Apple Music Stations Now Stream Free on TuneIn

Apple is taking an unusual step to expand its music footprint: six of its radio stations are now available outside the Apple Music app for the first time, streaming directly through TuneIn. The change, reported by The Wall Street Journal, begins today.

Listeners can now access Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, Apple Music Country, Apple Música Uno, Apple Music Club, and Apple Music Chill through TuneIn’s app and website. The stations will play without ads and can be launched through direct links inside TuneIn, which currently claims around 75 million monthly active users.

For anyone unfamiliar, TuneIn operates as a global internet radio hub, offering more than 100,000 live stations alongside curated channels, sports coverage, news streams, and podcasts. The new arrangement adds Apple’s original programming to that lineup.

Why Apple is Doing This

The decision underscores how aggressively Apple is trying to shore up Apple Music’s position against Spotify. Unlike Spotify, Apple still refuses to offer an ad-supported free tier, a choice that has historically made it harder to keep users around once a trial expires.

By making its radio stations freely available on a third-party platform, Apple is betting that TuneIn’s audience might be persuaded to pay for a subscription once they get a taste of the programming. The timing is notable: Apple’s U.S. share of music subscribers slipped from 30% in 2020 to 25% by the end of 2024. Over that same stretch, Spotify grew from 31% to 37%. Globally, Apple Music dropped from 16% to 12%.

Building on Earlier Ties

Apple and TuneIn already have history. In 2019, Apple Music began incorporating TuneIn’s catalog of 100,000 radio stations into its app. This latest move effectively flips that arrangement, sending Apple’s own branded stations outward to TuneIn’s massive user base.

Whether this shift will meaningfully close the gap with Spotify remains to be seen. On the surface, it looks less like a bold expansion and more like a defensive maneuver to keep Apple Music from slipping further behind.

Would hearing Apple’s stations for free on TuneIn make you more likely to try Apple Music itself? Let us know what you think in the comments.