Click to Skip Ad
Closing in...

Apple’s $30 million Swell acquisition could be big for iTunes Radio

Published Jul 28th, 2014 7:40AM EDT
Apple Swell Acquisition

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

For the time being, Apple’s iTunes Radio product is something of an also-ran. It’s a nice value-add for iOS device owners, allowing them to stream Pandora-like Radio stations for free, but it doesn’t really offer any compelling features compared to bigger rival services. According to a new report, however, that may soon change.

Re/code on Monday reported that Apple is close to acquiring Swell for about $30 million. Swell, which you might recall we have covered here on BGR before, is something of a Pandora for online news radio. The app includes many sources from podcasts to news radio stations, and it chooses which content to stream in much the same way that Pandora selects music.

While the deal would be extremely small compared to other recent Apple acquisitions, such as its $3.2 billion Beats Electronics buy, it could be a big boost for iTunes Radio, giving it some interesting and useful functionality that no major competitors currently tout.

According to the report, the Swell app will be shut down at some point this week as part of the deal.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.