itunes radio

78 'itunes radio' stories June 2013 - February 2014

Amazon in talks w/ labels for new music streaming service as Pandora hits 250m users

Jordan Kahn Feb 27 2014 - 2:17 pm PT

Pandora-iOS-app Two pieces of news out today related to the music streaming biz: Recode is reporting that Amazon is talking to music labels about a music streaming service that could be bundled with Prime subscriptions, while Pandora has announced it has grown to 250 million users in the US.

If Amazon is able to make deals with the music labels, Recode speculates that it could offer music streaming through its Prime subscriptions which currently only offers movies and TV shows as well as free two-day shipping for $79/ year. The report notes, however, that Amazon is running into some roadblocks with cutting deals:

Which doesn’t mean it will: One label source reports that Amazon isn’t close to getting a deal done, because its executives are asking for a substantial discount on the pricing the labels have given to other services, like Spotify, Rhapsody and Beats… Still, label talks have been going on for the past few months, sources say.

As for Pandora, that’s up from around 200 million users back in April of last year and since the launch of one of its biggest new competitors, Apple’s iTunes Radio, in September. Pandora also noted that “Listeners have now created over six billion stations.”
Expand
Expanding
Close

Madison Avenue execs describe Apple’s ad sales team as “slow, cocky and downright stingy”

Ben Lovejoy Feb 18 2014 - 7:22 am PT

21 Comments

iad

Apple is missing out on iAd sales opportunities because the company is too “slow, cocky and downright stingy” according to Madison Avenue media buyers cited in a piece in Advertising Age.

One exec told Ad Age that Apple doesn’t even have official sales targets for its ad business.

Cary Tilds, chief innovation officer for GroupM, said that Apple doesn’t have a big sales team. “It’s not their main focus to tell everyone in the world how amazing advertising in iAd is,” she said. “It’s just not as loud” …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s iTunes Radio launches internationally, starting with Australia

Mark Gurman Feb 10 2014 - 10:42 am PT

14 Comments

Apple has finally taken its iTunes Radio streaming music service internationally: starting with Australia. The service, which launched in the United States late last year, works on iPads, iPhones, iPods running iOS 7, the Apple TV, and on iTunes 11 on the Mac or PC.

Apple® today announced iTunes Radio™ is now available to music fans in Australia. iTunes Radio is a free Internet radio service featuring over 100 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store®, combined with features only iTunes® can deliver. When you tune into iTunes Radio on your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac®, PC or Apple TV®, you’ll have access to stations inspired by the music you already listen to, Featured Stations curated by Apple and genre-focused stations that are personalized just for you. iTunes Radio evolves based on the music you play and download. The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more it knows what you like to listen to and the more personalized your experience becomes. iTunes Radio also gives you access to exclusive “First Play” premieres from top selling artists, plus the ability to tag or buy anything you hear with just one click.

Like in the United States, iTunes Radio in Australia is supported by advertisements. However, iTunes Match subscribers can listen to iTunes Radio without ads. Apple is yet to announce any other international iTunes Radio countries, but evidence and reports suggest that Canada, New Zealand, and some European countries will be gaining the feature soon.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apps, rather than streaming music, may be responsible for ‘peak iTunes’ – analyst

Ben Lovejoy Jan 8 2014 - 5:51 am PT

11 Comments

We noted at the end of last year that iTunes music downloads appeared to be on the decline for the first time, a shift that was confirmed this month. The operating assumption has so far been that music streaming services are taking over, and that a growing number of consumers are now content to simply have on-demand access to music, rather than to own it.

Asymco’s Horace Dediu, an analyst who often has interesting things to say, has suggested an alternative explanation: that we’re actually listening to less music …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Report: Apple focusing iAd sales on iTunes Radio, building real-time exchange for in-app ads

Benjamin Mayo Dec 16 2013 - 1:10 pm PT

2 Comments

Adweek is reporting that Apple is focusing the iAd sales department almost exclusively on iTunes Radio, rather than developing its in-app ad portfolio, which is how the service originally started. According to the report, Eddy Cue told the advertising unit that iTunes Radio advertisements are a top priority, presumably as Apple is preparing to expand the music service into more countries next year.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Have music downloads hit their peak, with streaming taking over?

