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Music

Internet Radio 8tracks Restricts International Audience with Limited Service

The company says it is working on a stream-on-demand service for its international audience.
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The internet radio site 8tracks has announced a fundamental change to its services.

As of February 16, the playlist sharing site will provide limited streaming services to its international audience. In a statement released on its blog, the company's founder and CEO David Porter said: "We'll no longer stream from 8tracks' servers to listeners outside the US and Canada; instead, we'll offer the ability to tune into playlists on the 8tracks website via YouTube video playback. Unfortunately, [international] listeners will no longer be able to stream playlists through the 8tracks iOS and Android apps."

According to the statement, the decision was made based on the company's plan to "seek out direct, global deals with record labels to allow our DJs to tap a full music library when curating a playlist." The announcement also comes with the news that 8tracks plans to unveil a stream-on-demand service for international users later this year.

International users can still stream and share playlists that use tracks they've personally uploaded, however, the statement gives notice that a user's "personal listening experience may be limited" as the company works on a new international service.