Apple iTunes Radio Launch Happens This Fall In Ad Supported Free and $24.99 Paid Versions

Paid digital audio downloads are on the decline thanks to the rise of Internet Radio. Players like Pandora and Spotify have managed to gain a huge user base because they provide free music instantly anywhere. Taking this development into consideration, Apple Inc. has announced its audio streaming service iTunes Radio that shall be rolled out to Apple devices and iTunes in the month of November 2013.

iTunes Radio 1

To make sure that its service stands out in the music streaming market, Apple will be offering listeners access to exclusive content like pre-release singles and albums before they arrive anywhere else. As you might know Apple has recently struck deals with Sony, Universal and Warner for providing exclusive content. Users will also be able to stream live events that are exclusive to iTunes sessions like the iTunes Festival. To provide customised content to its users, the service will scan your iTunes listening, purchase and search history to build individual stations for every user.

iTunes Radio 2

The iTunes Radio has been made keeping Siri in mind. With the voice activated digital assistant on Apple devices users can play, pause and skip tracks with voice. Siri will also take notes of which songs you like and which songs you don’t. Users can also ask Siri to add the sings they are listening on their Wish List so that they can download the songs later.

iTunes Radio 4

The basic version of iTunes Radio shall be ad-supported and free but if users do not want to hear the occasional ads in between the songs they can opt for iTunes Match, an ad-free service that will cost $24.99 for a year. With this service users will also get the facility to backup their entire music collection, iTunes Library and the songs they have ripped from CDs on iCloud.

iTunes Radio 6

However, the service when launched is expected to be limited to the US only and Apple has not made it clear which codec format or bitrate it will stream the music. Recently you have read how Flipkart Flyte MP3 Store Is Shutting Down! Why?; one of the reasons that might be attributed for its demise is the rise of Internet Radio. So it seems Apple has taken the right step forward to keep its dominance over the digital downloads market.

Source: #-Link-Snipped-#

Replies

  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    Ok. People are now calling this move as a Pandora-Killer OR a cheap Pandora-Clone. But is it right?
    They already have a music store as large and as widely used as iTunes. Now they are adding the Pandora-like streaming component to it. It's kind-of a big deal for Apple. Remember, Apple is almost never the first to the market with anything. But they are the ones that are quite successful at succeeding when they finally do enter the market. They weren't the first to introduce an mp3 player, but they obviously changed the game with the iPod.

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