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Apple announces free ad-supported iTunes Radio stations going away on January 29th, will require Apple Music subscription

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In an email circulating to customers, Apple has announced that the ad-supported iTunes Radio stations available in the US and Australia are going away on January 29th. Beats 1 will be the ‘premiere free broadcast’ going forward. All other radio station features, i.e. the algorithmic stations like Charting Now or Pop Workout, will require an active Apple Music subscription.

The full email is included below …

This marks the end of iTunes Radio as first launched in 2013, which expanded internationally into just one country: Australia. Since Apple Music’s debut, all other countries have required a paid subscription to access these radio stations and will continue to do so. However, from January 29th, there will be no free riders in the United States or Australia either.

Ad-supported stations were subject to other limitations that the paid Apple Music versions don’t have. Namely, you get unlimited skips for the stations (compared to 6 with the obsolete free tier) because you pay for the rights to stream any song in their library with your $9.99/mo plan.

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Removing the ad-supported stations may be part of a wider transition in Apple’s iAd department. Apple can simplify the responsibilities of the floundering iAd group by getting rid of the need for ads to service the legacy stations. Apple is reportedly transitioning iAd towards a fully automated inventory model. Earlier today, Apple announced that it is closing the iAd App Network for developers.

In short: want free music from Apple past January 29th? Tune in to Beats 1.

Thanks Mitchell for the tip.

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Comments

  1. Josie (@josie) - 8 years ago

    Didn’t you get ad free Radio if you were part of iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud? Does this mean, that deal is gone as well?

    • Benjamin Mayo - 8 years ago

      Yeah actually … that’s a good question that the Apple email doesn’t address,

      • Josie (@josie) - 8 years ago

        Unsurprisingly, online chat support says they have no information. I sent an email but not expecting much

      • I am wondering the same question. I use iTunes Match but not Apple Music.

    • J.latham - 8 years ago

      From what I understand Apple Music is the only way to get ad free (so any kind) of radio service. -_-

    • benjitek - 8 years ago

      Yes — but those weren’t the Apple Music radio stations, they were an ad-free version of the ad-supported stations that are being discontinued. So, iTunes Match will no longer have them. Whether or not Apple grants some sort of access to the Apple Music radio stations without a full subscription… who knows.

    • Mark Granger - 8 years ago

      No mention of them going away on the iTunes Match page. This is it what it says right at the top “Subscribe to iTunes Match on your Mac, PC, or iOS device, and listen to on-demand music stations without ads.” So if they take away that major feature, will they lower the price of the service? How will they compensate those of us that paid for iTunes Match already?

      • Josie (@josie) - 8 years ago

        Good find Mark but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the language change over the next couple weeks. I certainly hope they keep this benefit and find a way to allow iTunes Match subscribers without an Apple Music subscription to access the Radio stations.

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 8 years ago

      Yeah, what about iTunes Match? I don’t want to spend the extra amount of money when ITunes Match does what i need. I don’t necessarily need iTunes Radio, but iTunes Match is a great service.

    • vtcajones - 8 years ago

      Yeah, I have match also and used the ad-free stations that came with it all the time. Sad to see this go, I guess it’s time to get rid of match?

  2. crichton007 - 8 years ago

    One more reason for me be pissed about feeling left high and dry by Apple Music.

  3. J.latham - 8 years ago

    Where’s Taylor Swift? Let’s get this corrected an back up. Hopefully this is just temporary while they figure out what is replacing iAds. If not, as this on the list of reasons why Apple Music is kind of half-baked. I understand they need to figure out its killer feature to differentiate for the other services but it’s not internet radio.

  4. Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

    I’d really appreciate it if Apple would give us back the option to customize the Music app shortcuts. I don’t use connect, playlists, and soon Radio so having songs, artists, and albums as the default shortcuts would make sense for non-Apple Music subscribers.

    • AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

      If you have Apple Music turned off in settings, it isn’t showing you any of that in the first place.

      • Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

        If I go to Music in the Settings application, “Show Apple Music” is toggled off. The Music application still shows Playlists, Radio, and Connect so you’re making absolutely no sense.

        And most importantly, songs, artists, and albums are still condensed in a single My Music tab.

      • AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

        “so you’re making absolutely no sense.” Cool your jets.

        I just tested it and you’re right. Sometime between ~one month after the official launch of Apple Music and now they changed the behavior of disabling Apple Music. I dunno, switch to Android. Maybe then you’ll find something genuinely worth griping about.

      • Ron Cardi (@ROYG_B) - 8 years ago

        It makes sense for non-subscribers to have songs, artists, and albums as default tabs, especially now that the ad-supported radio is leaving. That’s all I said before you came here with sass. If you think it’s a non-issue, feel free to keep it moving.

  5. I have an Apple Music subscription, but I do see why people would be upset by this, many people might not see that appeal of paying for Apple Music, so they opt for the free radio stations instead.

  6. claustin - 8 years ago

    That’s unfortunate. Beats 1 is terrible.

    • Ryan Whitaker - 7 years ago

      Absolutely agree. I guess Apple feels the most awesome premier music in the world is slag made by thug rats. Bottom line is the marketing of pop music pop-hip-hop is now so substantial that they only are interested in selling the music to the sheep who drink it up. Music and the “artists” are just pimped out marketing tools with Billionaire companies molding them, huge staffs and ridiculous amounts of marketing sell these vapid shallow souls to the masses who would rather rot their eyes and ears out with this sugar coated junk then ever actually feel a real stirring in their core. I despise Beats 1 and it truly is for the “masses”. The same people who you can sell anything too with the right California or New York marketing team behind.

  7. charismatron - 8 years ago

    I am almost out of fucks to give for Apple. Been a huge fan for ages, and it’s not like I won’t continue to buy their decent products, but I just don’t care anymore. Add this, pull that, no real rhyme or reason given–but it’s in their DNA, amiright? The cool tech is there, but the excitement and thoughtfulness is gone. At least for me.

  8. capdorf - 8 years ago

    Oh well! Back to my CD/ LP collection. At least I don’t need wi fi for them

  9. Jonathan Smyth - 8 years ago

    I never found iTunes radio to be as good as Pandora anyway, so no loss for me.

  10. Joe - 8 years ago

    Artists will certainly like this. I don’t know anyone that uses their free radio stations anyway. It would have been way more popular if it broke off in to its own app.

    Seeing as artists hate Spotify’s free level, this will likely give them more reasons to choose Apple Music over Spotify.

    • AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

      I know that when Pandora was pretty much THE service, there were torrents upon torrents that were collections of nothing but songs cut from someone leaving Pandora on for days and just recording the whole stream. This may be a move to make such a maneuver at least cost the pirates something.

    • Ryan Whitaker - 7 years ago

      I used the radio all the time. I would stream ambient shit all day while writing. I would stream deep house while contemplating things and drafting. It was varied and unique. Now all gone For Beats Off 1

  11. Jake Becker - 8 years ago

    iTunes Radio was always kind of not up to potential; it was easy to use and it was great for the first half hour, and then the playlists start repeating…..oh yeah, and as the article noted, it only made it to AUS outside the USA…..

  12. finngodo - 8 years ago

    Enjoyed the radio feature, but Pandora provides a comparable service for free and I liked their algorithm for choosing related songs better.

    No hard feelings.

  13. Thomas Massengale - 8 years ago

    How many people actually listen to Apple’s radio programming, Beats1 or otherwise? I haven’t got time in the day for their mediocre offerings. But maybe that’s just me.

  14. Moises Agudo - 8 years ago

    Really APPLE!? So you are looking for a way to make more money. Well now I don’t have a reason to ever use iTunes. I stopped purchasing songs. movies, games and what not long ago. iTunes is garbage. Lucky for me I can now stream all kinds of radio stations and watch Youtube on my Sony Media Player.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

      Why do you seem upset when you already use other services? It’s not like they weren’t already making money through ads when it was “free.”

