iTunes Radio

ESPN Radio talk shows and local NPR stations now airing on iTunes Radio

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Right on cue, Apple's free iTunes Radio service has now started delivering the World Cup 2014 audio stream and other national and global news content from ESPN, as well as over forty new National Public Radio (NPR) stations bringing live programming for news, talk shows and more.

And in addition to the World Cup stream, iTunes Radio now offers original ESPN programs, including such national sports talk shows as SportsCenter All Night, SVP and Russillo, Mike & Mike, The Dan LeBatard Show and The Herd.

As for NPR, a total of 42 NPR stations have made their way to iTunes Radio, including New York Public Radio, San Francisco’s KQED, Washington, D.C.'s WAMU and more, plus a number of popular programs like All Things Considered. Additional iTunes Radio stations are already being planned...

Traces of Preview, TextEdit, standalone iTunes Radio and Siri API discovered in iOS 8 code

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

As a prominent iOS developer noted on Twitter, looks like Apple is actually toying with a standalone iTunes Radio app, as previously suspected.

In addition, Apple looks to be prepping new stock iOS 8 apps - TextEdit and Preview - as well as potentially enabling third-party Siri access.

Code hooks and hidden assets discovered in the iOS 8 Beta code seem to support these findings, largely corroborating much of the earlier findings by prominent Apple blogger Mark Gurman.

Note that this is no guarantee that Apple will roll out these features - that is, it will only introduce them when they're ready for prime time. For example, The New York Times previously reported that split-screen functionality didn't make the cut in iOS 8. With that in mind, it's fairly safe to speculate that Preview, TextEdit, third-party Siri access and a standalone iTunes Radio could be slated for the iOS 8.1 update...

Beats buy and iTunes Radio limitations blamed on Apple’s ‘arrogance’ and incompetent managers

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 6, 2014

According to two Apple sources familiar with the development of iTunes Radio, current limitations of the free service and the $3 billion acquisition of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's Beats talent, brand, headphone business and streaming service is all the result of the firm's "arrogance" and shortsightedness of its managers.

Worse, some high-ranked members of Apple's music teams reportedly didn’t even know that Spotify was an on-demand streaming service and not an Internet radio service akin to Pandora and iTunes Radio...

Broadcast radio stations and locally targeted ads reportedly planned for iTunes Radio

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 30, 2014

According to The Information, a technology blog run by the former Wall Street Journal star reporter Jessica Lessin, Apple is about to bring broadcast radio stations to its iTunes Radio service and permit advertisers to target listeners with greater granularity than before.

These latest strides, said to materialize later this year, are believed to be aimed squarely at the likes of Pandora as Apple moves to make its service more competitive versus established Internet radio offerings...

iTunes surpasses 35 billion songs sold, iTunes Radio hits 40 million listeners

Cody Lee ∙ May 29, 2014

Speaking at last night's inaugural Code Conference, Apple SVP of Internet services Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine shared some numbers on their respective music services following yesterday's major acquisition.

Iovine talked Beats Music, and Cue of course talked iTunes, which have each hit major milestones within the last week. Beats has surpassed the quarter million subscriber mark, and iTunes hit 35 billion digital downloads sold...

iTunes Radio set to stream a bunch of ESPN and NPR stations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple sure seems adamant to bolster up its music ambitions. Shortly after confirming that it's purchasing Beats Electronics and Beats Music in a transaction valued at $3 billion - by far the largest acquisition in company history since the 1997 NeXT deal, we're now hearing some encouraging news concerning iTunes Radio, its Internet radio service.

Specifically, iTunes Radio has now started streaming content from ESPN, including the World Cup stream. Moreover, Apple will be adding a bunch of local NPR stations to the service soon...

iTunes Radio could expand to The Netherlands

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 23, 2014

Based on a pair of screenshots of the iOS 7 Music app shared on Twitter, it seems that The Netherlands has made it on Apple's list of upcoming iTunes Radio markets in Europe as one Dutch user reports the Radio tab randomly appearing and disappearing on his device.

Last we heard, Apple was gearing up to expand the service to the United Kingdom following a meeting its iAd director had with London-based ad agencies.

The Cupertino company even banned London-based iTunes Radio rival, a service called Bloom.fm, from its iAd advertising network...

iTunes Radio expanding to UK soon, iAd director meets with UK ad agencies

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

More signs are pointing to an imminent iTunes Radio launch in the United Kingdom. The company recently banned London-based music streaming service Bloom.fm from advertising on its iAd platform citing competitive reasons and now Apple's iAd director is meeting with the country's ad agencies, seemingly in preparation for iTunes Radio roll-out in the 63 million people market of United Kingdom...

Apple bans UK’s iTunes Radio competitor from iAd

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

Bloom.fm, a London-based music streaming service, on Friday made it known on Twitter that Apple's blocked it from advertising on its iAd platform, citing competitive reasons.

"Apple just banned our ads because we're 'a competitive service to iTunes Radio and it is against Apple policy'", reads the tweet.

The service has a catalog of 22 million tracks that can be streamed for as low as £1 a month (about $1.67).

It's easy to see why Apple has taken a stance against the service: its own iTunes Store sells individual song downloads for the price of a month's worth of unlimited streaming on Bloom.fm. The development has prompted Bloom.fm to boast that "We must be big time now", adding the team was surprised to learn that Apple even noticed what such a small company was doing...

Apple said to be considering ‘dramatic’ overhaul of iTunes music store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Apple is considering the most dramatic overhaul of its iTunes music store in more than a decade, according to a new report by Billboard. Citing sources familiar with the company's deliberations, the outlet claims Apple is actively looking for ways to combat declining music downloads.

We saw a similar report from Billboard last month, which claimed that the Cupertino firm was mulling over an Android version of its iTunes store, as well as an on-demand streaming service of sorts. It's clear that Apple is facing increasing competition from Spotify, Rdio and other services...

iTunes Radio is getting NPR’s streaming news channel today

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

National Public Radio (NPR) is adding the first streaming news channel to Apple’s free iTunes Radio service, Re/code just reported.

The unexpected development marks the official branching out of iTunes Radio, which debuted last September as a music-only streaming service available on Mac and PC desktops as well as on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

When NPR’s new channel goes live later today in iTunes Radio, Apple users will be able to tune in to a free stream offering 24/7 mixes of live news with segments from pre-recorded shows such as 'All Things Considered' and 'The Diane Rehm Show.'

But the good news doesn't stop here. Read on for the full reveal.

UPDATE: NPR's channel is now live in iTunes Radio...

Apple considering iTunes for Android, on-demand streaming service

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Apple is contemplating launching an iTunes app for Android devices to bolster its digital music sales, according to a new Billboard report. The company is also said to be in exploratory talks with senior label executives about rolling out an on-demand streaming service that would rival Spotify and Beats Music. These two moves are part of a broader strategy that would help the Cupertino-based company combat double-digit drops in iTunes downloads in the United States…