Four ways iTunes Radio can live up to expectations
At Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference, the company announced iTunes Radio, a Pandora-like streaming radio service that will start broadcasting to the general public in the fall.
While some view this as Apple finally embracing a model other than traditional music ownership, others wonder if the company is simply dipping a toe in the water. Will Apple go all-in and produce something that’s a step forward, or is iTunes Radio a half-hearted me-too measure? As someone who loves music, I’m certainly rooting for the former. But I fear the latter unless Apple meets these expectations.
1. No sea of holes, please
Nothing will elicit comparisons to Apple's failed music social media experiment Ping more quickly than an obviously porous catalog. For instance, if you attempt to create a Beatles station that plays not a single track by the Fab Four because Apple hasn’t secured the streaming rights, iTunes Radio will look half-baked. Apple has made a lot of noise about having artists that other services can’t touch (The Beatles being the obvious example) and listeners expect to stream what they can buy. Most people don’t care whether you can do X with an artist’s catalog but not Y because of licensing issues.
iTunes Radio needs to stream what iTunes sells.
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