Ben Lovejoy Dec 16 2013 - 4:43 am PT

18 Comments

What do 1980, 1989 and 2003 have in common? They were the peak sales years for LPs, cassettes and CDs respectively. After that, a very slight resurgence in vinyl aside, it was all downhill.

Billboard magazine has an interesting piece in which they suggest that perhaps 2012 might join that list – as the year that saw peak sales for music downloads, with streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and now, of course, iTunes Radio the heir apparent …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple hires real-world radio executive for iTunes Radio, working on ad sales

Benjamin Mayo Dec 10 2013 - 6:25 am PT

0 Comments

Via AdAge, Apple has hired Michael Pallad for its iTunes Radio team. Pallad’s LinkedIn confirms the report, citing Apple iTunes as his current occupation.

corp-photo-pallad

AdAge says that Pallad joined Apple about a week ago and is in charge of international iTunes Radio sales. Pallad comes from Cumulus Media, a real-world radio organisation, as their Executive Vice President of Sales. As Apple’s initial round of iAd campaigns for iTunes Radios run out at the end of the year, it seems Apple needed someone versed in radio advertising sales to help setup its deals for 2014.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Pandora Radio 5.1 turns stations into alarms on iPhone

Zac Hall Dec 9 2013 - 7:35 am PT

4 Comments

Proving it can stay competitive with iTunes Radio, the streaming music service that debuted with iOS 7, Pandora Radio is busy at work bringing new features to its own customizable streaming music service.

The company released a feature update today to its iOS app bringing with it the ability to set song or artist stations as alarm clocks.

While the native Clock app in iOS can awake you to a specific song, Pandora’s station alarm clock is a nice addition to iOS and a compelling reason to use Pandora Radio even if you’re an iTunes Radio evangelist.

Pandora Radio 5.1 also brings full iOS 7 compatibility as it was previously designed for the iOS 7 but built for iOS 6,

Check out the full release notes below and download the latest version from the App Store.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google Maps left out in the cold as most iPhone users stick with Apple Maps

Ben Lovejoy Nov 11 2013 - 6:19 am PT

84 Comments

Photo: bgr.com

Apple Maps may not have had the best of starts, but data from ComScore shows that most iPhone users have stuck with the app rather than reinstalling Google Maps. Google Maps lost 23M iPhone users in the US alone in the last year, with similar numbers expected elsewhere.

The figures show that in September this year, 35M iPhone owners used Apple Maps, against just 6M for Google Maps – the latter including around 2M who were using older versions of iOS unable to run Apple Maps.

The story is essentially a simple one: while techier iOS users may choose their own apps, the majority of iPhone owners use the apps that Apple provides. And if you apply that to other services, that may not bode well for technologies like Pandora …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Pandora claims increase in listening following the launch of iTunes Radio

Mike Beasley Nov 4 2013 - 4:34 pm PT

5 Comments

The launch of iTunes Radio doesn’t look like the deathblow to Pandora that many suggested it would be. Today Mike Herring, the music streaming service’s CFO, said that since the launch of Apple’s competing product, Pandora has seen an increase in listeners. We’re not just talking about a fraction of a percent, either. According to Herring, who once called iTunes Radio a “credible threat” to his company, Pandora has seen a 9% increase in listening since iTunes Radio debuted.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JonErlichman/status/397516506247884800 align=’center’]

Part of the draw could be the fact that Pandora dropped its time-limited listening restrictions on free accounts just before iOS 7 and iTunes Radio became publicly available. This allowed Pandora listeners who preferred to continue using their existing stations rather than switching to a new service to listen to more music each month.

These newly unrestricted accounts also work where iTunes Radio doesn’t, such as Android phones or older iOS devices, meaning the overall reach of Pandora is considerably wider than that of iTunes Radio. This provides an incentive for users who have a variety of devices to use Pandora over Apple’s offering since their iTunes Radio stations cannot sync to all of their devices.

After album leak, Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP 2 stream hits iTunes Radio ‘First Play’ station

Nov 1 2013 - 2:18 pm PT

4 Comments

Eminem-marshall-mathers-lp-2-itunes

Rap fans can now (legally) listen to Eminem’s new album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, a full 4 days before its scheduled release exclusively on iTunes Radio. In the past, iTunes simply provided on-demand playback of the early albums in their entirety from the Artist’s page, but now it’s providing the streams through a ‘First Play’ station on its new iTunes Radio service in the US.

