Do you think Apple will allow streaming with their rumored "iRadio" service?

Apple cant get the music industry to sign on, especially since Apple is offering a lot less that what Pandora, and the others are paying. So unless Apple drastically changes their offer, the music industry will not cave like they did when apple initially started selling music. I would imagine it will be very similar to Pandora and Spotify,

Internet radio - free, lots of variety, etc. I am not sure what iRadio would bring that is any different than that other than being sable to search for content.

VulchR said:

Internet radio - free, lots of variety, etc. I am not sure what iRadio would bring that is any different than that other than being sable to search for content.

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No annoying commercials.

I'm sure that Apple will get what they want. The music industry would not have been what it is today without Apple.

taedouni said:

I'm sure that Apple will get what they want. The music industry would not have been what it is today without Apple.

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Big difference between now and then. Apple has competition now who are way ahead of them in the streaming game.

taedouni said:

I'm sure that Apple will get what they want. The music industry would not have been what it is today without Apple.

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I agree, they will make it happen and in time make it great.

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc would love it if streaming radio can get rolling. Burn up to those tier limits ASAP so they can charge even more than now. "Unlimited*" at its best. I'd be surprised if they weren't willing to quietly subsidize a bit of the actual cost of iRadio just to make it back many times over in people listening to streaming radio and having to step up to a higher tier of data.

iCloud & streaming + hard-capped data tiers are a terrible combo for consumers. One begs for storing everything in the cloud while the other tightens the squeeze on our wallets. What a combo!

Now mix in "big innovations" that all seem to revolve around the need to continually stream data (Siri, maps and now maybe this iRadio) and you make some massive corporations very happy.

wxman2003 said:

No annoying commercials.

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This would be huge for me! I can't stand those pandora commercials.

Lets start another rumor in response to another rumor.

Apple is so late the the game these days it's not even funny. Who needs yet another streaming service. But to answer the OPs question with another question: Why would anyone offer an online 'radio' service (re: iRadio) that didn't stream?

TyPod said:

This would be huge for me! I can't stand those pandora commercials.

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Do you think Apple isn't going to do ads? If Apple does a streaming service I'd be willing to be to go ad-free will require a subscription just like the other streaming services require,

http://www.pandora.com/one - For ad-free Pandora.

wxman2003 said:

Big difference between now and then. Apple has competition now who are way ahead of them in the streaming game.

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Apple had an even bigger competition back then and it was napster which was awesomely free! I miss the good old days!

Sedrick said:

Apple is so late the the game these days it's not even funny. Who needs yet another streaming service. But to answer the OPs question with another question: Why would anyone offer an online 'radio' service (re: iRadio) that didn't stream?

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Yeah, the question is inane. "Will Apple allow users of their music streaming service to stream music?"

Tyrion said:

Yeah, the question is inane. "Will Apple allow users of their music streaming service to stream music?"

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I think the original question was just worded poorly. Seems like perhaps the real question was whether it would be a 'you pick a general station and take what we randomly serve up' like traditional radio or more user guided where you can tweak it by picking artists, album, creating playlists etc.

Frankly I'm not sure it will be either. Apple had radio stations in iTunes on the computer and I suspect ditched them due to stats showing a lack of use. Why would they expect that to be different on a portable device. As for the whole Pandora etc, Apple's not really into repeating things unless they can add a value to it. What real value could they add other than perhaps giving everyone all the possible options for customizing etc for free without even ads. And that just doesn't make business sense. Which is an important factor as Apple is a business so whatever they do would need to sustain itself as much as possible. Plus would the content deals allow when the plethora of options they might want without limits.

Personally I think the talk of Apple creating a Pandora killer is bunk. I really strongly wonder if all of this is just about completing the return on buying Lala.com and its about streaming as a selling tool not creating a radio system

charlituna said:

What real value could they add other than perhaps giving everyone all the possible options for customizing etc for free without even ads.

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Seamless integration of their streaming service directly into their desktop and mobile operating systems? Looks like a pretty significant benefit to me.

corys00 said:

Do you think Apple isn't going to do ads? If Apple does a streaming service I'd be willing to be to go ad-free will require a subscription just like the other streaming services require,

http://www.pandora.com/one - For ad-free Pandora.

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I never said I didn't think they would have ads, I just said I didn't like them. I would much rather subscribe to something through Apple compared to Pandora.