Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

itunes Radio

Google Play Music comes to IOS

technologyEdward Kiledjian

We knew Google Play Music was coming to IOS and now its official.  For $9.99 a month, you get millions of streamable songs and you can even cache them for offline listening. 

The service is flexible enough to stream different qualities of music (you decide) which could be useful when on a bad network or when using too much bandwidth.

Unlike Apple's iTunes Radio service, it is cross platform (important if you live on both ecosystems). It's now available in 21 countries (my native Canada is not included):

  1. Australia
  2. Austria
  3. Belgium
  4. Czech Republic
  5. Finland
  6. France
  7. Germany
  8. Hungary
  9. Ireland
  10. Italy
  11. Liechtenstein
  12. Luxembourg
  13. Mexico
  14. Netherlands
  15. New Zealand
  16. Portugal
  17. Russia
  18. Spain
  19. Switzerland
  20. United Kingdom
  21. United States

Apple's itunes Radio coming to Canada early 2014

technologyEdward Kiledjian

I previously wrote that Apple iTunes radio would be coming to Canada shortly. Now Bloomberg is reporting that iTunes Radio will expand internationally early 2014 beating rival Pandora.

"Apple is moving faster than Pandora because it forged agreements for international rights with Vivendi SA (VIV)’s Universal Music Group and other record companies, said one of the people. Pandora, which doesn’t have such deals, relies on rights granted by government entities, limiting service to the U.S., Australia and New Zealand."

Read Bloomberg article here.

Apple iTunes Radio coming to Canada

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Apple's iTune Radio Service

Apple's iTune Radio Service

Apple's iTunes Radio is far from revolutionary and often feels like a "me too" product competing with Slacker, Songza, etc. What makes it so interesting is that it is a free service already built into your device's operating system. 

Like most Apple services, iTunes Radio launched in the US first but Eddy Cue, Apple SVP, has previously said that eventually it will launch in 100 countries but when will we get it in Canada?

Late last week, Apple had a job posting looking for 2 iTunes Radio programmers for Canada.  

"Execute the programming of iTunes Radio in Canada, merchandising new releases and other feature content across multiple radio stations; Update radio featuring daily, identifying new songs, chart gainers, and priority releases, as well as highlighting library content and showcase depth of catalogue; Work with management in Canada and Cupertino to determine local and global priorities relevant to iTunes Radio; Manage the weekly scheduling and programming process, including measuring stream counts, ensuring each station represents the most current and compelling music offering; Collaborate with other editorial programmers on cross content initiatives and promotions. Communicate regularly with the Marketing and Sales team in Canada to coordinate new release and sales based priorities."

The above posting is a fairly strong indication that iTunes Radio is coming to Canada sooner rather than later which hopefully means they managed to sign all the label agreements needed to bring the service up north.

Since these job postings caught the world's attention, Apple has since made the postings more generic by removing all references to iTunes Radio and it now looks more like a generic Canadian iTunes editor. 

Here is hoping we get it before the holiday season.