TuneIn is a global

audio streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

service providing news, radio, sports, music, and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s to over 75 million

monthly active users Active users is a software performance metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular software product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from users or visitors within a relevant range ...

. TuneIn is operated by the privately held company TuneIn Inc. based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The company was founded by Bill Moore on January 1, 2002 as RadioTime in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Users can listen through the TuneIn website using a

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

smart speaker A smart speaker is a type of loudspeaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant (artificial intelligence), virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and Hands-free computing, hands-free activation with the help of o ...

, or any other supported device. , TuneIn became available on more than 55 vehicle models. In 2013, the company raised more than USD 47 million in venture funding from

Institutional Venture Partners Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a US-based venture capital firm focused on fast-growing technology companies. IVP was founded in 1980, as one of the first venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. History Reid W. Dennis, the founder of In ...

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

, GV, General Catalyst Partners, and Icon Ventures. In November 2020, TuneIn appointed Richard Stern as chief executive officer and Rob Deichert as chief revenue officer, with a new investment led by Innovation Endeavors.

Functions

In August 2015, TuneIn launched a premium service called "TuneIn Premium" that covers audiobooks, sports content from

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, news content from

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

, and more. Initially, subscribers were able to record any content played through the TuneIn service, but the feature was first discontinued in the UK in early 2017, with a global discontinuation following on September 14, 2020, citing legal issues. However, the feature remains accessible through older versions of the TuneIn Pro app. In 2017, the company raised $50 million and was valued at $500 million. In March 2018, TuneIn launched another premium live audio subscription called "TuneIn Live," which offers play-by-play calls from thousands of live sporting events, plus access to premium news stations, talk shows, and other content. The company launched the subscription-based radio service exclusively for Alexa-enabled speakers, allowing subscribers to prompt Alexa to stream news programs as well as play-by-play broadcasts of MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL games. TuneIn Live marked the first time TuneIn premium content was available over a voice platform. In October 2018, the company launched a commercial-free news offering through TuneIn Premium, which included news programs from

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, Fox News Talk, and

, as well as news podcasts from Progressive Voices,

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

, and

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

. From 2019, the TuneIn website and apps allowed users to listen to more than 100,000 global radio stations including AM, FM, HD, LP,

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

, and

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

stations, and

podcasts A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

. TuneIn's directory lists various sports, news, talk, and music broadcasts from around the world. TuneIn's website is available in 22 languages, each with its own content tailored for the specific language or region. TuneIn also offers 5.7 million on-demand programs.

Content

The platform has deals with various broadcasters of sports, news, talk, and music worldwide such as

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

Public Radio Exchange The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet ...

(PRX), CBC / Radio-Canada, C-SPAN Radio,

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

Emmis Communications Emmis Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for "Truth" (''Emet'') was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR ...

, Hearst Radio,

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

Urban One Urban One, Inc. (formerly Radio One) is an American media conglomerate based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, the company primarily operates media properties targeting African Americans. It is the largest African-Ame ...

Mvyradio WMVY (88.7 FM; "Mvyradio") is a non-commercial community-oriented radio station based in the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts, and licensed to serve Edgartown, both on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The station is owned by Friends of Mvyradio ...

, Wu-Tang Radio (Wu World Radio),

ABC Radio and Regional Content The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the Australian Government, federal government and is administered by a government ...

(Australia),

Bonneville International Bonneville International Corporation is a media and broadcasting company, wholly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation. It began as a radio and TV networ ...

Sport Your Argument Sport Your Argument is a weekly sports talk radio show based in Washington, D.C., hosted by Matt Potter and Casey Angel, broadcast on Yahoo Sports Radio and the TuneIn Radio networks. Founded in 2011, the two-hour show is heard nationally during ...

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

, and Westwood One Podcast Network. On June 25, 2018,

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corp., it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning over 220 radio stations across 47 media ...

(previously

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corp., it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning over 220 radio stations across 47 media ...

) announced that it would move online streaming of its stations from TuneIn to its then-named in-house Radio.com platform as an initiative of CBS radio. In turn,

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

joined the TuneIn platform on August 9, 2018. On July 29, 2021, TuneIn and

announced a partnership, enabling TuneIn to distribute iHeartMedia's digital stations. The deal also granted TuneIn access to local advertising demand from iHeartMedia's monetization assets. In January 2022, TuneIn launched TuneIn On Air, which allows non-profit broadcasters, podcasters and other long-form content creators to access the company's apps and connected devices for digital distribution of their content. On June 21, 2023,

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

signed a partnership with TuneIn, returning all of its stations, including the former CBS Radio Stations to the platform as well as adding its podcast library to the service.

Music

In May 2018, the company announced it would stream concerts exclusively from several summer music festivals including

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival Outside Lands, formerly known as the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, is a three-day music, art, food, wine, beer and cannabis festival held annually in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Multi-genre and multi-generational, it is the larges ...

(

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

(Newport, RI), Hangout Fest (Gulf Shores, Alabama), Firefly Music Festival (Dover, Delaware), and the Newport Folk Festival (Newport, RI). In September 2018, Cathleen Robertson, better known as DJ Carisma of

KRRL KRRL (92.3 FM) – branded ''Real 92.3'' – is a commercial urban contemporary radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, serving much of the Greater Los Angeles area. Owned by iHeartMedia, KRRL serves as the flagship for ''Big Boy's ...

