What about an iTunes radio station?
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Mar 14, 2005 at 12:03am
On Feb. 9, I wrote that subscription services wouldn’t threaten the dominance of iTunes. I still feel that way (and apparently so do most Macsimum readers; see the poll below), but have also run across an interesting suggestion from a Macsimum News reader: if the licensing and financial arrangements could be worked out, Apple should implement an iTunes Music Store radio station that you could listen to and from which you could download songs that you want to purchase.
I like the idea. I want to “own” my music, not rent it. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but the rental model has no appeal for me, and I certainly don’t see it replacing the purchase model.
There would be no charge for the iTMS Radio Station, as the idea would be to promote more song purchases from iTMS itself. And there would be links that would allow you to easily purchase the music that you listened to, then downloaded.
In essence, what you would have it a legal and managed TiVO for music. Except that it would also allow you to download music that you didn’t hear on the iTMS radio channel. Heck, taking the idea to the next level: what if you could download tunes for a set time (a day? A week?) for free, run ‘em by your eardrums, then buy the ones you like? I’m not sure that this is technically feasible, and I’m 100 percent against music piracy.
But IF it were possible, think of the benefits. Borrowing from the iPod shuffle idea, you could set your daily downloads to get a random selection of music. You’d be exposed to music beyond your normal tastes and would perhaps expand your musical horizons.
Of course, there are, unfortunately, lots of folks who would just “steal” the music, hurting the paradigm and the artists who create the music. But if the technical, legal and logistical roadblocks could be overcome, just imagine the possibilities.
Thoughts? Write me at dsellers@macsimumnews.com
INTPMann Says:
I agree completely. Since Corporate Music has essentially sucked all the life and joy out of radio, something must take its place, of introducing new music to listeners. Apple’s iRadio (my term) could be like the music segments on NPR, but 24x7. You could address the piracy issue with lowered bit rates, voice-over tags ("brought to you by Apple iRadio"), encapsulating the AAC DRM, whatever.
I’d like to take the iRadio concept a step further. What if XM and Sirius made a deal with Apple to include an iPod Shuffle with each of their receivers? If I heard a song I liked, I could just press a Shopping Cart button on the receiver, and all the track information would get stored on the Shuffle. When I got home, I could synch up the Shuffle with my computer, and the songs I want would appear in my iTunes Music Store shopping cart.
That also neatly allows sattelite radio to get in on the iPod/iTunes halo effect in a way that doesn’t compete with Apple’s business, but nicely complements it. The sattelite companies only have to make small changes (integrate the Shuffle into their design, encapsulate track info, put the little Shopping Cart button in), and Apple only has to make small changes in iTunes (to have the Shuffle accept data from the sattelite radio transceiver, and transmit it to the ITMS shopping cart).
Posted on March 14, 2005
Dave Adams Says:
Should be feasible if Apple defaced the music, by dropping in “Radio iTunes!” every 30 seconds within the music, thus foiling pirates, unless they like hearing that.
That’s the problem with ‘downloading’ songs from the radio - you always get that “Hey! You’re listening to 103.7!” at the beginning or end of a song. bleh. Goes back to my days taping things off my Dad’s stereo.
Posted on March 14, 2005
hmurchison Says:
I’ve always thought that Apple should be broadcasting their own Apple Radio channels in iTunes. Piracy wouldn’t be a factor because they’d be broadcasting in 48mpbs High Efficiency AAC. Good enough to listen and know that you like a particular song. It would increase sales because rather than search for songs or iMixes I’d just kick back and listen and when I heard something I liked I’d see the tagged info and find the track in iTunes.
Posted on March 14, 2005
Zed Says:
“Since Corporate Music has essentially sucked all the life and joy out of radio, something must take its place, of introducing new music to listeners.”
Have you looked at the radio stations that already come in iTunes? There are some very cool stations there, like KEXP from Seattle, KCRW in Santa Monica, and many others. If you find the web sites for those stations you’ll see many of them have online playlists, so if you managed to miss the announcement of a name of a song you can look it up. A lot of my iTunes purchases come from something I heard from one of those stations.
An Apple iRadio is interesting for other reasons, primarily for the idea of “press something and instantly buy something that you’re currently listening”. But in the meantime, the included stations (and there are many other internet streams iTunes will play if you go looking for links) are a good way to discover new music and avoid the “corporate music” you disavow. I have over two dozen radio stations I tune into depending on time of day and my mood.
Posted on March 14, 2005
OSX Says:
I’m listening to radio (be it internet streaming, satellite, AM/FM) and I hear a song I like...I want to click a button and instantly buy the song.
That is one area I don’t believe any company has made any progress on. Where is it Apple?
Posted on March 14, 2005
INTPMann Says:
“Have you looked at the radio stations that already come in iTunes?”
Yeah, you’re right, there are some cool iTunes radio stations out there. I’ve even figured out how to manually add internet radio stations that aren’t in the iTunes radio lists. Listen in sometime to WXPN and WXYC.
But again, the missing ingredient is the magic Buy Music button. The typical scenario is you hear something really cool that you WANT. But the DJ is playing a set of 5 or 6 tunes, then announces them in backwards order. She or he says them rapidly, and they’re all bands you’ve never heard before, and you’re just trying to assimilate the band name (something irrational and forgettable, like “Rabid Screaming Paper Mache Monkeys") and the track name slips right past you. The only way you can hope to catch all that is to have pencil and paper at the ready, prepared to write fast. I want a button instead.
Posted on March 14, 2005
Zed Says:
“But the DJ is playing a set of 5 or 6 tunes, then announces them in backwards order.”
Don’t wait for the DJ. If you are listening to KEXP or KCRW, you can go to their web pages and they list the current playing song right there. Or check the playlist archives if you waited a bit.
Posted on March 15, 2005
idobi Radio Says:
You can check out idobi Radio in iTunes under Radio -> Alt/Modern Rock -> idobi Radio. There are also many other statons listed of various genre that are excellent.
An iTunes radio station would proabably be prohibitively expensive for Apple. Besides the bandwidth costs, the performance license (ASCAP/BMI/SESAC) and copyright license (RIAA) would be a headache to negotiate. Without negotiating a separate license, Apple would end up being charged a percentage of their revenue that includes their hardware and software sales.
And this would only satisfy the US market. They would have to do the same for every country the iTunes music store services.
(And for those thinking that Apple could just include the license in their current negotiations with the labels, they can’t. The labels may not have the right to waive performance fees.)
Posted on March 15, 2005
briana murphy Says:
i need another station to download music onto my ipod shuffle because every place i go on a computer besides school dosent have it so can u help me.
Posted on November 26, 2005
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
douglas mcclure Says:
I’ve e-mailed apple a couple of times about this. I’ve always thought it would be a great way for them to sell more music - have a series of radio stations by genre in iTunes that plays randomly shuffled songs from the music store all day long. You could access it through the radio section of iTunes. IMO, it would be more useful than the 30 second previews.....
Posted on March 14, 2005