Apple officially announced iTunes Radio for iOS 7 at WWDC this week, but as is the case with most fledgling features and applications, it’s limited only to those residing within the confinements of the United States. The good news is, however, that those living elsewhere can also get in on iOS 7 beta’s iTunes Radio right now, provided they have, or can create, a U.S. iTunes account. Details after the break!
The music industry has really taken off, thanks to many different services which we know of, but the main kudos goes to Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Providing a vast catalogue of music since day one to users, and building upon its own success over time, it was logical for Apple to take the next big step; radio. iTunes Radio is Apple’s answer to provide free music streaming and discovery to the masses. iTunes Radio is more of a Pandora competitor than Spotify, Google Play Music All Access, Xbox Music Pass.
But, like most restrictions these days, there’s a way to circumvent the simple issue of living in a completely unsupported country, and it has emerged courtesy of YouTube. Often, these kinds of workarounds require either a jailbreak, a painstaking amount of time and patience, or both; but thankfully, getting around the shut-out is pretty darn simple.
All you need to do is have access to a U.S. iTunes account. Then, log out of your current account, log back in as a pretend American by using this account, and from then, you’ll be able to use iTunes Radio; no questions asked. See the video below to see it in action.
Of course, this isn’t likely to work forever, so see it as a bit of a taster of the service until Apple blocks you out in future beta or final release, and you’re left playing the waiting game for official support once more.
Despite the successes of the aforementioned, iTunes is still the de facto king of digital music and thus, one suspects iTunes Radio will be as big, if not bigger than the competing music streaming+discovery services. Time will, of course, call it either way, but with Apple having sealed the deal to get The Beatles and AC/DC’s catalogs on iTunes, there’s not much, musically speaking, that the Cupertino company cannot offer.
Thanks, Valeed for the hat tip!
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