In an e-mail sent to users late Friday, Apple announced that it would be shutting down its ad-free iTunes Radio streaming service on January 28. Those who enjoyed the Pandora-like feature are instead being directed to Beats 1, the live radio station that Apple launched alongside Apple Music last year. Apple Music subscribers can continue to create iTunes Radio-like stations based on artists or songs, but they'll need to pay the standard $9.99-per-month membership fee to do so.
iTunes Match users will apparently be losing their ad-free version of iTunes Radio, too. The message to users of that service is clear: Apple Music offers similar song matching feature and ad-free iTunes Radio, so you should really consider using it instead of Match.
iTunes Radio was originally introduced in iOS 7 back in 2013. Its main perk was that songs played on your stations could easily be bought from the iTunes Store and added to your library to play whenever you wanted, but it was never meant to be an à la carte, unlimited music streaming service like the ones that Spotify, Rdio, Google, and others were already offering at the time. Apple Music is a better service that's more attuned to the way that many people are listening to their music these days, but anyone who likes the standalone ad-supported Radio service will need to pay for Apple Music or find an alternative.
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