They got the name wrong but the service right.
In the days leading up to Monday morning’s opening keynote for WWDC 2013, industry analysts and market watchers alike were confident that Apple would introduce an online streaming music service called iRadio today.
They were half right. In fact, they got pretty much everything right but the name.
This morning, Apple raised the veil on iTunes Radio, which will arrive with iOS 7 this fall. The streaming music service will also be available for Mac, PC, and Apple TV users.
As expected, the service is free and ad-supported, although if you’re a paying iTunes Match subscriber, you can enjoy the new iTunes Radio service free of all ads.
Apple’s Eddy Cue demonstrated the platform today, explaining how it will stream music that is deemed to be consistent with a listener’s tastes based on their known music preferences.
Music is culled from the expansive iTunes catalog of 26 million tracks.
Content deals, we’re told, are reportedly in place between Apple and the likes of Sony, Universal and Warner.