iTunes Radio Launches September 18

The long-expected iTunes Radio will make its debut September 18th with an estimated 200 other new features as part of the new iOS 7 software.

While it's widely predicted to be similar to a more established rival, Pandora, the service will be revolutionary in that streamed songs will lead users to "buy" buttons via iTunes.

According to Digital Music News, a number of important features were confirmed during the announcement, including:

•  iTunes Radio will be available across all iOS devices, including Apple TV and iTunes on PCs.  It is part of a far broader iOS7 platform release and concommitant iTunes update.
• iTunes Radio will imitate Pandora's artist-driven, personalized stations, but will not be bound by the same restrictions on skipping and consecutive plays.
• iTunes Radio will also mimic Pandora's thumbs-up/thumbs-down functionality to fine tune those stations.  Thumbs up translates into "Play more songs like this" while thumbs down is the opposite (not the exact language, but you get the idea).
• There will also be more than 300 DJ-curated and genre-focused stations to choose from.
• Audio ads will be inserted after every 15 minutes (or so) of listening, with video ads every hour.
• Similar to Pandora One, Pandora's premium tier, iTunes Match subscribers will enjoy ad-free listening.
• iTunes Radio will feature integrated download buying opportunities for every song, linked to the existing iTunes account and stored credit card.
• Furthermore, a history of all songs played will be neatly presented, with buy links next to each track.
• iTunes Radio will be totally Siri-enabled.  That includes voice-actived station selection, song identification, station narrowing ('play more songs like this') as well as basic play, skip, or pause functionality.  Siri will also allow users to place songs into their Wish List for later purchase.