At the Worldwide Developers Conference today, Apple finally announced the rumored iTunes Radio. It will be generally available this fall.
It’s a free radio service with over 200 stations, and a catalog of music drawing from the iTunes Store. People can listen to stations, then download songs if they they like them.
You will be able to use iTunes Radio from an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC or Apple TV. It will include stations inspired by stuff you’ve already listened to, as well as stations curated by Apple and personalized genre-focused stations. You will also be able to create stations based on specific songs.
“The more you use iTunes Radio and iTunes, the more it knows what you like to listen to and the more personalized your experience becomes,” the company explains.
“iTunes Radio is an incredible way to listen to personalized radio stations which have been created just for you,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “It’s the music you love most and the music you’re going to love, and you can easily buy it from the iTunes Store with just one click.”
As an added bonus, it will give you exclusive premieres from top-selling artists. It will also host special events like live streams from the iTunes Festival and other exclusive iTunes sessions.
And of course, it includes Siri integration (Siri has some new features of its own).
Apple explains, “Let Siri make your listening experience even more fun. Ask Siri ‘Who plays that song?’ or ‘Play more like this’ and Siri will make it happen. Say something like ‘Play Jazz Radio’ or ask for any of your existing favorite stations and genres. Shape your stations by telling Siri what you like and don’t like, or tell Siri to pause, stop or skip. You can also have Siri add songs to your Wish List to download later.”
iTunes Radio is ad-supported and free. If you’re an iTunes Match user, you’ll get it for free without the ads.