If you’re jealous of your American brethren that they have iTunes Radio and you don’t, then your jealously isn’t going to subside anytime soon, with the UK and Canada both looking for a 2014 launch rather than later this year.
According to Bloomberg, Apple’s iTunes Radio will beat US music streaming service Pandora to a UK launch due to its licensing deals with the record labels being global, rather than Pandora which has chosen to do its business on a country by country basis, slowing its expansion globally. Apple is also vying for existing Pandora territory with sources claiming that the iOS 7 feature will roll out to Australia and New Zealand in 2014, alongside the UK and Canadian launches.
Apple hasn’t been shy about announcing its intentions with iTunes Radio, mimicking the launch of the iTunes Store — where the company launched the product in stages starting with the US. According to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, the company intends to make iTunes Radio available in over 100 countries.
iTunes Radio is already making in-roads in the US, with 11 million listeners trying out the service in the US within five days of release, although it has a long way to go before it takes on the might of Spotify with its 24 million active users and 28 markets served.
