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Apple's iTunes Radio Becomes Third Most Popular U.S. Music Streaming Service

I still use Pandora more than iTunes Radio as Pandora seems to do a better job at choosing songs that it thinks I will like. With iTunes Radio songs seem to repeat themselves more over a shorter period of time. It might be due to all of the likes/dislikes I've built up over time.

Have no interest in Spotify since when I already know exactly what I want to hear, I go into my iTunes library and select it. For music streaming I prefer the radio-like experience of discovering new music which Pandora does the best job at. iTunes Radio to a lesser degree.
 
Bare said:
2. $120 a year is too expensive for you? Buying a song on iTunes is about a buck, and I probably listen to at least 120 tracks on Spotify a day. Especially when you think about when people used to, you know, buy an album, $120 gets you 10-12 albums. You only listen to 10-12 albums per year?
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Very weird comparison. By this example style i save billions thanks to my cable provider. Good sales pitch, nothing more.
 
I used iTunes radio for a couple of months and went back to Pandora.

Pandora's playlist is better and the commercials and shorter and less intrusive.

Pandora generates better playlists and plays better music, or at least music I prefer.

Pandora is "one click" launch, meaning I launch Pandora and music from the last station I listened to starts playing automatically.

For "internet radio" Pandora just offers the best service. For music on demand streaming I use Google Music
 
Imory said:
I've never used Itunes Radio, seeing as it's not available in where I live. Nevertheless, correct me if I'm wrong but you can't listen to a specific song whenever you want, right?
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That's why it's called radio. You are comparing apples to oranges.

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Technarchy said:
I used iTunes radio for a couple of months and went back to Pandora.

Pandora's playlist is better and the commercials and shorter and less intrusive.

Pandora generates better playlists and plays better music, or at least music I prefer.

Pandora is "one click" launch, meaning I launch Pandora and music from the last station I listened to starts playing automatically.

For "internet radio" Pandora just offers the best service. For music on demand streaming I use Google Music
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These things take time. The service will get better with time.
 
keterboy said:
Is pandora really that strong? I seem to see that everyone uses spotify. Thought spotify was much stronger in the numbers...:confused:
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Yea I'm confused on this as well, I think this is referring to the free versions? I just don't see how anyone would use Pandora over any other service especially Spotify.
 
bbeagle said:
You need to read up on statistics. I know, it seems at first to make no sense at all, I thought the same way originally - but if you read up on statistics you'll understand that getting the correct sample size for the correct results is often less than 1% of the group you are studying.
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Trust me, as a business major in college I completely understand how stats work but it doesn't mean that I need to agree with it, especially without knowing the demographics of the surveyed population. This also depends on where people live, their income, etc. People with a higher income might be more willing to use Spotify because of the cost. People in Wisconsin might be less likely to have an iTunes account in general because they are the state with the fewest credit cards per person. etc, etc...
 
SvP said:
Very weird comparison. By this example style i save billions thanks to my cable provider. Good sales pitch, nothing more.
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What's weird about it? I stopped buying albums and started using Spotify. The two are directly linked.

Please show me the logic that leads to your cable provider analogy.
 
Where's the bar chart line for "People who thought they were listening to Pandora, but were actually listening to iTunes radio, but called it Pandora, because that's what they've known about for the last decade, and when we ask them about any streaming audio service, they'll just say 'Pandora' because they don't know any better?"
 
Redbeard25 said:
Where's the bar chart line for "People who thought they were listening to Pandora, but were actually listening to iTunes radio, but called it Pandora, because that's what they've known about for the last decade, and when we ask them about any streaming audio service, they'll just say 'Pandora' because they don't know any better?"
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I just used my Xerox to copy something and my Kleenex to sneeze into. So, I know what you're talking about. :)
 
Bare said:
What's weird about it? I stopped buying albums and started using Spotify. The two are directly linked.

Please show me the logic that leads to your cable provider analogy.
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I find it hard to explain...

