited per radio station as they are with the Pandora platform.
Are you going to be taking advantage of the new Apple iTunes Radio streaming music service?
Its about time!
I've been quite disappointed with just about everything apple related lately, so I think that I will avoid it for now; but it does seem like it took a long time to get something out there.
I'm interested to see if it can compare to pandora and spotify. I think I may just have to try it out when it debuts.
I don't know if I'll be using this since you need the newest iPhone for this. I'm using a great music streaming service (Torch Music) on my PC but sadly it doesn't have an app yet. We'll see!