Apple Announces iTunes Radio, Their New Streaming Music Serivce

iTunes Radio, Apple’s streaming music service, was announced Monday and will join the likes of other streaming music services such as Pandora and Spotify this fall.

Apple, the largest music retailer in the world, may be a little late to the market with their streaming music service, but that doesn’t seem to be of any concern.

Analysts believe that iTunes Radio could give a boost to iTunes, which, according to NPD Group, “has seen little growth in its customer base over the last three years.”

They believe the release of iTunes Radio will help Apple sell more music.

According to Wired: “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.”

So, while other streaming music services like Pandora have been out since 2005 and are available on multiple platforms, Apple’s new service will only be available for iTunes, iOS and the Apple TV.

With the change in how consumers go about their business, Huffington Poststates that “a streaming service from Apple could be integral in helping consumers find and purchase new music from iTunes.”

Accoding to Huffington Post, Russ Crupnick, a senior vice president at the NPD Group said the following:

“A lot of folks who stream say [streaming] helps me to discover and rediscover music. It’s not necessarily that just because I spend an hour streaming I’m going to download fewer song files.”

“You have people using things like Pandora and Spotify and saying in addition to that I want to buy music,” Crupnick added.

Wired stated that “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.”

With the large customer base that Apple is working with, do you think the new iTunes Radio will help boost sales of music for the company?

[Image via Huffington Post]