"I can watch movies on TV so i don't have to buy them anymore" equals "i can listen to the songs so i don't have to buy them anymore" But it's not the same.. buying or renting.. it's the same as saying "i rent a house thus saving €200.000". You'd agree its ridiculous to state it that way, wouldn't you?

I'd agree that you saved €120 that year so you feel like spotify is not that expensive, but comparing the purchase price to the rental price is the weird part.
 
dumastudetto said:
iTunes Radio is the only streaming service worth using at this point. I forecast in 12 months Apple will be the world leader in this space.
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It would help if you explained your love for iTunes Radio. Are the songs there better? Or the ads?
 
Apple said they would have it out in Canada in early 2014, we're already in March... early 2014 is Jan/Feb. Apple only kept its promise for Australia.
 
keterboy said:
Is pandora really that strong? I seem to see that everyone uses spotify. Thought spotify was much stronger in the numbers...:confused:
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Agreed. Odd. Everyone I know uses Spotify. And iTunes radio plays like the same 10 songs over and over and over....I stopped using it after a few days.
 
keterboy said:
Is pandora really that strong? I seem to see that everyone uses spotify. Thought spotify was much stronger in the numbers...:confused:
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I've never seen anyone use spotify. Pandora or searching youtube for videos is what I find around me.

I didn't even know spotify was a music service. Sounds like a picture sharing app to me.
 
SvP said:
I find it hard to explain...

"I can watch movies on TV so i don't have to buy them anymore" equals "i can listen to the songs so i don't have to buy them anymore" But it's not the same..
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I would certainly agree that those aren't the same, though that perhaps describes the similarity between Pandora and cable TV in that you're forced to watch/listen to whatever the service decides to show you. Spotify is not like that because I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want rather than having little-to-no control over what I'm listening to, or at least when I can next listen to the song I actually want to listen to.

If you want to create a more appropriate TV analogy, it would be better to describe the difference between buying movies and TV shows and subscribing to Hulu Plus or Netflix.

Cable TV hasn't really changed, the networks have just decided to release anything and everything on DVD/Blu-ray to get more money out of people. Rather than buying movies on DVD or entire seasons/series of television shows on DVD, I can watch those whenever I want on Netflix (for a similar price as Spotify).

As with any analogy, this one has its problems, primarily that Netflix has a poor library of movies, especially when compared to the vast library of music on Spotify.

SvP said:
buying or renting.. it's the same as saying "i rent a house thus saving €200.000". You'd agree its ridiculous to state it that way, wouldn't you?
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I agree that this analogy is ridiculous, certainly. Whether renting or buying a home, you're still paying similar monthly fees for a similar product. So again, not the best analogy (nor is there ever a perfect analogy).
 
SvP said:
I'd agree that you saved €120 that year so you feel like spotify is not that expensive, but comparing the purchase price to the rental price is the weird part.
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Assuming one does it properly, there is nothing weird about it at all.

Renting and ownership are not the same so just a straight price comparison is flawed. You have to factor in the unique points of both models, their relative importance and worth to you and then you'll be able to make a reasonably educated decision.

After trying out Beats Music, I've started to come around to the renting model. My musical tastes are quite diverse, so having instant access to a huge library is a big plus for me. And as I also have a large library of purchased music, it's not like I'm left with no music at all if I ever decide to end the subscription. At such a time, I could always switch back to purchasing and get just the albums that I loved most during my subscription.

The biggest gamble with subscription services to me is what companies may do once they got you hooked. However, in the music space (unlike say, Photoshop CC) there is plenty of competition to keep the players in check. For now...

As for iTunes Radio, my personal experience with it has been better than that of Pandora. Pandora was too repetitive for my taste. I never tried out the paid service though, as the experience with the ad supported one wasn't great.
 
