Often when I open the TuneIn Radio app, I’m greeted with a pitch for the premium service. Now and then I’ve thought about trying it out since what it offers sounds pretty decent, but I’ve never bothered to give it a go. But it seems I may have to get off my arse and just do it now that they’ve apparently relaunched the hell out of it.
The load of commercial free music streams and the collection of audio books almost put me over the top as it was, but now those areas have been expanded and possibly even more interestingly at least for some of us, there’s a new partnership between TuneIn and Major League Baseball that will bring what is essentially Gameday Audio to the TuneIn app. Gameday Audio is literally the only reason I pay for MLB At Bat, so considering that I can now get its main draw, plus music, plus audio books, plus whatever else they might add in the future plus the mountains of free radio stations and Podcasts TuneIn already offers all for $9 a month, I’ve got some decisions to make. And unless they go and fuck up the accessibility of the thing, I don’t see them being difficult ones.
TuneIn, the world’s largest audio network with over 60M monthly users, today announced a new subscription service – TuneIn Premium. With TuneIn Premium, subscribers will be able to listen to live play-by-play coverage of all Major League Baseball games, Barclays Premier League and Bundesliga matches, over 600 commercial-free music stations, and have unlimited access to over 40,000 audiobooks.
“With the introduction of TuneIn Premium we are taking the world’s best audio content and putting it all in one place,” said John Donham, Chief Executive Officer of TuneIn. “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 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.”
“We’re excited to partner with TuneIn and bring our live radio broadcasts to another distribution platform for baseball fans all over the world,” said Kenny Gersh, Executive Vice President, Business, MLBAM. “TuneIn gives fans multiple baseball channels so they can listen to every live game as well as a variety of MLB.com and MLB Network programming, including fantasy baseball, talk shows and baseball-themed entertainment, and individual stations devoted to their favorite teams.”
Starting today, TuneIn Premium is available in the US ($7.99 USD/month), Canada ($8.99 CAD/month) and the UK (£5.99/month) with future plans to roll out to additional countries. Users will be able to access TuneIn Premium within the existing TuneIn Radio app, which will remain free and continues to offer over 100,000 streaming radio stations and 5.7 million on-demand programs and podcasts.
TuneIn Premium Features:
Major League Baseball – TuneIn Premium subscribers can listen to home and away feeds for every game, from Spring Training to the World Series. All TuneIn users, including those not subscribed to TuneIn Premium, will have access to programs like MLB Fantasy 411, MLB Network Intentional Talk, The Vault, Express Written Consent, and official MLB podcasts. All TuneIn users can follow their favorite MLB teams on team-specific radio stations to hear daily recaps, press conferences, and more.
600 Commercial-Free Music Stations: Partnerships with the largest radio broadcasters around the world make commercial-free radio a reality. Subscribers can listen to over 600 music stations, without commercials. These new stations are programmed by leaders in the industry including Digitally Imported, 977 Music, and JazzRadio.com. Combined, these partners have garnered more than 30 million listening hours in 2015.
40,000+ Audiobooks: Subscribers have unlimited access to a library of more than 40,000 audiobook titles from publishers like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Scholastic. Subscribers will also have access to 16 different language learning programs.
Barclays Premier League: TuneIn Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada have access to over 1,000 play-by-play events per season in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, with select coverage in Malay. Live, play-by-play coverage will be provided every week from talkSPORT.
Bundesliga: TuneIn is the only global destination for comprehensive play-by-play coverage of Bundesliga, the best attended soccer league in the world. TuneIn Premium subscribers have access to English commentary for select Bundesliga matches for every time slot (Friday 2:00pm EST, Saturday 9:30am and 12:30pm, Sunday 9:30am and 11:30pm EST) as well as midweek fixtures throughout the season, (over 160 live matches). TuneIn Premium subscribers also have access to live play-by play-coverage for all Bundesliga matches in German.
Content from TuneIn’s Free Service: TuneIn Premium subscribers can enjoy everything TuneIn’s free service has to offer too – 100,000 real radio stations plus more than 5.7 million podcasts from around the world.
Listeners can subscribe to TuneIn Premium or sign up for a free trial starting today via TuneIn.com and TuneIn’s mobile apps for iOS and Android.