Finally iTunes Radio, Apple's long-awaited streaming music service

Apple is jumping into the streaming music business, taking on everyone from Google to Pandora. It made the announcement at WWDC.


After more than a year of negotiations with the music labels and publishers, Apple Monday unveiled its much-talked about free, streaming radio service at -- called iTunes Radio -- WWDC in San Francisco.
The service comes after a busy last few weeks of deal making. Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue and his team, long aiming for a summer rollout of the service, only secured deals with the major labels and publishers on Friday.

With the new service, Apple is entering a crowded field. Streaming music -- from services such as Spotify, Deezer and Pandora -- make up the fastest growing segment of the recorded music industry, as people want access to music anytime, anywhere.

Google, at its developer's conference last month, launched a Spotify-like subscription music service called Google All Access. Google is also working on a music service tied to YouTube, which has become the dominant place where young people go to hear music.

Apple's product is aims most squarely at Pandora, which has more than 70 million active monthly listeners but is available only in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

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