Google isn’t the only one trying to get in on the music streaming game. On Monday June 10, Apple announced a new music streaming service called iTunes Radio. Although the company has already created a name for itself in the digital music space, it will now go head-to-head with a whole slew of web radio leaders like Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Slacker, and more.
iTunes Radio is most similar to Pandora, allowing users to create custom radio stations based on songs and artists, while also discovering new music through “featured” radio stations. Although it’s free for iTunes users, iTunes Radio will feature ads for those who are not iTunes Match subscribers.
Thirteen-year-old Pandora, which has 200 million registered users, released a statement calling iTunes Radio “an evolution of their iTunes offering to bring it on par with other streaming music services.”
The Swedish-based Spotify, which launched in 2008 and came to the U.S. in 2011 — also has a radio service that serves its 24 million monthly active users and 6 million paying subscribers. With 20 million licensed songs, Spotify actually beats out Pandora, Slacker and iHeartRadio in terms of its library, but trails behind Xbox Music’s database of 30 million songs. Pandora is the clear adoption leader with 70 million monthly active users and 200 million registered users, but that doesn’t mean Apple can’t catch up. See how iTunes Radio stacks up against these competitors below (chart courtesy of Mashable).
