Streaming radio is probably one of the best ways to listen to music aside from buying a bunch of albums through iTunes. Apps like Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio give us the ability to create custom artist or genre playlists and listen to similar music. In my opinion, it’s way better than the actual radio, but these streaming apps may soon have some stiff competition. Apple may be launching a similar service at some point this year.

According to BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, Apple may be launching its Pandora competitor at some point this year. There have been rumors of this streaming service in the past, but we’ve never seen it happen. The “iRadio” service would be integrated with iTunes and Apple is apparently in talks with record labels to get the ball rolling.

“Consumer behavior (is) increasingly shifting toward access to a music catalog from ownership of specific songs. We expect iRadio to be incorporated into the iTunes iOS app with personalized radio functionality akin to Pandora, integrated with iTunes to purchase music and other music related content such as concert information/tickets/merchandise via Live Nation (LYV) and Ticketmaster.”

I think a streaming service from Apple would be infinitely popular. They already control the music industry with iTunes and have made such an impact on record sales, I find it hard to believe that an “iRadio” service even has the ability to fail. The entire idea is genius.

Apple already has millions of users with iTunes pre-installed on their iOS devices. If they were to push an update and “flip the switch” on this streaming radio service, they’d already have more active users than any streaming app combined.

This would definitely be a low-blow to the competition, but I don’t think it will put them out of business. Google Maps still thrives even after Apple gave them the boot in iOS 6. I think a music service would play out in a similar fashion.

Source: BTIG Research via MacRumors