Apple Bans Single Station Radio Apps From The App Store [Apps For Just One Station Don't Fly With Apple]

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There have been, not at all surprisingly, a downright surfeit of single station radio apps out on the App Store, featuring stations of most every type and description, from smooth jazz to Polish radio and then some. And it’s that surfeit that drove Apple to its newest wielding of the mighty and oft-overused banhammer.

But when Jim Barcus, president of DJ Radio Apps, approached Apple wondering why fully ten of his single station apps had been turned down, he got this downright unsettling response:

“Single station app are the same as a FART app and represent spam in the iTunes store…[Apple] will no longer approve any more radio station apps unless there are hundreds of stations on the same app.”

Barcus was likely unnerved that a content provider would be regarded on the same strata as a fart app, and quickly pointed out that Apple had no trouble at all with dozens of flashlight apps, or individual shops, or individual maps. Apple, meanwhile, held the line, as apparently Steve Jobs himself cracked off a reply stating simply: “Sorry, we’ve made our decision.”.

Do I smell a substantial opportunity for Windows Phone 7 and Android development to step in and offer safe haven to the banhammered on Apple? The answer is a solid yes.

Sure, I can understand Apple wanting to preserve the perception of value, where every app is a good app to somebody, but this can be taken to extremes. Especially when services like Pure are offering up large numbers of stations all at once–I’d probably sooner have the big block of choices in one app myself–but I can certainly see where having an app for my favorite local radio station would be welcome and certainly not spam.

This isn’t the first time that Apple’s lost business over something like this, and at some point, shareholders are probably going to start asking pointed questions about this sort of thing.

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