Share

TuneIn launches premium service with ad-free radio, audiobooks

“In today’s crowded audio landscape, our focus on exclusive news, talk, sports, and music allows us to deliver an unparalleled listening experience to our users”.

Advertisement

Move over Spotify and Apple Music: TuneIn is entering the subscription game.

In the world of streaming entertainment, TuneIn Radio is a bit unique.

For $7.99 per month, TuneIn Premium subscribers get a bunch of new premium content as well as a nifty ad-free feature. Baseball fans can already subscribe to audio feeds directly through MLB – and at a much cheaper price – which is why this is part of a larger package that TuneIn intends to keep building. If you don’t see Tunein Premium in the Play Store, there’s a reason for that.

Like the free version of TuneIn, the new TuneIn Premium service is available through Android, iOS, and Windows apps. The company is also launching team-specific stations with analysis on these games. TuneIn might have to reimburse these stations for putting music over their advertisements with some sort of revenue sharing program.

As well as the sporting goodness, Premium subscribers will receive access ad-free access to 600 commercial stations, 40,000 audiobooks and 16 language learning stations. Th goal, he says, is to continue to add more sports leagues (TuneIn Premium also offers access to some broadcasts from Bundesliga and Barclays Premier League) to the lineup, though he declined to discuss which ones may be next. However, Donham promised that the company’s free tier with its 100,000 radio stations won’t go away anytime soon. “MLB is the gold standard in professional sports and its mobile availability on TuneIn will anchor our new subscription service for years to come”.

In terms of actual live radio streaming, TuneIn Premium will be commercial free, with the radio stations providing TuneIn with separate streams that will play music in place of their ad breaks.

Advertisement

In audiobooks, subscribers have unlimited access to a library from publishers like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Scholastic, including the “Hunger Games” and “Harry Potter” series.

Tune In