[NewsPoster]

In an email announcement late on Friday, Apple has informed iTunes users that the "Radio" section of iTunes (not to be confused with the "Internet Radio" section of iTunes) will be made part of the paid Apple Music subscription service, and will no longer offer ads. The move appears to be part of the same philosophy that prompted the company to divest itself of its iAd mobile advertising system, and the stations formerly available for free will be part of the paid service, beginning January 29.

One "station" in Apple's lineup will remain public and free for all iTunes users -- Beats 1, which Apple has previously used to help promote the Apple Music service and features daily shows from rotating DJs as well as scheduled shows from musicians such as St. Vincent, Elton John, Dr. Dre and others. Users can also create custom stations based on a particular artist, song, or genre of music. It's unclear what the new policy on "skipping" in stations will be; under the ad-supported model, users were allowed only a limited number of skips per hour. Subscribers to the company's iTunes Match service could listen to the stations without ads.

The ad-supported iTunes Radio launched nearly three years ago on Mac, iOS, Apple TV, and Windows PCs. Apple Music was launched last June as a component of iTunes and iOS's Music app, offering access to a 30-million-plus song library as a streaming service for $10 per month for an individual account, or $15 per month for a family membership of up to six separate accounts. It has reportedly already reached 10 million paid subscribers in its first six months, a feat that took rival Spotify over six years to accomplish.

[mindwaves]

Back to Pandora for me.

[coffeetime]

Go ahead, Apple. Never crazy about it anyway. Pandora is still my go to station. Beat 1 is not my thing either.

[Stuke]

Way to piss off a small further fraction of Apple fans. I'm gone.

[rldillon]

If Apple removes Radio from iTunes Match that would really devalue that service for me...

So, the hundreds/thousands of free stations available through the "Internet Radio" tab are being folded in. From what I understand, this is not true. Many of those Internet Radio stations will not be available in MUSIC, so that is not a fold in, but an exclusion.

This is a deeply disappointing turn of events for those who would discover so much other sound out there than would be played on the radio, since Apple likely won't support them because of "lack of corporate interest." Back underground they will have to go. I mean, I remember when Internet Radio was one of the reasons why people would choose iTunes as their music player in the first place.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Okay, let's be clear what's moving here. Apple is moving not streaming radio, but iTunes Radio, the Pandora-like thing that they do.

From the article: "(not to be confused with the "Internet Radio" section of iTunes)"

1. Oops...
2. Oh.
3. Ah, I wasn't even aware that MUSIC/Radio were the same tab and that there were "free" stations in there that had ads. I was thinking back to the whole 3-month trial subscription.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Yeah, it's easy to confuse. That's why we're here!

[dprimary]

I'm not sure what I am paying for with apple music. Radio is the only thing I have found that seems to be a subscription.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Okay. We're actually going to run an explainer about Apple Music versus Apple Music match, versus iTunes Match here shortly, but with iTunes Radio, you have no control over what Apple is having you listen to, based on your selection.

With iTunes Music, you can make your own playlists, et cetera, from nearly the entire iTunes music catalog.

iTunes Music isn't free. iTunes Radio is free (for now). Beats One (streaming radio station) is free, as is the ability to listen to Internet radio through iTunes.

[Charles Martin]

See the Pointers column on Monday for some clarity on this. Evidently, a lot of users were unaware of the (iTunes) Radio section as separated from the Internet Radio section of iTunes, so we'll go over it all for you.