Bloom.fm is a London-based streaming music service that offers genre and artist-based streaming radio stations and boasts a library of over 22 million tracks. It uses iAd, Apple’s advertising platform, to promote the service. Bloom.fm has now been banned from using iAd, however, and believe it’s because Apple is trying to protect its own digital music service.
It’s expected that Apple will be bringing iTunes Radio service to the UK soon, and given this recent news it looks like a launch is imminent. We’ve heard reports from some iPhone owners in the UK being able to connect to the iTunes Radio service, which suggests that Apple is ready to launch the service.
iTunes Radio was announced alongside iOS 7 last year, and it allows users to create custom radio stations based off genres or artists. Because it’s a radio service and not a streaming service like Spotify, licensing fees are lower. This has allowed Apple to offer iTunes Radio service for free with ads and without ads for any iTunes match subscribers.
