iTunes Radio Reportedly Heading For Australia, New Zealand And Other Regions In 2014

Last week, a job listing for iTunes Radio surfaced, calling for a music programmer in Canada who would help with the platform, indicating that users in the nation would likely be seeing it soon. Now "people with knowledge of the situation" have surfaced, telling the folks at Bloomberg that English-speaking countries beyond the US will gain access to iTunes Radio early next year.

The sources specifically mentioned that the service will be coming to Australia and New Zealand in early 2014, but didn't elaborate much on whether other English-speaking countries will also be seeing it that early or if it'll roll out in, for example, Canada at a time later in the year. Nordic countries are reportedly slated to also received it early in the year.

Such a move gives Apple a big jump on its competitor, Pandora, which thus far has had a slow process in treading international waters, offering its music streaming service in Australia and New Zealand only (in addition to the US). Such a move on Apple's part is the result of having also set up agreements with Universal Music Group and others, according to the sources.

As mentioned, the Apple job listing for a music programmer in Canada was focused entirely on iTunes Radio, seeking someone to work fulltime on feature content, merchandising, programming execution, and more. Unfortunately, the ad didn't give away anything in terms of launch dates or ranges, but according to these sources, it looks like there could be as little as three months of waiting left.

SOURCE: Bloomberg