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Apple has announced a new product that adds to its many entertainment offerings: a streaming music service called iTunes Radio.
The new service, which launches this fall, is a station-based radio player. Pick an artist like Led Zeppelin, start a new "station" for that artist, and iTunes radio will begin playing a songs by that band, with other songs from similar bands (The Rolling Stones, The Kinks) mixed in. It resembles Pandora Radio more so than on-demand services like Rdio and Spotify, where you can pick the exact songs or albums you want to hear. Like Pandora, iTunes Radio chooses songs for you using algorithms. You can create new stations, and rate the songs you like or dislike as they stream. It learns your preferences and modifies the station to better suit your tastes.
iTunes Radio service will debut this fall in the U.S., with other countries following later. The service is built into iOS 7, iTunes on your Mac and PC, and your Apple TV. The radio stations are ad-supported -- unless you're an iTunes Match subscriber, in which case it's ad-free.
Apple is late to the streaming music game with iTunes Radio. Pandora Radio has been offering something almost exactly like this since 2005. And while Pandora and other services are available on multiple platforms, including Android, Windows Phone, Roku and Sonos, Apple's new service is only available for iTunes, iOS and the Apple TV.
The streaming service comes pre-loaded with stations, and it will show which songs are currently trending on Twitter, both of which should make it easier for new users to dive right in. Just like Pandora, you can skip to the next song, and search the history for songs you've heard. No word on if those skips will be limited in iTunes Radio like they are in Pandora's offering. You can also buy any song directly from iTunes as it's playing -- at the top is a small button urging you to buy the song, and it displays the purchase price.
Reports have been swirling for weeks that Apple was working on a streaming music service. Google launched one last month, but its recent entry is more like Rdio, Spotify and Rhapsody -- pay a monthly subscription fee, gain access to millions of tracks that you can listen to on demand. Apple's entry is a discovery tool that seems to exist just to help sell you tracks from the iTunes music store.
But hey, at least it has streaming Led Zeppelin.
