Apple have announced they’ll be jumping into the streaming market later this year, releasing iTunes Radio, a free streaming service that will pick music based on the tunes you already play and download, with the service becoming more and more personalised the more you use it.
iTunes Radio will compete with existing streaming music operators like Pandora and Spotify and will have over 200 stations – those inspired by music users already listen to, genre-specific stations and featured stations curated by Apple. The service will also feature the ability to intergrate Apple’s personal assistant voice software Siri, so you can ask it questions like, “Who plays that song?” or “Play more like this”.
The service will also be giving punters first listen premieres from a lot of artists, plus the ability to tag tunes or buy them with a single click. Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said, “iTunes Radio is an incredible way to listen to personalised radio stations which have been created just for you.”
Hypebot reports that stock for similar service Pandora has actually gone up following Apple’s announcement, rising 2.45%, the opposite of what most analysts would expect it to do, suggesting that perhaps convincing users to switch from their current streaming providers might not be such an easy task.
iTunes Radio will be released in the US some time in our spring and is ad-supported, although iTunes Match customers will get access to the ad-free version.
