Apple is moving quickly to bring its new iTunes Radio service to New Zealand and Australia and hopes to beat Pandora to the U.K. and Canada, according to a report today. If it is true, it could come as a huge blow to Pandora and other music streaming services.
Bloomberg reported today that Apple is hoping to reach the other English-speaking countries by early next year, citing sources close to the plans. Nordic countries could also have the service around the same time.
The big key here is that Pandora’s Internet radio service is not available in Canada or the U.K. yet. Pandora has been dealing with government grants to music rights in the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. However, Apple is moving quicker because it has gone directly to the music labels, securing international rights to music.
According to DigitalTrends, iTunes Radio only launched on Sept. 18 and Apple has said that 11 million people used the service during the first five days.
“One of our top priorities is to bring iTunes Radio obviously here in the UK but everywhere in the world,” Apple executive Eddy Cue told the Associated Press last week, notes DigitalTrends. “We certainly want to be in more than 100 countries.”
Clearly, Apple is hoping to bring iTunes Radio to the global market, just like iTunes is now the dominant global force in music downloads.
image: Wikimedia Commons
