iTunes Radio

Sad Professor

http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-radio/

It'll obviously be a while before it's available here, but based on what you saw in the keynote, what do you think?

I'm really looking forward to it. It's good value if you are already an iTunes Match subscriber. I know there are a lot of Spotify fans around here, but music subscription services really don't do it for me. I don't see the point of making playlists, etc only for many of those songs to potentially disappear in the future. Plus, you have to endure their crappy cross-platform-style apps.

Dman001

Well it already has a huge step ahead of Spotify, Pandora and the likes by being integrated into iOS7 and iTunes, that's a hell of a lot of devices to be pre-installed on right into the existing music player. But it's not a direct competitor to Spotify, Rdio or Deezer as it is to Pandora, through the fact that you cannot, for example, play the full back catalogue of a given artist - it curates a playlist of similar tracks that it thinks you may like, it is a music discovery tool after all. So in that sense, Spotify et al still maintain relevance in the market.

I would have liked to see a few more features myself for iTunes Match customers, something like offline playlists maybe, to make the price of an iTunes Match subscription that bit more appealing. But hey, at the end of the day, free is free. Can't complain.

keith_d99

Dman001 wrote: »

But it's not a direct competitor to Spotify, Rdio or Deezer as it is to Pandora, through the fact that you cannot, for example, play the full back catalogue of a given artist - it curates a playlist of similar tracks that it thinks you may like, it is a music discovery tool after all. So in that sense, Spotify et al still maintain relevance in the market.

An important point that people seem to miss .... Jim Carroll of the Irish Times for example

Irish Times Link/

Sad Professor

There's obviously a big difference between an internet radio service like Pandora and an all-you-can-eat service like Spotify, but I think the reason people tend to lump them altogether is because they use them all essentially the same way: to discover new music. Spotify is great if you know what music you want to discover, where as Pandora and the like are more appealing if you need some help.

Armonline

Anyone hear when iTunes Radio might be released internationally?

It will be available in the US next week for IOS7 launch, but havn't heard anything on when iTunes Radio will be out in Ireland.

Could use a US iTunes account but would prefer not to have to swap between accounts.

Dades

You only need to swap between accounts when updating or buying apps from the App Store on you phone. If you do your updates/puchasing from iTunes then you don't have to do this.

I've used a US account on iOS7 beta and I really like the service.

Armonline

Dades wrote: »

You only need to swap between accounts when updating or buying apps from the App Store on you phone. If you do your updates/puchasing from iTunes then you don't have to do this.

I've used a US account on iOS7 beta and I really like the service.

As I am also an iTunes Match user I need to use my Irish account to access my own iTunes music in the cloud. I have been using the beta IOS 7 for the last few months and really like iTunes Radio but have to swap back to the Irish account for my own cloud music. Also iTunes Match subscribers will get iTunes Radio ad free so am waiting for an international release.

Fingleberries

iTunes Radio can be accessed from iTunes on PC (and I presume Mac):
1. Log in to the iTunes Store with your US iTunes Account
2. After successfully logging on to the Store, click on your own local Music Library and you will notice the Radio option along the top bar (Songs, Albums, Artists, Genres, Radio)

For the Free version you can only skip six songs in an hour.
While you can skip songs you are able to configure the radio station via a slider bar to say that it will play the "Hits", allow for more "Variety" in the music played or for "Discovery" of new songs / artists.

Quality is very good so far.