KeithE4 said:
The problem is that it requires three apps to listen to all stations (CBS's Radio.com, CC's iHeartRadio, and TunedIn), plus another app for Pandora. Not easy to shut one down, start another up, and then select the desired station. Don't do that while driving! And that probably won't change anytime soon, since CBS and CC won't allow it.
I haven't had any real problem switching between streaming apps on my iPhone. The biggest issue there is that some apps (TuneIn seems to be the biggest offender) will still run despite not playing audio. That can mean for a quickly drained battery. Switching between two stations on the same app is far more difficult to me since you have to go through a menu all over again and make multiple clicks/touches on a smaller space. I do agree that it's not a good idea to do when driving, especially if you're driving in stop and go traffic in the city or heavy traffic on the expressway. However, as streaming apps find their way into dashboards, tuning between them will become easier, maybe as easy as pushing a radio button.
DToTheJ said:
A previous poster refers to "quality of iHeartRadio audio" which is powered by Akamai (something I know one poster here who is prone to pulling stream URL's is quite familiar with
). With this deal, will another streaming provider take over?
Not likely. A mobile streaming app can use multiple providers pretty easily. iHeartRadio can already point to multiple URL's, which is how you can hear all of those stations. So, it's not much more difficult to point to a completely different provider. It's just a matter of a little more typing in the code behind the scenes. I'd expect both Clear Channel and Cumulus to keep the same providers, though it's not out of the question that Cumulus might want to outsource streaming, especially if they get a better deal through buying in bulk and/or sharing the costs with Clear Channel.
FightingIrish said:
So another big coup for Clear Channel, right after Univision, EMF and WNYC. I wonder if this means Cumulus will pull their stations off apps like TuneIn like Clear Channel and CBS did.
I'd say this is quite likely. Of course, they'd just be pulled off the TuneIn mobile app. If you use TuneIn on your desktop, the Cumulus stations would just make the iHeartRadio player pop-up.
The CBS app, on the other hand, is just awful. Great content, lousy app.
Depends on your phone. Works just fine on my iPhone, but it's a disaster on Android! iHeartRadio is about the only streaming app that works across every version of Android.
erwin33 said:
I hope it increase the audio quality of the Cumulus streams. PLJ is sounding awfull at the moment. When are the stations available with Iheartradio?
The press release I saw this afternoon indicated the Cumulus stations were expected to be on iHeartRadio by the end of the first quarter of next year. Of course, the press release indicating Univision stations would stream on iHeartRadio said they'd be on by the end of this year, but there's no sign of them yet. Granted, they still have a few weeks, but almost three months later, they're not there. In other words, the press release likely provided the most optimistic guess.
