Apple’s iTunes Radio to debut in September with McDonald’s, Nissan, P&G, Pepsi sponsorships

“iTunes Radio, Apple’s answer to Pandora, is set to debut next month with a handful of high-profile brand partners including McDonald’s, Nissan, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble and possibly one or two more brands, according to people familiar with the negotiations,” John McDermott reports for Advertising Age. “The deals range from the high single-digit millions of dollars to tens of millions of dollars and include a 12 month advertising campaign to run within the streaming music service for each of the participating brands.”

“In addition to basking in all the publicity that comes with a heavily-anticipated Apple product launch, the launch partners get exclusivity within their respective industries through the end of 2013,” McDermott reports. “Come January 2014, however, ads on iTunes Radio will become widely available, provided an advertiser agrees to the minimum buy-in of around $1 million, according to sources briefed on the product.”

“Advertisements on iTunes Radio will come in three forms: interstitial audio and video ads and ‘slate’ ads; interactive display ads that will take over whatever screen the consumer is using. That includes iPhones, iPads, all desktops and laptops loaded with iTunes (including Windows PCs) and Apple TV, the Apple device that brings Internet connectivity and apps to TVs,” McDermott reports. “The cost of iTunes Radio ads will increase with the size of the screen, according to agency executives; iPhone ads will be cheapest and Apple TV ads will be the most expensive.”

McDermott reports, “Of course, consumers can choose to have no ads at all. iTunes Radio will be a free, ad-supported service to the public, but Apple will be offering an ad-free option to anyone who purchases iTunes Match, a cloud-based music storage feature that allows users to access their libraries on any Internet-connected Apple device.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We’ve been using iTunes Radio all summer (no ads, because it’s in beta form and we also have iTunes Match, of course).

iTunes Radio will be a huge hit for Apple.

10 Comments

  1. Looking forward to this. Already have iTunes Match so a no brainer.
    For me the killer will be one button song purchase. No more trying to remember the name of the song that I heard whilst driving.

    1. Soooo… What would you prefer? That Apple instead ally itself with Fred’s Free-Range Organic Bison Burgers? McDonald’s and Pepsi are no more or less “evil” then any other business their size.

      ——RM

  2. It’s not really to do with anti business, it’s about making the rest of the world as obese as you lot over there by shovelling this shite in every nook and cranny in the world.

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