Apple Announces Launch Date for iTunes Radio

Apple has officially announced the launch date for its long-awaited music streaming service iTunes Radio: September 18. The launch will be processed in conjunction with the iOS 7 update. iTunes Radio is set to compete against established services such as Spotify, Rdio, Pandora and Google Play Music All Access. Its focus is placed on playlists or “stations” based on the music that already exists in users’ personal libraries. This is generated from iTunes’ entire catalog. The logic behind this step is simple:

“The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more iTunes Radio knows what you like to listen to — and the more it can play music you’ll love.”

In addition, the service will feature genre-based stations while iPhone users can make requests using Siri. The service will be available on all Apple devices and within iTunes on Windows-based devices. It is free and supported by ads, unless you subscribe to iTunes Match, in which case there are no ads.