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Apple Ending Ad-Supported iTunes Radio Stations at End of January
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Such bs, i sent Apple feedback at that link. I think I will email Tim Cook tomorrow. He actually reads his emails from customers.
This is only a guess, but I don't think the poster meant that Match and Pandora are related. They most likely are paying for Match for ad-free listening to iTunes Radio, which is related to Pandora.
If Apple removes iTunes Radio from Match, then the poster will most likely cancel their Match sub, save $25, and use Pandora as a replacement for iTunes Radio.
I think many other Match subscribers will be doing the exact same thing if/when iTunes Radio is discontinued.
They are ending a part of a subscription service they got me to buy. My only response to to cancel match.
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And they're all garbage
The Problem, at least for me, with Beats 1 is its radio. The Match radio have/had stations you created and then by likes dialed in to better align with my tastes. I can live with the commercials but there a huge number of real radio stations that stream and need listeners support. Beats 1 is redundant and really a step back in time.
I have feeling a large part of this is that the royalties for streaming music are going up quite a bit soon, I think 20%. Those royalties are part of the agreement Apple made to start AM and thus the streams on AM would just be a smart playlist. Whereas the free fall, I'd think, under the agreement Pandora works under for royalties. The rate is actually more for Pandora One, the ad-free premium pay service - Pandora pays about 40% more to play a song on Pandora One then the ad-supported service. I'd think its would be similar between Apple Radio and the Radio subscription Match streams.
That said a large part of why I still subscribe to Match is the radio function, being ad-free is part of it. But it gives me a mostly tailored music for background listening, the car and aTV at home/work. The skips less so, if you dial in the station on either Pandora or Apple Radio you need to skip less. I mostly use it while in the car, it was a big part of my thinking or getting Carplay (which I doubt now) and as background from my aTV. Neither of these, where I'm using music as back ground, need lossless. Cellular bandwidth is a consideration in the car. The current iOS music app is almost unusable, and unsafe, for use while driving. A large part of the screen real estate taken up by Beats 1, its really the only part of the screen that easy to activate while driving. I have better options if I want to listen to or stream radio. My choice for radio is one I actually get over the air - WXPN.
I can easily use Pandora and stream a few real radio stations, the latter needs listener support.
Pandora also is now on my aTV4. So at least now, Pandora and PLEX make that purchase of an aTV4 a stronger option.
Without Match I do lose and easy way to fill my iPhone with music for off line listening.
The end result is I much less reason to continue paying for Match. Actually having all this has been one more thing keeping me tied to the Apple ecosystem and continue with new iPhones.
I have feeling a large part of this is that the royalties for streaming music are going up quite a bit soon, I think 20%. Those royalties are part of the agreement Apple made to start AM and thus the streams on AM would just be a smart playlist. Whereas the free fall, I'd think, under the agreement Pandora works under for royalties. The rate is actually more for Pandora One, the ad-free premium pay service - Pandora pays about 40% more to play a song on Pandora One then the ad-supported service. I'd think its would be similar between Apple Radio and the Radio subscription Match streams.
That said a large part of why I still subscribe to Match is the radio function, being ad-free is part of it. But it gives me a mostly tailored music for background listening, the car and aTV at home/work. The skips less so, if you dial in the station on either Pandora or Apple Radio you need to skip less. I mostly use it while in the car, it was a big part of my thinking or getting Carplay (which I doubt now) and as background from my aTV. Neither of these, where I'm using music as back ground, need lossless. Cellular bandwidth is a consideration in the car. The current iOS music app is almost unusable, and unsafe, for use while driving. A large part of the screen real estate taken up by Beats 1, its really the only part of the screen that easy to activate while driving. I have better options if I want to listen to or stream radio. My choice for radio is one I actually get over the air - WXPN.
I can easily use Pandora and stream a few real radio stations, the latter needs listener support.
Pandora also is now on my aTV4. So at least now, Pandora and PLEX make that purchase of an aTV4 a stronger option.
Without Match I do lose and easy way to fill my iPhone with music for off line listening.
