IHeartMedia Ups Its Interactive Game
iHeartMedia yesterday announced the beta availability of iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access powered by Napster. As the press release says, “This is the first service that uses on demand functionality to make radio truly interactive, as compared to all current players that simply add on demand functionality to the music collection experience.” These two new services are now available in beta on iOS and Android devices and will be fully available on mobile and desktop in January 2017.
iHeartRadio Plus, which runs $4.99 a month, completely transforms live radio listening with the addition of these functions: Replay; Live and custom Artist Radio stations; Search; and Unlimited skips. iHeartRadio All Access powered by Napster, @ $9.99 a month, combines the interactive functionally of iHeartRadio Plus with a complete music collection and library that is linked seamlessly to the radio listening experience. This new service with the ability to: 1) Build subscribers’ personal music libraries: completely create, control and curate playlists from a library of millions of tracks; 2) Give subscribers total flexibility to listen to their music the way they want, when they want: With no playback cap and the ability to reorder, delete and sequence their playlist experience as well as manage unlimited playlists; and 3) Access offline listening: subscribers can now take their music and playlists with them everywhere they go, even when they don’t have a data connection.
“iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access powered by Napster are revolutionizing how we think of live radio,” said Darren Davis, President of iHeartRadio. “With features such as personal music libraries and playlists, the ability to search and play any song instantly, and the option to save and replay songs directly from live and custom radio listening, our new iHeartRadio on demand offerings are fundamentally changing the way consumers interact with live radio at an unprecedented level. We are introducing a service like no other to tens of millions of consumers across dozens of devices, and also driving massive awareness of the new service to more than a quarter of a billion Americans a month through our broadcast stations alone, which presents a major revenue growth opportunity for our very important strategic partners — artists and the music industry.” Aside from these two new subscription on-demand services, iHeartRadio will remain free.
