FlyTunes on the iPhone – internet radio done right?
by rmtwrkr
Yesterday I finally got my *invitation* from FlyTunes to sign up and start listening to their streaming internet radio webapp. So, after a painless signup process I was presented with the player interface. It’s simple to use, and allows you to select a number of different music genres to choose from (although you are limited to americanized definitions of genres, for example where is the Electronica genre? hmm…americans anyway think that electronica is stuff like Moby..lol). I selected a genre: ‘Chilled’, and it takes a few seconds to buffer the stream in the quicktime player interface. Then I was listening away. It works.
But, it also felt a bit like an anticlimax. After all the hype that FlyTunes got before Macworld in the tech blogs about a ‘radical new app for the iPhone’ , and a way to ‘listen to your own music’ I was expecting something….else? Don’t get me wrong, the service works as far as you being able to listen to music streaming from FlyTunes. But what happened to the ability to hear your own music? I thought that there was a component to install on your PC or Mac that would allow you to listen to your own music? I also thought that you would see a screen in the player with various Album/artist covers to select from? After all, this is what was shown initially when it was first talked about. In a direct head-to-head contest I would take either Nutsie (a service that requires you to upload your itunes library.xml file to a server, then download a j2me app that allows you to listen to your music) or any number of S60 solutions for internet radio (either Nokia’s Internet Radio app, or Virtual Radio etc) all above FlyTunes. All these other ways of listening to internet radio on your mobile far surpass FlyTunes in user configurability.
I think that in the long-run FlyTunes has it’s work cutout. In a couple of weeks the SDK will be released for the iPhone, and I expect very quickly a native app that works much better than FlyTunes. In fact there is an unofficial native app that fills this area already: iRadio. If this app becomes ‘Official’ in the next few weeks, then I would immediately use it. It allows you to subscribe to ANY shoutcast streaming radio service (just like the Radio portion in iTunes). There is also another native app called ‘Simplify Media’ which allows you to listen directly to your own complete iTunes library, plus other friend’s libraries. So instead of some service like FlyTunes telling you what you can or can’t listen to, it’s entirely up to you. Fill it up with 200 pure death-doom radio stations if you like. Listen to what you like.
If FlyTunes had come out 6 months ago, then I think it could have had more relevance. But somehow I feel it has under-delivered on it’s initial promise, and it’s simply come too late to really have any sustained impact. Shame, because it technically works fine. Oh well.
RMTWRKR:MOBLOG 
Hi, I’m a FlyTunes insider and your blog came up on my radar screen and I wanted to comment on it.
There is a limit on what is possible with absolutely no software installation on the iPhone or your PC.
We focused the entry level FlyTunes on playing IR streams on the iPhone – true, nothing earth shattering, yet many thousands of iPhone owners are streaming music on FlyTunes right now.
It isn’t logical to stream your personal music collection to your iPhone, since iTunes already performs the task of playlisting and maintaining your music very well. We opted to provide a “radio” experience that the iPhone lacked.
Shortly we’ll be announcing the FlyTunes premium version, which has a downloadable component that runs on your PC/Mac. It will offer users lots of interesting new features, such as time shifting (like TiVo for radio), personalization of channels, side-loading, etc. and ultimately premium content channels, at a price that is much cheaper than the $60 alternative options you described.
I guess the point I’m trying to get across is … We do understand the potential of aggregated Iradio, and we’ve got some very interesting things in store. Don’t judge FlyTunes by our initial product ..We just completed a rollout that was 5x what we planned for in 3 weeks.
Like everyone else, We’re waiting in line for the SDK, and are planning some additional enhancements that depend on how far Apple opens the device.
Thanks for the post!
Hi Roy,
Firstly, thanks for checking this blog out. It’s great to get a response from somebody involved with iPhone applications development. I appreciate that a lot.
I think I understand what you are saying. The problem I saw was that when FlyTunes was announced, the media pounced on it like it was the be-all end-all solution for listening to radio on your iPhone. I guess this was because it ‘plugged a hole’ in the iPhone’s feature list. So as you are probably well aware, people’s expectations were extremely high. I also understand the difficulty in delivering internet radio (trivia time!: I was involved with the first ever streaming internet radio station, ‘Gaialive.com’ back in 1996. All running on an old PC that ran Real Player Broadcaster!) so I can see that it is quite a challenge to deliver ‘everything everyone wants’ right at the start.
I think that if the improvements (like moving from a webapp to native) happen, then it’s highly likely that you will do well, as you have already got the necessary infrastructure for it to work. I honestly wish you all the best with FlyTunes, as it can only add to the amount of compelling reasons to use an iPhone in the future.
Good Luck Roy!
Rmtwrtkr.
[…] say that so far, Flytunes is OK and does provide access to a ton of stations, but like our friend over at the RMTWRKR blog, I find myself pretty disappointed with it overall – and for pretty much the same reasons. […]
I like Flytunes so far but it’s not clear to me if I
can add a radio station (like WUOT or WDVX) myself.
Is it possible, and if so, how?
This is a life saver for me. I can’t stream from my work pc and am able to listen to the radio all day thanks to my phone… there should always be something to be said for those that are able to deliver a platform or conceptual firsts. As for longevity of the app… you can only really speculate at this point as it is the only official app one can use.
Hey! I just logged into FlyTunes. I usually just use my presets, but I decided to look for something different to listen to this time around … maybe a little talk …. they’ve added a ton of new stations!