As was mentioned in the WWDC 2013 keynote, the forthcoming iTunes Radio will feature a dedicated Twitter #music station. The Twitter #music station will allow users to listen to trending songs that are shared on Twitter with an option to buy the songs via the iTunes Music Store.

But as The Verge points out, iOS already has a dedicated Twitter #music app that is struggling to gain popularity. The agreement between Apple and Twitter to include a dedicated Twitter #music station obviously works out well for both companies. Apple gets access to social feeds from one of the most popular social networks ever, including increased revenue streams from users who buy tracks from the Twitter #music stream. But Twitter may be the biggest beneficiary in the agreement as inclusion of a dedicated Twitter #music station gives the company's fledgling music service an increased awareness to hundreds of millions of users.

We have been hearing rumors of a possible music streaming service from Apple for some time. First it was reported that Apple was gearing up for the service and later, we were told that the company was speeding up the signing of licensing deals. Confirming these speculations, Apple has unveiled iTunes Radio.

Just like we’ve been speculating, Apple has indeed planned on leveraging its iOS audience to make the new iTunes Radio a success. There are already a whole lot of internet music streaming services out there on the web and Apple needed a defining feature to stand apart.

And that defining feature is that Apple has directly built iTunes Radio into the music app of iOS 7. This essentially means that users can directly access the internet radio from within their apps, without the need to install an altogether different app for the service.

From the looks of it, Apple has been fairly successful in bringing an adequate number of music artists and production houses on board. The iTunes Radio offers hundreds of music stations of its own and the music offered over these stations is from some of the best artists and bands.

The best part, naturally, is that the app is free, although Apple will regularly push out ads on the app. However, you can get rid of the ads by subscribing to iTunes Match service, for which you will have to pay a paltry sum. For now, Apple is offering the new iTunes Radio only in US but plans on bringing it to other countries in the coming days.a