iTunes Radio Adds NPR, with More News Channels on the Way

[OS-SEX]

Glitch or purposeful?

When I tune into the NPR Station I lose the option to stream the audio to my airplay devices. With the other radio stations, airplay remains an option.

Yeah I love NPR but this is useless to me without Airplay. Pretty sure this is a glitch in iTunes since I am able to use Airplay with NPR / iTunes Radio from my Apple TV. Here's hoping they fix this asap!

 

[Ibjr]

I can use the iTunes radio station for NPR with Airplay via my iPad and iPhone, but not iTunes OSX.

 

[JaxSinfonian]

An observation (that I'm sure I'm not the first to make): iTunes Radio is an Internet-audio streaming service that has nothing to do with radio. When it was introduced, The iTunes desktop feature that lets one listen to the Internet-audio streams of actual radio stations was renamed "Internet." Yes, the thing you can only hear using the Internet is called "Radio," while the thing you can actually listen to on a radio is called "Internet." The NPR station is the first thing in iTunes "Radio" that is actually related to real radio.

More observations: The re/Code post about the NPR station notes that someday soon, you'll be able to listen to individual NPR affiliates via iTunes radio. One can already do this by using the OSX iTunes' "Internet" feature to search for individual stations of all kinds, including the BBC. (Note: This works with Airplay, unlike the new NPR station in iTunes Radio.) Downside: the interface is just awful, very sub-par for Apple; the promised NPR-affiliate iTunes "Radio" stations will basically be an improvement in ease-of-use marketed as a new feature. Oh, and I guess it would suddenly work with iOS, too.

Or, you could just use TuneIn, which is free, can be accessed via the Web in OSX or through its iOS app, and has long offered access to individual NPR stations, every BBC radio station, and just about anything else you'd like to listen to from any radio station in the world with an Internet stream. I've long wondered why Apple didn't just buy TuneIn and build it into iTunes. I guess they'd rather re-build it from the ground up. I just can't figure out why it took them so long.

 

[snberk103]

….

With itunes radio you are personalizing the streams. You seed initial stations with genres or a favorite song, and then you like/dislike songs as you hear them and the station takes note of that.

There are ads, but they are so rare and so brief it is quite acceptable. Also, most of the ads I hear are related to music (for example, a new album by artist so and so).

Thank you for the explanation.

 

[kds1]

An observation (that I'm sure I'm not the first to make): iTunes Radio is an Internet-audio streaming service that has nothing to do with radio. When it was introduced, The iTunes desktop feature that lets one listen to the Internet-audio streams of actual radio stations was renamed "Internet." Yes, the thing you can only hear using the Internet is called "Radio," while the thing you can actually listen to on a radio is called "Internet." The NPR station is the first thing in iTunes "Radio" that is actually related to real radio.

It's all radio these days, the only difference is whether it's broadcast radio or internet radio.

 

[al0kz]

Microsoft with XBox Music (which is free with ads) and Rdio (not free in Canada) got around those restrictions. Apple is bigger than Rdio. Why can Rdio do it, but not Apple? Apple just doesn't want to expand beyond Australia and the US I guess.

My guess would be Apple's taking their sweet time curating specific stations for each country it is planning to expand to as well as getting country specific national companies on board for advertising before doing a multi-national launch all at once. Seems like Australia was a testing ground for expansion. Then again, this is all speculation.

 

[stevenoz]

You realise that for $25/year you could have no commercials, right?

Spotify is $10 per month. $120 a year.

That makes iTunes Radio a very good deal.

 

[jetskik2]

itunes version 11.0 no longer works

It appears apple has now blocked older versions of itunes that uses shoutcast streams from working and forces users to update to use the new itunes radio (sucks).

See attached.

itunes store error

itunes radio error

itunes version