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In addition to being a conduit for iTunes, Apple's little black streaming box also wants to be your new in-home radio station.
The perpetual hobby known as Apple TV was updated to software version 6.0 today. The firmware bump brings Apple's new iTunes Radio service to the set-top box. Similar to Pandora, the service has radio stations built around genre, artists, and songs. You can also vote songs up or down. Subscribers to the $25/year iTunes Match will get an ad-free experience while everyone else will be subject to occasional ads, according to Apple.
The iTunes Radio service is a part of Apple's massive iOS 7 update that landed on iOS devices Wednesday. The desktop iTunes App was also updated on Wednesday to 11.1 and includes iTunes Radio.
The service is Apple's (much delayed) answer to similar radio features on Slacker, Rdio, and Spotify. By placing its radio service on the Apple TV, the company has linked iTunes Radio to the best -- or at the very least, the most used -- speakers in the house. While music from other apps can be pushed to the Apple TV via AirPlay, having a native app could give Apple a distinct advantage over competing products in homes with Apple TVs.
More importantly for the bottom line, it gives Apple the chance to sell more tracks from its iTunes music. Songs that are played in iTunes Radio show up in the services history on all devices and can be purchased from those devices including the Apple TV, thanks to today's update.
Today's update also brought AirPlay From iCloud, which lets guests stream their purchased music, photos, and videos stored in iCloud to another person's Apple TV. If you bought World War Z on iTunes, you can now go to a friend's house with an Apple TV and watch it there without having to log into their Home Sharing account or store it on your phone. It's all streamed from iCloud.