The album was recently released ahead of schedule via BitTorrent which may have hastened the move to iTunes Radio.

[tweet https://twitter.com/Eminem/status/396386076262023168 align=’center’]

It looks like all Apple’s future album streams will also land in the new iTunes Radio ‘First Play’ station. Earlier this year Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue told Entertainment Weekly that Apple would leverage iTunes Radio for the premiere streams.

This year, iTunes has been successful in converting streaming album premieres into impressive pre-orders and sales, how much influence did that have on iTunes Radio?
We’re leveraging it. For example there’s a Justin Timberlake album that’s on iTunes Radio as of [last Thursday] for the first time, so the first time we ever premiered an album on there. We certainly knew we would leverage it for iTunes Radio but the primary key to iTunes Radio was to create it custom for you. When you’re talking premiering song, what we’re doing iTunes Festival-wise, we knew iTunes Radio was a perfect place for that so it’s perfect alignment

Labels and artists hope that the free streams will help combat leaks of the album ahead of its official release and also translate into increased preorders by driving users to iTunes.

Eminem is a 13-time Grammy winner and has sold over 220 million albums worldwide. His new CD is easily one of most anticipated albums of the year. The deluxe version includes 21 tracks with blockbuster appearances by Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and Nate Ruess (from the band FUN). The album has already produced three chart-topping singles: The Monster, Survival Berzerk, and Rap God. Pre-orders are priced at $15.99 and include immediate downloads of the aforementioned singles.

Tim Cook at iPad event: 64% of iOS devices on iOS 7, 20 million iTunes Radio listeners, 1 billion songs played, 1 million apps

Jordan Kahn Oct 22 2013 - 10:10 am PT

0 Comments

Apple-iPad-event-2013 2013-10-22 at 1.04.44 PM

Keeping with tradition, Tim Cook kicked off Apple’s iPad event today by giving us an update on some of the company’s core businesses and accomplishments since last checking in. Below is a roundup of the numbers and stats that Cook shared on stage today during the event including updates on the new iPhones, iOS 7 adoption, iTunes Radio, and the App Store:

iPhone & iOS 7:

– 9 million iPhones launch weekend, biggest iPhone launch ever

– iOS 7 200 million devices in five days-

-64% of devices currently running iOS 7

iTunes Radio:

– iTunes radio, 20 million listeners, 1 billion songs

App Store:

-1 million apps on App Store

-60 app billion downloads

-$13B earned by developers (up from 11 billion in July)

iPad:

-170 million iPads sold

-475k iPad apps (up from 375k in July)

iTunes Radio launch in Canada imminent as Apple seeks programmers

Mark Gurman Oct 4 2013 - 4:31 pm PT

1 Comment

Apple’s popular, free music streaming service iTunes Radio looks set for an imminent launch in Canada. Since launching last month in tandem with iOS 7, iTunes Radio has been exclusive to the United States. However, Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue has noted that he would like the service to launch in “more than 100 countries.” Even with this plan in place, there has been no indication of when iTunes Radio would arrive internationally and exactly where…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple opens up iTunes Radio ad creation to iAd Producer

Mark Gurman Oct 3 2013 - 4:13 pm PT

1 Comment

In addition to the iTunes 11.1.1 and OS X 10.8.5 updates, Apple has updated its iAd Producer application. iAd Producer allows Mac users to create ads for deployment via the iAd Network inside of App Store applications. Most notable in today’s update, Apple has now opened up the ability to create ads for display inside of iTunes Radio.

