ESPN Radio & local NPR stations come to Apple's iTunes Radio streaming service
Live 24-hour streaming sports content from ESPN Radio, as well as local National Public Radio affiliates from around the U.S., are now available to hear on Apple's iTunes Radio service.
The new ESPN Radio channel can now be found within the iTunes Radio section of the Music app on iOS devices. It's also available through the iTunes Radio section of the iTunes suite on Macs and PCs. Its availability was first noticed by AppleInsider reader Aaron.
Unlike the custom built stations available in iTunes Radio, which dynamically stream tracks to users based on their listening habits, the ESPN Radio channel is a live stream of the same content being beamed out to terrestrial radio stations around the U.S.
Also available are local NPR affiliates, which can be streamed live from major and even smaller markets around the U.S., including New York and Los Angeles. As of Tuesday, dozens of NPR stations can be found on iTunes Radio.
NPR had already launched its national network on iTunes Radio in March, and promised that local affiliates would be forthcoming.
The new ESPN Radio channel can now be found within the iTunes Radio section of the Music app on iOS devices. It's also available through the iTunes Radio section of the iTunes suite on Macs and PCs. Its availability was first noticed by AppleInsider reader Aaron.
Unlike the custom built stations available in iTunes Radio, which dynamically stream tracks to users based on their listening habits, the ESPN Radio channel is a live stream of the same content being beamed out to terrestrial radio stations around the U.S.
Also available are local NPR affiliates, which can be streamed live from major and even smaller markets around the U.S., including New York and Los Angeles. As of Tuesday, dozens of NPR stations can be found on iTunes Radio.
NPR had already launched its national network on iTunes Radio in March, and promised that local affiliates would be forthcoming.
Comments
I thought one of the reasons for iTunes Radio was to provide convenient "Buy Now" option of the music that's playing. How does that work with these third-party stations?
As you said...
I would love to be able to listen to UK stations here in the USA. But, I think you may be suggesting UK stations for the UK, which would be a great thing too. Do you feel Apple ignores radio outside of the USA or are the restrictions on use too hard for Apple to easily over cone?
Next question would be what the bit rate is on the live streams. I won't use 256kbps streaming on NPR.. it's not worth that much data :-P
No thanks ... Oh you mean for these services .. got you ...
I've an unlimited data plan so I had never thought of that issue before, it would seem a good idea if you could select the data rate on as per station basis for that very reason.
I would love to be able to listen to UK stations here in the USA. But, I think you may be suggesting UK stations for the UK, which would be a great thing too. Do you feel Apple ignores radio outside of the USA or are the restrictions on use too hard for Apple to easily over cone?
I can find a ton of international radios that stream. On my iDevices, I've been using TuneIn Radio for several years.
I have another app called FStream (free) that will also play streaming audio, one just needs to plug in the URL for the stream. Here's a list of European radio stations that stream: http://www.listenlive.eu
There's also a free desktop FStream client for OS X which has a smaller footprint compared to iTunes.
At least with FStream, if you want a lower data rate stream for a given station and can find the URL, that's the one you can save as your bookmark.
Some carriers throttle you back to 128kbps once over your allotment, so it does impede the streaming service. AT&T used to throttle down to 128kb on their unlimited plans a couple years ago, which was just enough to run Pandora efficiently on 3G connections. that was before iTunes Radio was released. Don't know what other carriers do, but I know one hour of streaming iTunes Radio eats over 100Mb of data.
There are lots of "radio" stations available through iTunes. It used to be called "radio" but that switched when iTunes Radio came along. Now it's labeled "Internet".
Lots of stations from U.S. and elsewhere.
Some carriers throttle you back to 128kbps once over your allotment, so it does impede the streaming service. AT&T used to throttle down to 128kb on their unlimited plans a couple years ago, which was just enough to run Pandora efficiently on 3G connections. that was before iTunes Radio was released. Don't know what other carriers do, but I know one hour of streaming iTunes Radio eats over 100Mb of data.
Bingo. This is why I'm puzzled about iTunes Radio for mobile (I listen to it a lot, but at home). You'll use 1 GB in ten hours which, with a one-hour commute (each way) is one week. So 4 GB in a month. Data plans are pricey for that much.
What would make this better (since I have a 64GB iPhone with lots of music) is "iTunes Genius Radio". This would use the "radio" logic to select what to play -- from the library on my iPhone. It would use a bit of data but not much since it's not streaming. And since it plays locally there aren't dropouts when cell reception gets bad. How about it, Apple?