The end result is I much less reason to continue paying for Match. Actually having all this has been one more thing keeping me tied to the Apple ecosystem and continue with new iPhones.
So, what does this mean for the radio stations like KQED that I currently listen to through the AM app? Are these still going to be available or will they only be available if one subscribes to the AM service?
Seems to me that since Apple isn't curating those stations at all they should still be free and available???
Seems to me that since Apple isn't curating those stations at all they should still be free and available???
Exactly. In about a year when my iPad, iPhone and Laptop are all due for an upgrade it could get interesting. I already started migrating to cross-platform services where I can (Kindle vs. iBooks, Wunderlist vs. Reminders, plus Evernote and Dropbox, etc.)
If iTunes goes this route, I'll upload my songs to Google Music and use it or Pandora & Amazon. The new Nexii have great cameras (one other reason I kept buying iPhones) and Google Photos is pretty good. The only really sticky thing left from Apple for me, is the tight integration with their other hardware (I use a Macbook). Safari bookmarks+Contacts+Calendar through iCloud, FaceTime, iMessage are all very nice and I use daily. Plus the app quality I feel is still better on iOS. I'm not sure how long that feeling will last.
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Actually, you just need to highlight all your music and control click select download from the menu and all your music in the Match cloud, that's not on your HD, is downloaded.
Thanks. I didn't mind paying $25/year to Apple to allow me to keep a single storage location for my music that I've purchased through iTunes or burned from my physical CD collection- but if they make less value for that $25 it might be best if I just have redundant downloads now on all my devices once again.
Whoever came up with this idea at Apple really should be shown the front door.
I think think it's probably the beginning of the end for iTunes Match. Now that Apple Music is their main focus for digital music they are arrogant enough to believe that everyone should (and will) sign up to that instead.
I think you are right.
I understand that things change over time, but it doesn't seem that long ago that Apple (Jobs) was pushing for DRM-free music. WTF happened?
I wish Apple would allow us to remove the "Beats 1" radio station which dominates the whole radio screen. I'm paying for an Apple Music Family subscription and so why do I have to have that one station crammed in my face?? Do they assume everyone likes or should like it? Tim Cook seems to be doing this more and more - pushing his views and tastes on everyone.
Most people seem to prefer having a license to stream DRM encrusted music to owning it because the labels will sell it more cheaply that way. Apple is responding to that demand.
I really hope that they keep iTunes Match around. Otherwise I'm gonna have to find another solution since I like owning copies of files.
Thank you, I thought I was the only one annoyed by this. It is like a pop up ad, so annoying.
This is probably true, but there are many people that still like buying and owning music.
I wonder if this will ever shift again in the future.
It is kind of like the ATV and Apple's rumored TV service. So many people asked for a sub system for iTunes video content, but now that it looks like it may happen sometime in the future, people are now complaining that it cost too much (rumored price).
I wouldn't mind Apple Music, if it wasn't so much money. I know, you can get what ever music you want, but eventually, the $10 a month to rent the music will be more collectively than buying the music outright.
I believe there's a jailbreak tweak that does that. I can't check ATM because my phone isn't currently jailbroken. 9.0.2 is the last iOS version currently with a jailbreak, but 9.0.2 is horrible.
I canceled iTunes Match this month as it was due to renew on Jan 5th. The original reason I did purchase it was to have ad-free radio stations. However, honestly these stations are very poorly programmed and since I also subscribed to Apple Music the stations I created vanished. Even when you pay for Apple Music you don't get nearly as many pre-programmed radio stations as most other services such as Pandora or Google Music.
This change by Apple really won't impact me, but I am strongly considering canceling Apple Music and going with Google Music for 2 reasons. 1, I think Google has a larger variety of pre-programmed radio stations, 2, Google Music now includes YouTube Red, which adds ad free YouTube and a new YouTube Music App. It's the same $9.99. I am one that actually prefers Apple Music App interface to that of Google's Music App which I think is horrid. However, I can live with it. The music I own has already been uploaded and/or matched by Google Music so I am good there.
