The release of iOS 7 brought new colors, 3D effects, and enough change to make us think we had a brand new iPhone. While the iOS 7 time stamps are cool– yes, now you can see time stamps for every text, and many love the compass app that shows you, complete with bubbles, how level a surface is, iTunes Radio is by far the greatest part of the update.
iTunes Radio is basically a replacement for every other music app you currently have sitting on your phone. It’s also possible that you can now ditch Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and all of those other streaming music apps you tried out and only used once. Here are 5 reasons iTunes Radios is the best part of iOS 7.
1. More ’90s Hits
With iOS 7, iTunes Radio allows you to select from over 25 genres ranging from the “Best Mix of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and Today!” under Adult Contemporary (which also includes 340 other streams) to College/University, Eclectic, Hip Hop, Talk Radio, and 84 streams of ’90s hits. With this new iTunes, there is essentially no reason to use other music providers, especially those that charge fees to stream music.
2. 10 Million More Songs Than Pandora
If you are familiar with other music streaming options, you have likely run into the frustration of finding the perfect channel, only to end up, ten songs later, listening to songs that either don’t fit the category. “Um, so why is Skrillex playing on my Beyonce station?” With iTunes Radio, this is less likely to happen – like ten million times less likely, because while services such as Pandora can spin a million songs, iTunes Radio can spin tens of millions.
3. Guest DJ Katy Perry
iTunes Radio has also set up various special events and DJs for their Featured Stations with celebrities like Katy Perry, Jared Leto. On Katy Perry’s station for example, you get occasional commentary such as an introduction to her new single, Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J), and TMI about how she and her boyfriend make out to Drake. You can then decide to “Play More Like This” “Never Play This Song” or “Add to iTunes Wish List.” iTunes with iOS 7 has also made it extremely convenient to immediately purchase the songs you are listening to. Perhaps even too convenient.
4. History of Songs
Okay, so maybe it’s just Apple’s way of getting me to purchase every song that plays on the Lisa Lisa Cult Jam station, but I love that the new iTunes radio records your history, and every song you’ve listened to is available for purchase. This is handy when you’re running like mad on the treadmill and have no clue what the name of that song was that you listened to 20 songs ago.
In the old days, if you missed the name of the song playing on the radio, you were basically SOL unless you could somehow get through to the radio station to ask them. And no one normal did that. To find the list of songs you’ve listened to in iTunes Radio, press the History button next to iTunes Radio. This is also where you will find your Wish List.
5. Share Stations With Friends
There is currently no way to share specific songs through Facebook or Twitter, but who needs to tweet that they’re listening to “She Don’t Use Jelly,” anyway? However, if you do want to share a specific station, such as ’90s Alternative Radio, you can text, email, tweet, or share the link to the station on Facebook. This is done by selecting the circled “i” at the top of the song screen. This is also where you will find the options to create a station by artist.
You will likely find more reasons to love iTunes Radio once you get in there and start discovering new songs and setting up your Songs to Make Out To stations. While the iOS 7 update was long and scary for some of us who wondered if our iPhone might be stuck forever in update mode, the new iTunes Radio totally made it worth freaking out about. In a good way.
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Photo Credits: mizzicatto and Cmajaski