iTunes Radio Goes Live In Australia

Apple has launched iTunes Radio in Australia, the first country outside of the US to get access to the streaming music service. Available across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, and Apple TV, iTunes Radio includes 100 preconfigured stations and the ability to create new ones from initial seed tracks. The Australian launch is believed to be the first in a broader international roll-out.

Chatter back in late 2013 indicated Australia and New Zealand would be first in line, though that other English-speaking countries would also get the service in 2014. An advertisement for an iTunes Radio engineer in Canada lent weight to the speculation.

Apple offers iTunes Radio free, though listeners get adverts interspersed with their music. Subscribing to iTunes Match rids the stream of the commercials, however, along with iCloud storage of any of your existing digital music.

In Australia, iTunes Match is priced at AU$34.99 per year.

In addition to regular adverts, Apple has also worked with companies to run specific campaigns through iTunes Radio. That's included car coverage with Nissan as well as pre-release album streaming to build listener hype.

As of last year, over 20m people were using iTunes Radio, Apple announced.