It’s no secret I’m not your average music fan, and likewise I’ve made no secret of the fact that Apple Music has been a little underwhelming – but I put that down to the fact that I’m actually not all that interested in listening to all 30,000,00 songs on iTunes. But iTunes Radio has got a great new feature.
iTunes Radio launched with great fanfare at a time when the tech industry were continually predicting Apple would launch a streaming music service. iTunes Radio was like a toe in the water with both the music industry and consumers.
It wasn’t a Spotify competitor, but was in many ways similar to Pandora or the free level services from some streaming providers. That’s because while you were streaming music, and listening to songs that you don’t own – there was a limitation.
You couldn’t just skip every single song, you could only skip six times per hour.
I don’t have a vast music taste, what I loved about iTunes Radio was putting in an artist I love to listen to (John Farnham or Elton John perhaps), and having iTunes Radio throw songs at me that might be similar.
I could help program the “station” by telling it when to play more of a particular style of song or less.
But, skip too many songs and you lose all control. You’ve got to listen to each and every song it suggests.
Well, that restriction is now gone. I’d suspect because iTunes Radio is now just a part of Apple Music and Apple’s licence agreements with the music companies allows you to listen to any song whenever you like – so there is no longer a restriction.
If you’re like me and find iTunes Radio to be a great way to discover songs you already knew, or discovering music and creating a bit of a “station” of your own – iTunes Radio is now a whole lot better. Give it another try!
