At the Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, Apple unveiled its revamped iOS with features that resemble the Android platform, so much so that one of our Producers Zamora says Android users will feel “very, very familiar” using the new interface.  Included in the announcement is iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service, that, as Apple puts it, “features over 200 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store, combined with features only iTunes can deliver.”  Yes, it’s called iTunes Radio, not iRadio, though it would have been better if Apple went with the latter.

iTunes Radio can be accessed on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC or Apple TV, and will deliver songs based on past song purchases or songs already saved in your iTunes, as well as other songs you listen to on the service.  It has Featured Stations curated by Apple, and genre-focused stations that are personalized for the listeners.  Apple explains that iTunes Radio’s music recommendation will get better the more a person uses it as it gets to know what types of music you like listening to.  The fruity company also promises access to exclusive “first listen” premieres from top selling artists, Siri integration, plus the ability to buy anything you hear with just one tap.

iTunes Radio feature list

Apple also promises that iTunes Radio is highly personalized as it’s easy to create and customize stations based on whatever you want to hear.  By picking an artist, song, or genre from iTunes Radio or your library, iTunes Radio instantly builds a station around it.  And while listening to a song, listeners can make adjustments by tapping Play More Like This or Never Play This Song or control the balance between playing the hits and discovering new songs.  The Edit Station allows for easy adding or deleting stations as well as control which songs, artists, genres you want to hear more of or not at all.

iTunes Radio will be available in two forms: ad-free via the iTunes Match, which costs $24.99 per year, and free but laced with ads.  This is the same model that most music streaming services follow.  If you want uninterrupted music experience, you need to be ready to pay a service fee.  If you think you can deal with ads, then the free model will be enough for you.

Spotify and Pandora also has the same subscription models: free but with ads, and a paid version.  Spotify offers the paid subscription for $4.99/month for no ads or $9.99/month lets you use on all available devices, no ads, unlimited skipping while Pandora offers its premium model for $36 a year.  With iTunes Radio’s price, the service looks promising.

Will iTunes Radio revolutionize the streaming music industry?

Apple is the dominant player in the digital music market, disrupting the music industry as a whole.  Before, people who want to listen to their favorite song would have to spend hours listening to the radio waiting for their favorite song (yes that line sounds like a line from a Carpenters song but you get my drift) or if they can afford, buy the album in vinyl, cassette or CD form.  Buying an album is a huge risk since you probably won’t like all the songs.  When iTunes came along, it gave listeners the power to choose whether to buy the whole album, a few tracks from it, or even just one song.

Some are suggesting that iTunes Radio has the power to disrupt music streaming services as well, but others beg to differ as the service doesn’t really offer anything revolutionary.  The advantage for iTunes Radio is that, because iTunes already has millions of songs in its catalog, plus deals with major record companies, there will be more music that people can access, plus it will be easier for people to purchase songs they like as Apple promises a one-touch purchase UI.

• Monetizing music

Apple has a single purpose, and that’s to monetize from the service either via subscriptions or selling music, unlike other streaming services that, for lack of a better term, “rent” music to listeners.  Because of this, record labels could favor Apple’s music service more than competitors’ and this could lead to the Cupertino company to dominate music streaming service.

Proof of the huge potential of iTunes Radio is Rdio’s CEO Drew Larner stepping down from his position stating that a new leader is needed for the company to be able to compete with the likes of Google and Apple.

Unfortunately, not everything is about music, as Apple needs to focus on delivering ads as well.  Apple does not have a very good track record when it comes to mobile advertising, and an ad-laced model available for listeners, this could be the downfall of iTunes Radio.  In the past, Apple invested in mobile advertising when it acquired Quattro and built iAd – a mobile advertising platform.  But alas, selling ads to ad agencies is not one of Apple’s giant’s forte.

Not everyone in the music industry is worried by iTunes Radio.  TuneIn, a service dubbed as the radio of the world, is not your typical music streaming service, as it delivers radio stations from around the world so the music mix is selected by real DJs, not algorithms that determines what listeners like listening to.

“I would say that we’re quite different to iRadio,” TuneIn CEO John Donham said in an interview. “I would say that services like Pandora or iRadio are just like putting CDs on shuffle, whereas we allow people to listen live to broadcasters from around the world. So we’re not worried.

“However, when it comes to streaming services, which allow listeners to put their favourite songs on shuffle, there’s going to be a bloodbath as several competitors move into the same space. It’s going to be exciting watching them compete.”

It’s too early to tell whether iTunes Radio will be a hit or miss, but surely Fanboys and hipsters alike will be raving about the service soon as it’s available for listeners to try out.  We’ll soon find out one way or another.