Apple will soon be launching its newly announced iTunes Radio in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.K. as early as beginning of 2014, sources “with knowledge of the situation” have claimed.
The Bloomberg report goes in line with earlier reports that Apple is on a hiring spree to recruit talent that would assist Cupertino with iTunes Radio expansion in other countries. Apple announced iTunes Radio in the US on September 18 and said at the time that the service will hit UK soon, but refrained from giving out any specific timeline.
As there is no official announcement from Apple there are chances that the service may get delayed from early 2014 to mid-2014 or even late-2014.
Apple’s iTunes Radio allows users to listen endless music tracks based on their preferences and taste and also offers them an option to buy in for an ad-free experience. Depending on rights agreements the charges for iTunes may be different in different regions.
If Apple goes ahead with an early 2014 iTunes Radio UK launch, its rivals like Pandora will certainly have a hard time maintaining their revenue stream. Apple is sure to face tough competition from Spotify though. Unlike Spotify, Apple’s iTunes Radio creates song playlists based on the songs users like and doesn’t allow them to select individual songs they want to listen to.
Looking at this feature limitation, if we may, commentators from both technology and music industry are not sure whether iTunes Radio will be able to win share in the music streaming industry from Spotify.
Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, told the Associated Press in an interview last week that “One of our top priorities is to bring iTunes Radio obviously here in the U.K. but everywhere in the world”.