This release contains a number of enhancements and fixes, including:
● Support for creating iTunes Radio ads for iOS devices.
● Simplified, more flexible interface for iAd Blueprints projects.
● Support for creating iAd Blueprints projects that support multiple languages.
● Improved action support in Quick Preview.
● Improved search results in Code Documentation.
● Live asset previews during drag-and-drop.
● Support for grouping and ungrouping views.
● CSS class auto-completion in the Object Inspector.
● Support for taking photos and using the front-facing camera.
● Accessibility improvements for exported content.
● Music video support in iTunes LP content
● Other bug fixes and improvements.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google Play Music ‘All Access’ for iOS reportedly landing this month following internal beta

Jordan Kahn Oct 3 2013 - 8:57 am PT

8 Comments

Since first announcing its Google Play Music ‘All Access’ streaming service earlier this year on Android, Google has been delaying the release of an official Google Play Music app for iOS for unknown reasons. Android chief Sundar Pichai originally said the app would be out in “the next few weeks” in May, but four months later we’ve yet to get an iOS app or access to the $9.99 month streaming service on iOS. Today, Engadget reports that Google is continuing to test the app internally and will launch it later this month:

Sources aware of Google’s plans have let slip to Engadget that not only is the company currently testing a native Google Music iOS app internally, but that it’ll launch later this month. We’re told that while employees have been invited to test the app, Google still needs to fix a few bugs before it’s ready for release… The company had previously closed the door on iOS users because Flash was needed to enforce DRM restrictions set by music labels. Now, Google appears to have overcome that issue and is nearly ready to launch.

Until the official app from Google launches, popular third-party clients like the gMusic app have been updated to support the “All Access” streaming service.
Expand
Expanding
Close

iTunes Radio gets new competition as Rdio iOS app offers free personalized stations

Ben Lovejoy Oct 3 2013 - 4:40 am PT

0 Comments

Rdio has launched a free personalized radio stations option within its iOS and Android apps. This is a more controllable version of the You FM feature added back in August.

Like iTunes Radio, you can’t choose a specific artist or track, but you can create a radio station based on a song, artist or genre and then listen to the stream Rdio creates based on your selection. Unlike iTunes Radio, Rdio’s free streaming service is ad-free, at least for now.

New subscribers also get a 14-day free trial of the Rdio subscription service, allowing you to play specific tracks. Once the 14 days end, however, you’ll revert to radio stations only unless you sign-up at $9.99 a month to keep the paid service.

Rdio is a free download on iTunes.

Apple TV 6.0 released with iTunes Radio, AirPlay from iCloud, iTunes Music Store, more

Scott Buscemi Sep 20 2013 - 11:00 am PT

41 Comments

Everyone’s favorite hockey puck “hobby” has received a huge software update today. Apple TV 6.0, which has been in beta testing since June, brings with it iTunes Radio, AirPlay from iCloud, iCloud Photos and Videos (replacing Photo Stream), iTunes Music Store, and conference room mode.

AirPlay from iCloud, which mirrors Google’s Chromecast, is a feature that must be turned on from the Settings. Once enabled, it allows you to “use your iOS device to play videos from iTunes in the Cloud”, which means the content is streamed directly to Apple TV rather than your iOS device. This reduces local bandwidth in half, however, some users may not want the feature since Apple TV handles iCloud video streaming differently than iOS devices. On iOS, your video will start streaming immediately, but the Apple TV takes in a huge buffer which can result in a long wait before the video can start. Also of note, AirPlay from iCloud is only compatible with iOS 7 devices.

The software was called “Apple TV 5.4” while in beta, but it appears Apple has changed the name to Apple TV 6.0 in the public release (as seen in this iTunes Radio KB document).

The update comes just two days after the public release of iOS 7, which brings a refreshed design and several notable features like Control Center. The 1080p set top box is rumored to be undergoing a hardware refresh as soon as next month when the new iPads and MacBooks are set to be updated as well.

Expand
Expanding
Close

iOS 7 How-To: Use Apple’s new (and free) iTunes Radio streaming music service

Sarah Guarino Sep 19 2013 - 6:03 am PT

38 Comments

With iOS 7, Apple has debuted iTunes Radio, its answer to streaming music services like Rdio, Spotify, and Pandora. It is a free service with some occasional ads. So far the ads have been about advertising cars and iTunes Festival. If you do not want any ads, you can pay twenty-five dollars a year for iTunes Match…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Direct download links for iOS 7 & 7.0.1

Jordan Kahn Sep 18 2013 - 12:39 pm PT

30 Comments

iOS-7-091

Following Apple’s release of iOS 7 earlier today as an almost 1GB OTA update, direct download links have now made their way online. iOS 7.0 (build 11A465) is available now for your iPhone 4, 4S, 5, and iPad 2 and up, but Apple also has iOS 7.0.1 (build 11A470a) available for the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C as we noted earlier today. If you are having trouble with the over the air update, or just want to do a completely fresh install, you’ll be able to use the direct download links above to do so.

