iTunes Radio, Apple's New Music Streaming Service, To Launch In September: Report

The highly anticipated streaming music service from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which will be called iTunes Radio, is set to launch in September, according to AdAge.

Citing “people familiar with the negotiations,” the service will reportedly team with McDonald’s, Nissan, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble for a series of multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns over the course of its first year.

Any brand will be able to advertise on iTunes Radio beginning in January 2014. According to AdAge, there will be a $1 million minimum buy-in to start running ads. Advertisers will be able to place different ads on different devices.

AdAge reports that three types of ads will be included in iTunes Radio: audio, video and slate. Audio ads will run once every 15 minutes. One video ad will air each hour. The cost of running an ad depends of the size of the screen. iPhones will reportedly be the cheapest device on which to run ads. Apple TV will be the most expensive. Users with iTunes Match will be able to use iTunes Radio free of advertising.

iTunes Radio will be available on any device with iTunes, including iPhones, iPads, iPods, PCs and Apple TVs.

As the launch date for iTunes Radio draws closer, many will watch closely to see how the service performs. With iTunes Radio Apple will enter an already crowded music streaming service market, which includes Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio.

“Music streaming is one of many elements Apple is attempting to tie together so that it can have the most comprehensive entertainment offering in the industry,” Bill Kreher, an Apple analyst at Edward Jones, told Minyanville. “The addition of iTunes Radio enhances the overall ecosystem.”

In spite of upcoming competition, Pandora executives doesn’t seem to be worried.

“We continue to be the only company that’s laser-focused on reinventing radio,” Pandora CTO Tom Conrad told Time. “You’re just not going to see any of the other participants going at this with the same singular focus that we bring to the table.

“Through it all we’ve expected competition,” Conrad said. “Out there in the real world, listeners are going to decide with their ears which service they want to spend time with.”