While rumors were aghast for the last few weeks, Apple just officially announced it's long-awaited streaming radio service, "iTunes Radio" just now at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
The service will be baked directly into iTunes and the music player on iPhones and iPads and will act very similarly to Pandora.
The way it works is when you load the app it will have "suggested stations" like many radio players do, with things like Twitter Radio, showing actively shared songs on Twitter, or "Summer Jams."
You can also create your own radio stations, based on genres or based on individual artists. I'm assuming metal would be a genre, seeing as though it's listed as one in the music store, and that would be where Apple is mining all it's data from.
Basically, iTunes Radio seems like a giant new discovery tool for Apple to push people to purchase newly discovered tracks via their iTunes music store. This could be a great tool for fans looking to discover new music, and help boast less recognized bands getting a little airplay courtesy of Apple.
Do you use iTunes and if so would you use iTunes Radio? Would this make you stop using Pandora or Spotify radio?
Speaking of radio, you can always check out metalinjection.FM absolutely free!
Update: Apple just updated it's website featuring a new section on iTunes Radio.
