Apple flips switch on holiday-themed iTunes Radio stations

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited December 2014
Apple on Thursday activated a number of curated iTunes Radio stations playing nothing but Christmas tunes for the holidays, including tailored genre-specific track lists ranging from children's sing-alongs to Latin.




In time for the holidays, Apple's holiday iTunes Radio stations offer a wide selection of Christmas standards, pop releases and even songs for children. The feature went live earlier today.

This year, Apple has split holiday tunes into ten stations: Children's Christmas Holiday Sing-Along, Country Holiday, Classical Holiday, Holiday Classics, Holiday Hits, Latin Holiday, Rockin' Holiday, Soulful Holiday, Swingin' Holiday and The Sounds of Christmas.

While only a few stations are included in the iTunes Radio featured list, searching for the term "holiday" or "christmas" brings up links to the above stations, which can then be added to users' My Stations selections.

For users currently not subscribed to Apple's $24.99 per year iTunes Match service, iTunes Radio's holiday categories contain interstitial advertisements, most of which are correctly themed for the season.

Holiday stations for iTunes Radio are available in the Music app for iOS and iTunes for Mac and PC.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 45
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Oh man, I live in the city. If I want to hear Christmas songs all I have to do is open my window and something will drift in from the mall or the town square.
  • Reply 2 of 45
    Cool. News stations for a service that hardly exists outside the US.

    Anyone else feels this radio is still born like ping?
  • Reply 3 of 45
    It's quite popular here is Australia.. Plus. Every Apple Store plays music from iTunes Radio to promote it.
  • Reply 4 of 45

    Yes, but still no iTunes Radio outside of AUS or USA - what on earth is taking so long?

  • Reply 5 of 45
    dachardachar Posts: 330member

    The fact that iTunes Radio is not still not available for nearly all of the world after all this time suggests to me that it will not happen now. Let's hope that the same situation does not apply to the roll out of Apple pay to countries other than the USA.

  • Reply 6 of 45
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ombra2105 View Post

     

    Yes, but still no iTunes Radio outside of AUS or USA - what on earth is taking so long?




    They must be replacing it with Beats.

  • Reply 7 of 45
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    ombra2105 wrote: »
    Yes, but still no iTunes Radio outside of AUS or USA - what on earth is taking so long?

    I have no idea, but one can create an AppleID on the US site and access the Radio with that ID. Plus you can download apps that are free.
  • Reply 8 of 45
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    What are the ads like on iTunes Radio? I.e. How long, how often, how trashy?
  • Reply 9 of 45
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Crowley View Post



    What are the ads like on iTunes Radio? I.e. How long, how often, how trashy?



    Well, they're not super well targeted. I was listening to the Bach station and I got McDonalds ads :)

     

    But the interesting thing to me was, some of the ads actually have a visual component. So you will be listening only, doing something else, with iTunes in the background, and suddenly the whole iTunes app will be filled with a McDonalds logo. Before I started using it I just assumed the ads would be audio only. But yes, just one ad less than a minute, frequency every 2 or 3 tracks. Not like TV where you get lots of ads at once.

    (in the land down under here)

  • Reply 10 of 45
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Can someone explain why the station image says HOLIDAY but underneath it the description it also says Christmas? If you're going to use the word Christmas then the word holiday is not needed. Kind of odd...like the App Store changing Free to GET (even for apps that don't have IAP) but yet under top charts the chart is still called Free.
  • Reply 11 of 45
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Maybe Holiday has been set up as a category with Christmas as a sub-category?
  • Reply 12 of 45

    I thought Latin was a dead language?

     

    :D

  • Reply 13 of 45
    mr omr o Posts: 1,046member



    This one's for you, Samsung:

     

    This the Season to be Jolly

     

    Fa La La La Laa Fa La La Laa ...

  • Reply 14 of 45

    iTunes Radio isn't that great, IMO.

     

    Still can't forget the time I was listening to a Classic Rock playlist and the system loaded up a jazz song...it wasn't rockish jazz either.

  • Reply 15 of 45
    ombra2105 wrote: »
    Yes, but still no iTunes Radio outside of AUS or USA - what on earth is taking so long?

    Licensing is the issue. Every single country has their own boatload of regulations to navigate. Honestly, it amazes me that Apple should have any interest at all in expanding into some countries.
  • Reply 16 of 45
    technotechno Posts: 737member
    I am listening hard but I still can't seem to hear it from Canada. Maybe Sarah Palin can.
  • Reply 17 of 45
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    crowley wrote: »
    What are the ads like on iTunes Radio? I.e. How long, how often, how trashy?

    I've never heard an ad ...? I thought you guys were all joking ... but then I thought ... could it be because I have iTunes Match I don't het many?
  • Reply 18 of 45
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    techno wrote: »
    I am listening hard but I still can't seem to hear it from Canada. Maybe Sarah Palin can.

    Haha, good one ... but then Alaska is in the USA ... I only know that as i was just there on a vacation .. ;)
  • Reply 19 of 45
    crowley wrote: »
    What are the ads like on iTunes Radio? I.e. How long, how often, how trashy?

    I honestly don't think the ads are that bad. They are 30 seconds based on my experience. The ones I've heard and have stuck out to me are just ads for things available on iTunes, i.e. The Beatles, Coldplay etc. It's not bad.
  • Reply 20 of 45
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    applezilla wrote: »
    I thought Latin was a dead language?

    :D

    OT but while listening to my ad free iTunes Radio Christmas curated music, I am rambling ... Regarding Latin being 'dead' ... ;) If you walk around the Catalan area of N.E. Spain, S.W. France and Andorra for a while you realize it actually is alive and thriving. Fascinating history there, some truth some folk lore. I lived there on the Spanish-French border for a few years and discovered that a local ruins called Empúries, was a western outpost of the Greeks then later the Romans that lived on well after Rome fell. Local lore has it that the soldiers stationed there decided to stay and settle when called back to defend Rome. It's morphed as a language obviously as it mixed with regional languages but then so has English in the USA and Spanish in central and south America. Our first clue about the language was when a Spanish bank had Caixa on the sign outside not Banco. That was the start of a fun investigation and rummage through the ruins.
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