      • Moises Agudo - 8 years ago

        Let me tell you something. You can show me a million ads and I will not purchase anything I’ve seen in those ads.

  15. Just buy Sirius already and integrate it with Apple Music. (too bad they burned $3B on Beats)

  16. netputing (@netputing) - 8 years ago

    You can always use Google Music for free. They have integrated Songza and you can get free music radio… just saying. I moved away from iTunes ages ago and i have never missed it. For now all my music reside with Google and they offer an Apple Match equiv. for free… so one would be crazy to Pay Apple for something free from Google with a much better html5 interface.

  17. archheretic1 - 8 years ago

    Hopefully iTunes Match still gives me the free radio support. Does anybody know if this is the case?

    • darwiniandude - 8 years ago

      I would hope so. Apple Music doesn’t interest me. But I pay for and enjoy iTunes Match and also use Apple Radio. I’ve never heard any ads on there.

  18. k0jeg - 8 years ago

    I used radio when at the gym, it was simple and had enough variety within the different stations to keep it from getting too dull. But hearing the same 3 ads* over and over got annoying very quickly. I can see why it didn’t survive. I guess it’s back to Amazon Prime Music for me. $120/yr isn’t anywhere near what I spend on music these days (I’m an old fart with a fairly large CD collection), and I’m not going to start now.

    *I’ll never consider buying Febreze, Progressive insurance or shopping at Macy’s ever again.

  19. it’s a shame. i used Spotify at work until Apple iTunes Radio came along. I preferred the personalization (for lack of a better word) of Spotify but liked the ease and integration of iTunes Radio and headphone pause/skip worked with iTunes and not Spotify.

    BUT, this will push me back to Spotify. it’s a bummer. Apple’s failed iAd and failed Apple Music is more of the reason to do away with iTunes Radio. then they can try and get more apple Music customers. I guess the Board wasn’t happy with the lack of “true customers”

  20. Dbolander - 8 years ago

    This change only affects US and Australian listeners because the rest of the world never had access to Apple Music Radio without a membership.

  21. Robert Wilson - 8 years ago

    I tried the so called apple radio and after two days went back to using iheart radio. Yes iheart has ads but it is free and you got a choice. You can either listen to a custom station or pick from tons of required radio stations. Heck the main station I listen to on it is actually a regular broadcast station one of their sub channels on HD radio it hardly has ads. You need to hunt out the right one for you.

    Other great alternatives can be found using tunein radio app and searching for 181.fm stations or gotradio stations. Plenty to pick from.

  22. Marklewood at Serenity Lodge - 8 years ago

    Nothing’s free forever . . .

  23. I used to LOVE listening to the Charting Now (formerly Hot Today) station, even with the ads. At one point in time there was a temporary bug where both the Hot Today and the new Charting Now stations were still there together, so I could go to the sister station, which played the same music from where I left off, after I hit 6 skips. good told times. Beats 1 then comes out, and that sounded amazing, yay, worldwide radio, woo.
    Nope. Shittest music I ever heard.
    I would resort to Charting Now to get the latest songs, and just spice up my background jams, seeing as I had no alternative medium; the local radio stations in the country get their new songs FROM iTunes’ Charting Now (they even have a playlist revolving around it), but they would only play those songs weeeeeks later. Now I see that I have to have an Apple Music membership to play Charting Now, and all I’m stuck with is Beats 1, where they play THE WORST ‘music’ EVER.
    I would call this injustice but what good will that do. Let them make their money. I’ll just go to YouTube or something, because I sure as hell will NEVER go to Beats 1.

  24. Alden Rogers - 8 years ago

    It’s amazing how terrible Apple has become since Steve Jobs died. He was apparently the only one who was not a complete idiot working there.

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.