iTunes Radio launches in Australia

Apple today launched its music streaming iTunes Radio in Australia – marking the first time the service is available outside the United States since its launch last September.

The Australian launch is expected to be the beginning of an international roll-out, set to hit the UK, Canada and New Zealand shortly.

The new kid on the block will be free and ad supported, although those who use the iTunes Match cloud music storage service at $34.99 a year get their streaming without ads.

It is available across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, and Apple TV.

Australian consumers get 100 stations curated by Apple as well as personalised stations based on the listener’s past listening preferences. Coming into a crowded Australian market, Apple is pushing “first play” which premieres of the latest tracks from major artists. In terms of search options, Hits lists the most popular tracks, Variety provides a mix and Discovery offers alternate choices to tracks.

Apple said, “iTunes Radio offers music fans access to thousands of new songs every week, as well as serving up exclusive music from new and popular artists before you hear them anywhere else. Whether it’s an exclusive single from an up-and-coming band or a pre-release stream of an entire album, iTunes Radio has it all. iTunes Radio is home to special events including live streams direct from the iTunes Festival in London and other exclusive iTunes Sessions.”

According to Apple, 11 million users took up iTunes Radio five weeks after its US launch, the figure climbing to 20 million in five weeks. That represents about 3.5% of the 575 million global iTunes accounts. Figures from last year had Pandora with 64.9 million users, Spotify with 20.2 million and iHeartRadio at 14.4 million.