CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, has followed in the footsteps of its NPR and BBC cousins and have launched its own music portal, in addition to an iPhone app. Though much of the content is a consolidation of its existing channels, including Radio 2 and Radio 3, it also sources music from 13 genres, equating to 40 music stations of Canadian and international talent.
According to Jeff Vidler, senior vice-president of research firm Vision Critical Communications,”it’s actually a very small number [using] any kind of online music streaming service or internet radio service in Canada,” and the numbers are much higher in the U.S. and England. That’s likely because Canadians haven’t traditionally had access to such services due to restrictive copyright and licensing laws that have kept the Pandoras and Spotify’s out of the game.
To that end CBC is launching its music portal which not only brings live- and commercial-free radio streams to users, but also its vast collection of Canadian artists on demand. The website provides listeners with speciality content like live concerts from Deadmau5 and a Whitney Houston tribute, as well as what other listeners are jamming to. The iPhone app, in comparison, is quite sparse for the moment, only allowing users to listen to commercial-free radio across genres like Pop, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Classical and even a Leonard Cohen station.
CBC Music is available from the Apple App Store
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