If you are going that route, you’ll want to make sure you are updated to the latest iTunes 11.1 released earlier today with iTunes Radio, Genius Shuffle, Podcast Stations, and, of course, support for iOS 7 devices.

iPad:

iPad2(wifi) (iPad2,1) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2(at&t) (iPad2,2) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2(vz) (iPad2,3) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2,4 (iPad2,4) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2,5 (iPad2,5) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2,6 (iPad2,6) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad2,7 (iPad2,7) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,1 (iPad3,1) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,2 (iPad3,2) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,3 (iPad3,3) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,4 (iPad3,4) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,5 (iPad3,5) 7.0 (11A465)

iPad3,6 (iPad3,6) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone:

iPhone4 (iPhone3,1) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone3,2 (iPhone3,2) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone4(vz) (iPhone3,3) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone4S (iPhone4,1) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone5,1 (iPhone5,1) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone5,2 (iPhone5,2) 7.0 (11A465)

iPhone5,3 (iPhone5,3) 7.0.1 (11A470a)

iPhone5,4 (iPhone5,4) 7.0.1 (11A470a)

iPhone6,1 (iPhone6,1) 7.0.1 (11A470a)

iPhone6,2 (iPhone6,2) 7.0.1 (11A470a)

iPod touch:

iPodTouch(5G) (iPod5,1) 7.0 (11A465)

Latest Mavericks Developer Preview includes updated iTunes 11.1 with new iOS app organizer, other fixes

Scott Buscemi Sep 16 2013 - 5:40 pm PT

9 Comments

itunes111110

While the Developer Center still shows iTunes 11.1 beta 2, which was released August 16, today’s Mavericks Developer Preview 8 includes an updated version of iTunes 11.1 (build 110, as compared to 48 previously).

iOS 7 device icons are included in this build and a new “Apps” organizer for configuring apps on iOS devices (Thanks, Filipe!):

BUUuU6JCYAAqUQe

BUUtgkcCQAAgs0Q

Also noteworthy are two new buttons in the podcasts section for accessing old episodes and a new sidebar for settings.

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 5.52.51 PM

While listening to iTunes Radio, the history button now shows songs that were last played (along with audio preview and purchase buttons):

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 5.57.11 PM

When you’re down to just one final skip, “1 skip left” appears near the skip button while listening to iTunes Radio:

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 7.57.02 PM

With iTunes 11.1, a notification appears every time the song changes. In the latest beta, there is an option to turn off this notification in the Preferences pane and the option to keep song changes in Notification Center is also present.

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 5.29.19 PM

The update makes the shuffle button work again and disables the unlimited skips on iTunes Radio loophole.

Today’s Mavericks update closes the unlimited skipping loophole in iTunes Radio

— Michael Steeber (@MichaelSteeber) September 17, 2013

iTunes 11.1, which brings with it Apple’s streaming service, iTunes Radio, is required for syncing devices that are on iOS 7 which will be released on Wednesday. Mavericks itself, however, will be released late next month.

Just days before the launch of iOS 7, The Beatles arrive on iTunes Radio

Michael Steeber Sep 16 2013 - 8:01 am PT

4 Comments

With only days remaining until iOS 7 is released into the hands of consumers worldwide, Apple has finally managed to bring The Beatles to iTunes Radio.

Since its initial introduction at WWDC in June, users of iTunes Radio would be greeted with an absence of Beatles music, even when creating a specific “Beatles Radio” station. No explanation was given from Apple. Perhaps what’s most interesting here is that from the launch of the iTunes Music Store in 2003 until late 2010, Apple struggled to reach an agreement with Apple Corps to get The Beatles onto the store. This was due to a long series of legal battles with Apple Corps and Apple Inc, stretching back multiple decades. Until this past weekend, it appeared that The Beatles wouldn’t make it onto iTunes Radio either.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple changes featured stations in iTunes Radio – likely for a demo today

Ben Lovejoy Sep 10 2013 - 6:45 am PT

1 Comment

Apple has updated the Featured Stations in iTunes Radio, likely in preparation for a demo of the service during today’s iPhone launch.