I don't have a problem paying a monthly fee for ad-free music and even with this change I think Apple Music is likely to continue to grow. All the doom and gloom (which always happens when Apple makes these type changes) Listen up folks Apple has 200 billion dollars in cash, and they are still turning a pretty huge profit each quarter so they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Oh by the way if you decide to cancel iTunes Match make sure you download copies of all you music and have a back-up because once you cancel your iCloud Music vanishes!
This change by Apple really won't impact me, but I am strongly considering canceling Apple Music and going with Google Music for 2 reasons. 1, I think Google has a larger variety of pre-programmed radio stations, 2, Google Music now includes YouTube Red, which adds ad free YouTube and a new YouTube Music App. It's the same $9.99. I am one that actually prefers Apple Music App interface to that of Google's Music App which I think is horrid. However, I can live with it. The music I own has already been uploaded and/or matched by Google Music so I am good there.
I don't have a problem paying a monthly fee for ad-free music and even with this change I think Apple Music is likely to continue to grow. All the doom and gloom (which always happens when Apple makes these type changes) Listen up folks Apple has 200 billion dollars in cash, and they are still turning a pretty huge profit each quarter so they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Oh by the way if you decide to cancel iTunes Match make sure you download copies of all you music and have a back-up because once you cancel your iCloud Music vanishes!
This happened to me last November, and I did NOT cancel my sub. So, always keep some type of back up!
On my subscription renewal day, all 3000+ song disappeared from every device, with all my playlists, play counts, and with no explanation why. At first, they said it might be because of a problem with my payment for the renewed sub, which they checked and said was fine. Then they said it was because of my Apple Music subscription, which I did not have one. Finally they told me, after my ticket was moved to a higher tech support, that I never ever had any songs uploaded to my iTunes Match. Which is silly, because I have been using it since the month it came out.
Luckily, I had a back up of most of the songs, but all my play counts, playlists and other data is gone forever.
I am far from the doom and gloom crowd. But, the fact that they are on top of the world now, sitting on $200 billion cash, does not guarantee they will be safe.
Ask companies like Kodak in the 90's and MS in 2000 if they were going to be where they are today, doubt too many people would have predicted it.
I am a long time hardcore Apple fan, and have loved them for many years, but if some of the crappy things (not just this) that Apple has been doing lately can make me question my continued support of Apple, I am sure the more casual user will turn their back to them so much easier.
You know when I think about all the various companies that I've done business with over the years, they have all had good times and bad times. No company will stay on top forever and even Steve Job's himself use to say that. Nonetheless Kodak in the 90's and MS in the 00's were just signs of bad management in a changing time (Steve Balmer thought the iPhone and iPad were jokes and Apple laughed all the way to the bank) they finally got with the program now though, still can't make a phone to save there souls. Apple has done pretty well changing with time as indicated by their continued huge profits quarter after quarter. They have been counted out so many times. Right now people are upset about this decision in term of doing away with iTunes Radio. However, I have always found Apple a company that studies these kind of moves and usually they have little impact on the company overall. Yes, some folks will get mad, some will leave for greener pastures and like usual, many will eventually come back. Look how many left for larger screen androids and in the last quarterly report they indicated that over 30% were android users switching to iPhone.
I have no issue continuing to support Apple even though I don't like the decision. Then again having managed companies most of my life I do understand that decision are made that others don't always understand or appreciate. Sometimes you make several decision that make people doubt you. However, until I start seeing Apple lose money in a given quarter I am not too concerned about them. I do think Apple is a company driven by profit bordering on greed. I mean a perfect example of that is they are still selling devices with 16GB of storage. Profit wise they could afford to make the minimum 32GB. However, they have a strategy that they follow and while i don't like it and think it's rather insulting. I never would have brought a 16GB or 32GB anyway. We could all pick things we don't like that they have done, just as I could where Google, Microsoft and even Samsung are concerned. You think those Galaxy Note owners was happy when Samsung removed the user replaceable battery and SD card in the Note 5? I had many friends upset, but they bought it anyway and it really overall hasn't been so bad.
By the way I personally would have allowed those that purchased iTunes Match to continue to receive iTunes Radio at least up until they renew again. So, yes the decision is crappy, but won't be detrimental.
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