According to Ad Age iTunes Radio, announced in June, will be here in September. For its debut, Apple has managed to gather some impressive brands including Pepsi, P&G, McDonald’s and Nissan that will partner with the tech company to bring another highly anticipated Apple product to market.
The brands, as well as one or two more, will pay anywhere from high single-digit millions of dollars to tens of millions of dollars for a year-long advertising campaign.
The information comes from a source with knowledge of the matter who also reveals that from its launch date right through to the end of 2013, Apple will display only the adverts from these launch partners. Come 2014, advertising space will be widely available to purchase by other brands provided they are willing to pay the minimum spend of $1 million.
These adverts, that will run across various Apple devices, will also come in three different formats: users will receive a video advert every hour and an audio advert every 15 minutes both appearing when a user is likely to look at their screen. Interactive display ads, called “slate” ads, will take over the entire screen of whichever device is being used to listen to the service.
For users who prefer not to be interrupted or distracted by advertising, Apple will offer an ad-free option to anyone who purchases iTunes Match, a cloud-based music storage feature.
Despite advertising contracts going into the millions of dollars, Apple’s intention is that iTunes Radio will generate most of its revenue, not from advertisers, but rather through the purchase of music, activated by the presence of a purchase button next to each track, encouraging users to keep the song in their iTunes library, permanently.
