Apple's free radio was also supported by adverts. They haven't stopped it for the benefit of musicians, it's only been pulled due to the failure of the iAd platform to generate enough income.
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Apple Ceases Free iTunes Radio Streaming Worldwide
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Well, good bye iTunes Match. After being a subscriber for 4 years, I just disabled renewal of my subscription. I had about a dozen custom iTunes radio stations, and they stopped working today just like that. I didn't even get an email notification like some other subscribers apparently did. At least they had the courtesy of pulling this move before my subscription renews in mid February so I don't have to deal with their support to get a refund.
I also just signed up for Google Play music, which not only allows me to sync my library via the cloud but also includes radio stations as well, all for free.
I also just signed up for Google Play music, which not only allows me to sync my library via the cloud but also includes radio stations as well, all for free.
Well I think one of the reasons labels agree to freemium tiers is because the next option for consumers would be file sharing which would result in them getting no money.
It is a sad day. Apple has now become just as greedy as Microsoft! 
Tim Cook, you have tarnished the Apple brand.
Some of your customers can not afford the "premium" service. I am not pleased with your market decision. I will return to using TuneIn Radio.
Tim Cook, you have tarnished the Apple brand. Some of your customers can not afford the "premium" service. I am not pleased with your market decision. I will return to using TuneIn Radio.
Splurge and get pocket tunes for ipad and iPhone.
Worldwide FREE all stations all the time. Even smaller regional ones.
Have it for many years now. Gave iTunes radio two tries and stopped using it. Has always been too anemic.
For some reason I can't find to tell you where to buy it.
On your mac you can just find the stations you like online and put bookmarks.
I agree. I don't think I'd be as upset if they had just removed the radio feature altogether. But to take it away from iTunes Match customers and demand another $95 a year to reinstate something we previously had included is a horrible business practice. They never even sent me an email informing me of the change. This has just been handled terribly from beginning to end. I imagine if people call and complain they'll issue a refund or credit the $25 towards Apple Music.
I can't understand why they want me to join Apple Music so badly. I give them $2 a month just for iTunes Match. I also buy at least $20 of music a month. They want to cut my spending and their revenue down $12 a month. Usually I'd applaud a company for saving me money, but streaming music is a different business model than purchasing music. I much prefer to own my music. If they gave me $10 a month in music I could keep forever I'd join today. But as long as I don't own the music I have no reason to support streaming services.
It is a sad day. Apple has now become just as greedy as Microsoft!
Some of your customers can not afford the "premium" service. I am not pleased with your market decision. I will return to using TuneIn Radio.
There are sooooo many options to get FREE music, why are you whining?
At some point the artists should get paid, the publishers, owners and distributors of the music should be paid, etc.
Imagine you would write songs for a living and never see any money. FAIR?
It is a sad day. Apple has now become just as greedy as Microsoft!
Some of your customers can not afford the "premium" service. I am not pleased with your market decision. I will return to using TuneIn Radio.
Greedy?
Last year Apple had 1 billion active devices.
They made $24 billion in services revenue (includes Apps, iTunes, AppleMusic, Apple Pay, ect)
So on average Apple got $2 per month from each device in services. Do you call that greedy?
Bottom line is Apple is focusing on PAID music content now. They are trying to move away from the ad run business as much as possible. If you don't like that then there are a ton of music services that will serve you up free music and spam you ads or data mine you. Its your decision.
You can't expect a company, any company to offer every single service at every single price point. Especially not the free price point.
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Its idiotic to think something free will always be free.
Just appreciate that you got it for free for a period of time.
This is like going to work and your boss buying you lunch for 2 years straight. Then the next year he stops buying you lunch. You can look at it two ways:
1. Appreciate his generosity the last 2 years.
2. Or be a spoiled brat and complain that he no longer buys you lunch
I'm sorry but bitching about losing free services is crazy.
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Agree. So many people wining about having to pay for something that talent musicians have labored for countless hours to make.
But that's our society now. Instead of being grateful and appreciative of having something for free they grumble when the free gravy train stops.
