In efforts to get iTunes Radio off to a good start, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is hiring musical genre experts to help them program their stations, unlike top competitor Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), which uses an algorithm-driven methodology. It’s the algorithms and user-feedback that helps determine what songs should be played.
iTunes Radio will roll out with 300 or so genres
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) wants to take a different approach with a human touch. CNET was the first to report the plans. Paul Sloan shared the details in his report, “In a still-young digital music industry, everyone from Spotify to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is trying to figure out the best way to help music fans discover new music. Yet so far, most people are discovering music the old fashioned way—via FM radio. So here comes Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which very much wants to be your DJ—albeit with a heavy dose of your iTunes behavioral data mixed in. And the big music labels, working closely with their largest digital partner, are rooting for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s success. iTunes Radio will roll out with 300 or so genres, from hip-hop to country and doo-wop. It also let’s you enter an artist’s name—a la Pandora—to build a station, and it does so for free with ads.”
Apple should take the opportunity
iTunes Radio comes with iOS 7, which will be released tomorrow. It’s free for iOS 7 users. Alternatively, users can pay $25 a year for an iTunes Match service that allows users to hear music with no ads and can skip as many songs as they want. The new service will initially launch exclusively in the United States, but there is potential it could go global. The iTunes maker has to reach agreements with music publishers and labels. Since iTunes operates in 119 different territories, many of them don’t get Internet radio. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) should take the opportunity to eventually expand their internet radio service, especially since Pandora radio is limited to United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
