Apple Ceases Free iTunes Radio Streaming Worldwide

The Apple Music streaming service debuted in June and now has about 10 million paid subscribers.

For a decade, Apple was the dominant force in digital music thanks to downloads from its iTunes store.

The change follows Apple's announcement earlier this month that its free radio-listening feature would be discontinued at the end of January but would remain available to Apple Music subscribers.

The free ride on iTunes Radio is over. That means users will now have to pay for a subscription to the music-streaming service to access this feature. Having first launched in 2013 alongside iOS 7, ad-supported iTunes Radio has still been available in the United States and Australia until today. Going forward, the only free radio option is Apple's Beats 1 radio - the DJ-hosted station, which Apple is now marketing as its "premier free broadcast".

Try to launch an iTunes Radio station on your Apple device or your computer, and you'll now be prompted to subscribe to Apple Music.

At $9.99 per month, your subscription will get you unlimited skipping of songs and you won't have to listen to any ads. By contrast, top-dog Spotify has 20 million paying customers.

We should note, however, that the curated iTunes Radio stations may no longer be free, but the "internet radio" section in iTunes - a deprecated offering that most have forgotten about - remains live.