• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, June 7, 2013

There is a certain point with most Apple rumors when the sheer volume and source diversity gives the narrative a kind of inevitability. At this point, if Apple fails to deliver some sort of streaming audio service with an ad-supported business model and robust support from the record labels, the usual fanboys will be disappointed. But let’s round up the rumors just for the hell of it, shall we? According to reports that now include Reuters and Bloomberg, Apple will introduce next week a music streaming service that is at least akin to Pandora, Spotify and Google’s All Access.

The media model will also move Apple into a new advertising model -- streaming audio ads. Apparently, the advertising will be sold through the iAd network and it will include a combination of audio insertions and banners. It goes without saying that Apple has phenomenal user data against which to target. For all of the complaints about the iAd platform, most buyers appear to be extremely impressed by the level of targeting and depth of reporting and consumer insight that Apple is able to deliver.

Having an audio ad helps the platform overcome its greatest weakness from the beginning -- that it relied on the diminutive banner to lure people into the multimedia extravaganzas within some of these iAds. Audio ads are remarkably impactful and memorable. As one of the first providers of audio ads via RTB systems told me recently, these units are always above the fold and hard to ignore.

But as with all things related to Apple news, the focus is always on whether this service or that service is going to be a Google killer or a Pandora killer or an Apple killer. I’m more interested in whether Apple succeeds in making streaming audio to mobile phones just more interesting. Surely what we have seen already from Pandora and Spotify does not exhaust the possibilities for what a genuinely personalized radio service can look like and the kinds of functionality it can provide.

Internet radio on a mobile device is a curious experience because it is both fleeting and at the same time interactive. There are times when you want it to be very simple and fall into the background, and other times when you wish for more functionality because you are ready to engage in the app itself. Obviously, there is opportunity here for combining some of the functionality of other music apps with audio recognition and device to device sharing. A lot of the apps that I have used certainly have focused on the music-buying experience and the social-sharing experience.

And I keep wondering what other layers there are to this. Surely there must be more interesting ways of interacting with unique new advertising units that get us beyond the radio spot and nearby banner ad. So far, these apps personalize my musical taste, which is fine. But the mobile phone introduces personal habits, time of day, situation, ambient noise -- all of which could be triggers for interesting new types of personalization. And after all, most people are listening to their mobile streamed music on headphones that also have a microphone. Can I get a shout out for some innovation here?