The featured stations include Spin the Globe, Trending on Twitter, iTunes Top 100: Pop and the Pepsi-sponsored Pulse #Now.

iTunes Radio will be available on all iOS devices, including Apple TV, as well as in iTunes on both Macs and PCs, as a free ad-supported service. There will be one audio ad every 15 minutes, and one video ad per hour. However, iTunes Match subscribers will be able to listen to the service free from ads.

Thanks, Nick!

Pandora to drop 40 hour per month limit on free accounts just before iTunes Radio launch [Update: App updated with sleep timer]

Scott Buscemi Aug 22 2013 - 2:43 pm PT

2 Comments

During Pandora’s earnings call today, the company’s CFO, Mike Herring, announced that the service will be dropping its 40 hours per month limit on mobile devices for free accounts. TechCrunch posted this statement:

When we introduced the 40 hour mobile listening limit, we were confident that our scale – over 7% of total radio listening and Pandora’s number one ranking in most major markets – would allow us to take this action without impacting our key monetization initiatives in driving the disruption of the radio advertising market and driving our mobile advertising leadership. As our results have shown, the continued strong growth in our advertising revenue allowed us to cover the increased royalty costs with dollars left over to invest back into the business.

With these tools in hand, and insight into how they work, we are resetting our levers in September. Notably, Pandora plans to eliminate the blanket 40-hour-per-month limit on free mobile listening effective September 1st.

The company also published a related press release :

Pandora (NYSE: P), the leading internet radio service, today announced it will remove the 40-hour-per-month limit on free mobile listening effective September 1, 2013.

“We’re pleased to once again maximize free listening for everyone on Pandora,” said Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder. “The more than 70 million listeners that tune in every month will now have more time to hear the music they love, and thousands of working artists will reach more fans.”

The limit on free mobile listening was introduced in March 2013 to manage rapidly increasing royalty costs. While in place, this affected fewer than four percent of total monthly active listeners. The company continues to utilize multiple additional levers to carefully and effectively manage its content cost.

Pandora has been dealing with the balancing act of paying for content and pushing out as advertisements. Back in May, Bloomberg looked into the situation and found that some investors weren’t sure if the limit would also reduce the number of ads delivered to users. Only around 4% of its listeners were going over the cap at the time, but only a portion of those users would return and buy into a paid subscription after the cap was reintroduced on mobile devices back in February. At the same time, the introduction of the cap saw the service’s total listening hours drop around 5.1% within a month:

Pandora’s results since implementing the cap suggest the company is starting to contain content costs, its biggest expense, without alienating listeners. With fewer hours of use, investors are concerned that the company is also sacrificing advertising revenue, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc. in Los Angeles.

The company reported revenues of $162 million which is is up 58% YoY; however, iTunes Radio is expected to launch in just a few short weeks and we’ll find out at their next earnings call if Apple’s music streaming service affects revenue for Pandora. For its part, Apple has partnered with very large sponsors and secured multi-million dollar advertising deals for the iTunes Radio service.

Pandora is available free in the App Store. iTunes Radio will have a free version with ads, but users can listen ad-free by subscribing to the $24.99/year iTunes Match service.

Update: Also, Pandora’s iOS app has been updated to version 4.5 which includes a new sleep timer feature and additional bug fixes:

What’s New in Version 4.5

• Sleep timer with 15, 30, or 60 minute options to continue playing your favorite Pandora station while you fall asleep
• Bug fixes and improvements

Big-name brands signing up for iTunes Radio ads & new details

Scott Buscemi Aug 20 2013 - 10:59 am PT

0 Comments

iTunes Radio, Apple’s upcoming streaming music service that will compete with services like Pandora and Spotify, will be partnering with large brands for audio and video advertisements, according to a new report by Ad Age.

The service, which will be available on all iOS devices – including the Apple TV – and every computer that can run iTunes, will be ad-free for subscribers of Apple’s $24.99/year iTunes Match service, but otherwise “users will be served an audio ad once every 15 minutes and one video ad every hour”, according to Ad Age’s sources. “The video ads will only be served to consumers at times when they are likely to be looking at their device screen, such as immediately after hitting play or choosing to skip a track.”
Expand
Expanding
Close