, joined TuneIn to head Hip-Hop/R&B curation and artist relations initiatives. DJ Carisma launched and hosted "The Element" and "The Element West" as part of this initiative.

Sports

In August 2015, TuneIn announced deals with the

, the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

and the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

for live play-by-play coverage. The deal also included the ability to cover minor league affiliates. In October 2015, the

announced a deal with TuneIn to broadcast live, play-by-play coverage of all NFL games to its premium subscribers. On December 22, 2015, the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) announced that TuneIn would gain radio rights to the NHL. TuneIn would create an individual station for every NHL team to simulcast their home market broadcasts on. Additionally, TuneIn would create a replay channel for each team so fans could listen to the archived games. They would also create a 24/7 NHL Channel, and the NHL would embed TuneIn's players onto the NHL.com website. All TuneIn NHL items would be made available to the public for free. The first broadcasts for TuneIn began on January 1, 2016. On September 22, 2022, the

Anaheim Ducks The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. The Ducks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confere ...

announced that TuneIn would become the home for all of their game broadcasts, and launched a 24/7 station called Ducks Stream to broadcast team-related content. On February 15, 2019, the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

of the MLB announced that TuneIn would be launching a 24/7 exclusive A's station which would include free streaming of all the team's games within the team's market as well as exclusive team programming. In 2020, it was planned for TuneIn to become the exclusive home of the A's in the Bay Area after the team abandoned radio. However, the team later struck up a deal with

to have KNEW serve as the team's flagship station and A's Cast moved to the

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...

app. In August 2020, TuneIn removed MLB and NBA content from its platform with no explanation given. The following month, TuneIn also removed NFL content from its platform without explanation. As of August 2021, NFL content returned on TuneIn's platform. In March 2022, TuneIn signed a multi-year agreement with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) to be an official audio partner of MLB, giving premium users access to live and on-demand play by play of all games, post-game analysis, and Spanish language broadcasts. On August 5, 2022, TuneIn announced they would carry all

English Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

matches.

Audiobooks

In August 2015, the service launched deals with book publishers, including

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

and

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

, to provide an audiobook library. In December 2017, TuneIn announced that it would remove audiobooks as of January 15, 2018. However, as of July 7, 2023, TuneIn continues to offer audiobooks via its website.

Partnerships

In October 2018, TuneIn partnered with

to exclusively represent the sales rights of podcast, ''

Bag Man The Sack Man (also called the Bag Man or Man with the Bag/Sack) is a figure similar to the bogeyman, portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away. Regional traditions Variants of this figure appear all over ...

: A

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow ( ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. She hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special event ...

Original Podcast''. TuneIn also partnered with Adobe Advertising Cloud in June 2018 to integrate targeted audio ads to consumers via smart speakers. In January 2019, TuneIn announced a partnership with professional golfer

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian former professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as List of World Number One male golfers, world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 88 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA ...

to integrate its audio streaming platform into his line of connected golf carts called 'Norman's Shark Experience'. In November 2021, TuneIn partnered with News Corp-Owned

News UK News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...

to bring UK-based news, music and sports coverage to the streaming platform. In April 2022, TuneIn partnered with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

to bring its TuneIn Premium subscription service to all

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant technology marketed by Amazon and implemented in software applications for smart phones, tablets, wireless smart speakers, and other electronic appliances. Alexa was largely developed from a Polish speech s ...

-enabled devices.

Legal issues

In 2017, TuneIn was sued by

Sony Music UK Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

and

Warner Music UK Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records *Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Music Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * A ...

, alleging

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

by offering access to international radio stations not licensed for distribution in the United Kingdom. The companies also took issue with a feature in its premium tier, which was later disabled in the country, that allowed users to record broadcasts. In November 2019, the English High Court ruled that, despite TuneIn's arguments that the premium feature in question was merely an aggregator similar to a

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

, the TuneIn service infringed the labels' rights by making streams not licensed in the country available to its users (an infringement of the exclusive right to communicate a work to the public, under

EU copyright law Copyright law within the European Union is largely harmonized, although differences between member states exist. The body of law was implemented in the EU through a number of directives, which the member states need to enact into their nation ...

). The court granted a request for an appeal. In September 2020, TuneIn began to geoblock all international radio stations for users in the United Kingdom, citing the earlier court order. On March 29, 2021, the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

upheld the High Court decision, ruling that TuneIn infringed the right of communication to the public. In May 2022, TuneIn removed United Kingdom stations that were not registered with the music licensing bodies

PRS PRS or prs may refer to: Science and technology * Peripheral Reflex System, an implementation of autonomous peripheral operations in microcontrollers * Personal response system, in audience response * Phenotypic response surfaces, in medicine * P ...

and PPL.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunein Radio Internet radio stations in the United States Android (operating system) software BlackBerry software IOS software Windows Phone software Multilingual websites 2002 establishments in California Universal Windows Platform apps Android Auto software Music streaming services Podcasting software