Following Apple’s announcement of iTunes Radio Monday, competing music...

Following Apple’s announcement of iTunes Radio Monday, competing music services reacted with a spate of news of their own Tuesday. Sony announced a limited-time discount on the company’s Music Unlimited service (see separate report in this issue), which cut the price 65 percent to $41.99 annually for PlayStation Plus members and to $59.99 for non-members. Rhapsody announced a free concert app that allows users to find scheduled nearby concerts, listen to full streams of the shows and buy tickets from their phone. The app boasts calendars for “virtually every” concert venue nationwide that are searchable by venue, artist and location, Rhapsody said. Under concert listings, users can find opening acts, band bios, photos, discography and lists of related artists, and hear music from bands that will play at a given concert. Rhapsody’s service is $10 a month and includes a 14-day trial offer, but Sonos announced Tuesday a $299 bundle combining the Sonos Bridge, a Play:3 system and a 90-day free trial of Rhapsody. Nokia responded to news of iTunes Radio with a comment on Apple’s timing to market that’s some two years after Nokia’s streaming service bowed. “It’s interesting to see Apple react now and it seems they continue to play catch up,” said Jyrki Rosenberg, vice president of Nokia Entertainment. Rosenberg cited Nokia’s “mobile-first approach,” automated personalization and ability to save playlists for offline use, along with no registration requirement, “no fee and no ads.” According to Nokia’s U.S. website, Nokia Music with Mix Radio includes 22 million tracks. Nielsen released a report Tuesday that said listeners under the age of 55 in a study of U.S. connected device owners conducted in Q1 named smartphones as their device of choice for streaming radio. Connected device owners aged 25-34 and 18-24 are the most likely to stream tunes from the radio using their smartphones -- at 27 and 26 percent -- while 14 percent of consumers aged 45 and over opted for streaming radio via laptop, it said. In most age categories, listeners indicated “no preference,” it said. Nielsen didn’t define “streaming radio,” including whether it includes both Internet radio and on-demand streaming.