iTunes Radio will be hitting a wide array of international markets in the next few months.
Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Bloomberg, iTunes Radio is also set to start early next year in Australia and New Zealand, where Pandora already operates, said sources who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Nordic countries are also being targeted in the same time frame, the people said.
Apple is moving faster than Pandora because it forged agreements for international rights with Vivendi SA (VIV)’s Universal Music Group and other record companies, said one of the sources. Pandora, which doesn’t have such deals, relies on rights granted by government entities, limiting service to the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
While it makes sense for Apple to start small with English speaking countries, Apple executive Eddy Cue recently said that Apple wants iTunes Radio to be a global entity.
“One of our top priorities is to bring iTunes Radio obviously here in the U.K. but everywhere in the world,” Cue explained in an interview last week. “We certainly want to be in more than 100 countries.”
Cue noted that Apple is thus far “very pleased” with the rollout of iTunes Radio. Remember that Apple noted in a press release two weeks ago that over 11 million unique users had already given iTunes Radio a spin in the first few days the feature became available.
As a final note, keep in mind that Bloomberg’s sources are anonymous and any rumors involving Apple should always be taken with a grain of salt, especially when they involve the often murky world of music licensing.
Stay tuned for additional details as we get them.