As announced earlier this month by Apple, the company has discontinued free streams of its ad-supported iTunes Radio channels, merging the stations into its play for pay Apple Music service. This leaves Beats 1 as the sole free to listen streaming radio station.
Apple had sent an email out to Apple Music subscribers earlier this month, informing them of the impending change. The email said Beats 1 would then be marketed as the Cupertino firm’s “premier free broadcast.”
When an iOS user who doesn’t subscribe to Apple Music attempts to listen to one of the iTunes Radio stations, they receive the screen shown above, offering a link to a sign-up page for Apple Music. Mac iTunes users who attempt to listen to a station, see a dialog box asking them to “Get on Our Wavelength” and join Apple Music.
The move to shut down the ad-supported channels is reportedly connected with Apple’s decision to withdraw from selling mobile ads, as the company informed developers the same day that they had plans to shut down the iAd App Network on June 30, 2016.
iTunes Radio debuted alongside iTunes 11.1 and iOS 7 as a free ad-supported service, offering featured and genre stations provided by Apple, as well as the ability to create new stations based on a specific artist or song.
(Via AppleInsider)