Bottom line is free music is not a viable long term business strategy for the music industry. Apple is just ahead of the curve. I'm pretty sure in a few years all free streaming will be gone.
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iAd did not generate enough income because Apple refuses to violate the users privacy in order to achive higher ad rates. Google can charge higher rates because they data mine users at lower level and breach privacy. This leads to more targeted ads = higher ad rates.
IMO, Apple wants to steer clear from anything that violates users privacy. Its one of the pillars of Tim Cook's vision for Apple.
"Agree. So many people wining about having to pay for something that talent musicians have labored for countless hours to make.
But that's our society now. Instead of being grateful and appreciative of having something for free they grumble when the free gravy train stops."
I agree with this comment but I also recognize basic human nature at work:
People want to hear music. Other services are offering it for free. Apple is charging money. Conclusion: people will use other services like Pandora and Spotify and Youtube, rather than Apple Music.
But that's our society now. Instead of being grateful and appreciative of having something for free they grumble when the free gravy train stops."
I agree with this comment but I also recognize basic human nature at work:
People want to hear music. Other services are offering it for free. Apple is charging money. Conclusion: people will use other services like Pandora and Spotify and Youtube, rather than Apple Music.
Pandora may be out of business in the next 12 months.
They lost about $250 million in 2015. This is crazy since the company is only worth $2 billion. That's like Apple losing $50 billion in a single year.
Bottom line is the free music business model is unsustainable long term. The only way companies can continue to support these services is if they spam you with a ton of ads or datamine you to death.
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No doubt about it. I'm all for getting stuff 'free'
But nothing in life is free in the long term. Most of these free music services will go out of business. The only way to survive is getting spammed with a ton of ads or get datamined to death. IMO, that is not a good experience. At this point Pandora is losing massive amounts of money. They will need to spam users more ads very soon to stay afloat.
I didn't say it was Apple Music. There are plenty of free options out there anyway. And the Internet Radio feature in iTunes still seems to be working anyway. It has more to do with how people want their music delivered. So I have to listen to a few ads when I listen through the Safari browser...big deal. Those ads are a lot less intrusive and annoying than the ones I block on the web pages themselves.
Stop complaining. They offer a very generous 90 day trial for Apple Music. If they doesn't work for you, Spotify has a good free program. Lots of options out there.
If Apple were Apple, they would have just gave it away and made it available to just Apple devices. Considering that some of the few perks you get with your Apple ID are 5 GB of free cloud storage.....Garageband...iMovie....the iWorks apps...they really should just make it available as part of being of the Apple ecosystem.
The BBC stream still works......but I had not problem listening to the ads that were there. It was nice to just place the music in the background while I was doing work around the home. At least the internet radio station option is still available.
In every instance where free music is referenced artists, publishers, etc. all get paid. Every instance. Erroneous points are being made by conflating "free to customer" with no pay for rights holders. Justifications being made based on the unpaid artists don't hold water.
The people who are upset seem to fall into two camps. Match customers with downgraded service (no question removing iT Radio is a downgrade) and Apple fans who believe in the whole "Apple cares" stuff. If it means that much, Match customers should vote with their dollars. Cancel or don't renew. The fans should realize no matter how much marketing would like them to believe otherwise, Apple is a business. A business that loves it high profit margin (apparently so do a lot of Apple fans). The failure of iAds to generate sufficient profit led to the deletion of iT Radio.
As you pointed out, there are a lot of other options outside of Apple that have ad-supported music. Maybe looking at the company in a more realistic light would cause less heartache.
Back to my free Rhapsody listening account, care of my T-Mobile phone service. I liked Apple's as well, seeing as how it was so easy to click a button while in iTunes, but no more.
Guys, I have a question for those that use the new subscription Apple Radio: Does it support the ability to purchase the song that's currently playing? To me, this is the one killer (and exclusive) feature of the old iTunes Radio is with a single button click you could buy the song you were listening to and download it to your phone. It's how I found new songs. Thanks for any replies.
File a class-action lawsuit. About time somebody took Apple to court over a legitimate grievance. Heck, I'm an iTunes Match subscriber so I'll join it!