It seems like Apple will try anything to make Apple music work. It has been announcing initiatives and changes to make it more popular. Apple has decided to discontinue iTunes Radio’s time as a free, ad-supported service will be now ended. As per the latest reports, Apple has decided to discontinue the free version of its Internet radio service and move it behind the Apple Music paywall in January. The same information was notified to users via an e-mail that said, “As a listener of ad-supported radio on Apple Music, we want you to know it’s being discontinued starting January 28th”.
Apple’s Internet radio service will become part of Apple Music, and will only be available to paying subscribers. Though, Beats1 will remain free for the users to listen to. For this, you need not have an Apple Music Subscription, clarified the e-mail. This will not impact iTunes’ separate “Internet Radio” feature. This “Internet Radio” feature will let you listen to non-Apple Internet radio streams. As the feature has been around since the early days of iTunes, it is highly unlikely that the feature will go anywhere.
Apple iTunes Radio was launched to stand against Pandora
Apple’s iTunes Radio story goes back in 2013. Apple launched this service alongside iOS7 as an answer to Internet radio giant Pandora. It had features that were similar to Pandora. iTunes Radio lets you pick pre-programmed stations or create your own stations based on a song or artist. Till date, iTunes Radio was a free, ad-supported service for maximum people. If the user later subscribed to iTunes Match and Apple Music, then it also did away with the ads.
This move for iTunes Radio’s subscription-only model came after Apple decided to disband the sales team for its iAd advertising network. As per the speculations by 9to5Mac, the decision to end ad-supported iTunes Radio is related to the iAd shutdown. According to them, “Apple can simplify the responsibilities of the floundering iAd group by getting rid of the need for ads to service the legacy stations”.
Pandora and Spotify still available for free with ads
If the user wants to keep the advertisements on in his Internet radio and keep the free music playback, there are some good alternatives. One of the options is Pandora, as it is the biggest name in the Internet radio. It provides a free, ad-supported service tier to go along with its $5-per-month Pandora One subscription service. Though, one issue with Pandora that might bug Apple users is that the service lacks integration that iTunes Radio offered. The good part is, Pandora offers a free iOS app to listeners.
Another option, apart from Pandora is Spotify. Spotify is extremely popular as a music streaming service. It is extremely well known for its a la carte music streaming. It has an easy interface and its Radio service is quite similar to both Pandora and iTunes Radio. Spotify is available for both, Mac and iOS app. In addition to that, it also offers a $10-per-month ‘Premium’ service. Its premium service features lets you listen to the Spotify music collection whenever you are offline.
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