Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist,
and this is Radioland, my radio trends newsletter
for August the 31st, 2025. Apple radio stations
are now everywhere. Apple's radio stations caused
a stir when the first was launched in 2015, not
least because one of the broadcasters to make
the leap over to Apple was Zane Lowe, a well
-regarded host on BBC Radio 1. I listened and
I didn't think much of it at the time. You'll
find a link to my initial review in the show
notes today. Back in 2020, I noticed that Apple
had launched a set more, including a rather more
accessible station called Apple Music Hits, as
well as a country station. They now have six
of them. Until now, you've needed an Apple Music
subscription to listen, but as of this week,
you can now listen to all of them for free, because
they're all now available in TuneIn. And this
is the first time anyone has been able to listen,
I reckon, and TuneIn, for all its flaws, powers
almost every... radio -connected device out there,
so it means that the stations are now available
on smart speakers and everything else. I tried
using Apple Music for a little bit, and one of
the differentiators of the service is in fact
these radio stations. I enjoyed a great documentary
with Paul McCartney talking about his songwriting
process, when all I had really searched for was
Paul McCartney. I also heard a great hour of
rare cuts from The Beatles. It's a service that
adds significantly to the benefit of Apple Music.
But as a radio station you'd listen to, well,
it doesn't sound live. 12 hours of it isn't,
I believe, just a rerun of the previous 12. It
also doesn't sound as if it's been built for
listener feedback either. But it's interesting
that Apple, of all companies, has realised that
it needs to make its radio services as open as
possible. Someone, somewhere, has worked out
how the music licensing works for this. Apple
Music is a paid -for streaming service and these
stations have no ads. So presumably this has
required a brand new license for TuneIn. And
since this is global, presumably there are specific
licenses in each territory. I mean, you wouldn't
want to be like the BBC and have to remove these
services now, would you? Elsewhere, I noticed
with delight that ACMA is consulting on a move
for ABC Radio Perth, ABC Radio National and ABC
News Radio to all be moved to FM in the city.
My plan is to write a response agreeing with
the proposals and to call for two things. Firstly,
the same to happen in other capital cities. And
B, an amendment to the Parliamentary Proceedings
Broadcast Act 1946 that allows the ABC to broadcast
parliamentary proceedings online. than force
them to be specifically on AM, which I appreciate
has nothing to do with ACMA, but still there
we are. I was interviewed by Alice Matthews on
ABC Radio Canberra on what the station calls
666 on AM, talking about the CRA's call for radio
to be prominently available in cars. You can
hear the full interview on that on my website.
You can find a link to that in the show notes.
I enjoyed particularly talking about the benefits
of DAB Plus for listeners to the station, for
the presenter to then reset by telling listeners
that this was ABC Radio Canberra on 666. Listen
app and on DAB+. I interjected. You'll note that
I also called for the radio station to get an
FM frequency in Canberra. It's not easy to tell
an AM broadcaster that AM is dying, but I'm afraid
I may just have done that. It was though an enjoyable
20 minute interview. And I'm off to Radio Days
Asia in Jakarta, always one of the highlights
of my conference year. Thank you to many supporters.
Who shall we mention? Radio .co. We'll mention
Broadcast Radio and we'll mention Wayne Kingsley.
Wayne Kingsley, the creative coach. Plus, let's
thank Greg Strassel and Sam Phelps and Richard
Hilton and Emma Gibbs, Jocelyn Abbey and James
Masterton for being regular supporters as well.
If you would like to support my work in any way,
then you can buy me a coffee. You can become
a member to give regularly or just give a one
-off coffee or five. You can do that very easily
by visiting buymeacoffee .com slash James Cridland.
I'm on Mastodon. If you want to follow me there,
james at bne .social. And my website has more
detail about who I am and what I do and whether
I... I can help you further. Maybe I can. Who
knows? Anyway, you'll find that at james .cridland
.net. And until next time, keep listening.