For those of you who say iTunes Radio plays the same songs over and over, have you gone into the station information and moved the slider over from "Hits" to "Discovery". I found that moving it to "Discovery" makes it so there are pretty much no repeats.

iTunes Radio is pretty good if all you do is listen to random songs in a curated playlist radio-style. For those of us who still like to listen to something we know at any moment services like Spotify, Rdio, or All Access are much more robust. iTunes Radio is nice because it's baked right into the OS, and I'm curious if that is why it has such a huge number of users. Are those people actually using iTunes Radio, or are they just counted because they have an iOS device?

I would like to see Apple expand it this year and make their own full blown streaming service comparable to Spotify, Rdio, or All Access. I would gladly pay $9.99 to have full access to every song an album on iTunes.
 
This discussion is completely nonsensical.

Services like Google AllAccess, Beats Audio, and Spotify, are completely and intrinsically different than iTunes Radio. Pandora and iTunes Radio are analogous, the others are not, and shouldn't be compared.

That most subscription music services (Spotify, Google AllAccess, Beats Audio, etc.) also offer radio-like services (Pandora, iTunes Radio, Slacker, etc.) is why it seems like no one can keep them clear. They serve different purposes with different audiences and goals. I subscribe to Spotify because I detest Music.app in iOS, and don't want to have to manage music on mobile devices. It allows me to listen to anything I want whenever I want with zero limitations. At the same time, I sometimes also use services like Pandora and even iTunes Radio for a different, more random experience.

Why is this so hard? Is anyone at all thinking about what they write anymore?
 
I tried to like iTunes Radio. I went so far as to cancel my Pandora subscription to "force" myself to listen to iTunes Radio instead. But iTunes Radio simply doesn't do as good of a job playing the music I want to hear. Example: When I listen to "Golden Oldies Radio" station, I hear songs I'm familiar with but done by artists that aren't the ones that made the songs famous. WTF?! (And, yes, the slider is set to HITS not Discovery.)

Plus, iTunes Radio seems to repeat songs more frequently than Pandora.

I'm back to paying $3.99 for Pandora! Nice try Apple, but Pandora's got you beat when it comes to playing the music I want to hear!

Mark
 
I don't know why Pandora seems to get so much hate. I pay for Pandora One, it's like $36/year or something. And I find after I do a little work in setting up a station, I rarely have to skip or anything. I've had a great experience with Pandora.
 
I love iTunes Radio, though I currently switch back and forth between that and Last.fm (since I've been using Last.fm for years and have a good set of listening tastes).

If Apple decides to though, they could theoretically launch a pretty serious competitor to to Sirius though. They have the user base and they have the music; if they ever started doing more with guest DJs and regular DJs, it could expand pretty quickly. They already have the reach and user base.

Mark Booth said:
I'm back to paying $3.99 for Pandora! Nice try Apple, but Pandora's got you beat when it comes to playing the music I want to hear!
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It's free; why do you need to choose between the two? I believe it also takes time to build out your genius playlists, too, IIRC.
 
I don't know why Pandora seems to get so much hate.
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Because some people have made a huge (and at times scary) emotional investment in using only Apple provided products and services. When I read threads like this where the only premise is crowd-rousing popularity dick-waving, and people say things like, "I forced myself to use iTunes Radio..." I think there's something seriously wrong.

There's a huge and awesome marketplace for music right now. Whether you like to buy individual tracks and albums, use an all-you-can-eat subscription service, or listen to internet-streamed radio stations, there are so many great choices. I remember how much time and money I put into buying rare import CDs and vinyl of bands I liked way back when I was in college in the late 80s. It was really hard putting together a diverse music collection if you had eclectic tastes! And taking that music with you was a chore. Now, I can't get over how easy it is for me to buy/listen to/rent any track I want in any format I want any time I want from even the most obscure bands half a world away. It's magic.

So limiting yourself to one company's entirely mainstream offerings seems like intentionally boxing yourself in to the same limited marketplace some of us old folks had to deal with way back when. Not for me. No way; I'll use 'em all, and reap the rewards. Music is too important, and there's too much amazing stuff being produced to think, no matter how much you may adore Apple, that their service can possibly cover it all. Not even close.
 
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