Rad.FM, answered
Rad.FM is a personal radio station for iPhone, hosted by an AI DJ called Rad. He builds each hour from the artists and songs you like, plays them through Apple Music, and talks between the tracks.
What is Rad.FM?
Rad.FM is a personal radio station for iPhone, hosted by an AI DJ called Rad. He builds each hour around your taste, then talks between the tracks.
It plays through Apple Music, so the songs are the real recordings from the Apple Music catalogue rather than anything synthetic.
Is Rad.FM an AI DJ?
Yes. Rad is an AI DJ: a synthetic host who introduces tracks, closes them out, and fills the gaps the way a radio presenter does.
The music itself is not AI generated. Rad picks real recordings and puts them in order, and the talking between them is his.
How is Rad.FM different from Spotify DJ?
The short version: Rad.FM runs on Apple Music, and Spotify DJ does not. Spotify DJ is a Spotify Premium feature that plays from Spotify.
If your library lives in Apple Music, Spotify DJ is not available to you. Apple Music has presenters on its own stations, but none on yours.
Rad also removes disliked artists and songs from the pool before he picks. Spotify and Apple both offer a dislike, so this is a difference of degree.
Does Rad.FM work with Spotify?
No. Rad.FM plays through Apple Music only.
Rad reads the Apple Music catalogue directly, so you need an Apple Music subscription for anything to play.
Do I need an Apple Music subscription?
Yes. Rad.FM needs an active Apple Music subscription, because it plays full tracks from the Apple Music catalogue.
Rad.FM itself is free while it is in the TestFlight beta. Apple bills you for Apple Music separately.
Does Rad.FM keep playing the same songs?
No. Rad drops anything you played recently before he picks the next hour.
He drops anything already waiting in your queue too, so an hour does not repeat itself or repeat yesterday.
Repeating itself is the most common complaint about AI DJs. Rad removes those songs up front rather than hoping you will not notice.
Can I tell Rad what to play?
Yes. Ask Rad takes a spoken or typed request and acts on it, including mid-track.
He can play a specific song, queue something next, drop a track, skip, or rebuild the rest of the hour around a new idea.
You can also build a station by describing it in a sentence, and drag the queue by hand if you would rather not ask.
What does Rad talk about between tracks?
Track intros and outros, artist history, news, weather for where you are, and messages listeners send in.
Rad labels every segment, so you can see what he is about to talk about before he starts.
How does Rad decide what to play next?
Rad starts from the artists and songs you have liked, then finds related music in the Apple Music catalogue.
He then drops the artists and songs you disliked, anything you played recently, and anything already in your queue.
He puts what is left in order by energy, mood and tempo, the way a radio station schedules an hour. When two songs fit equally well, he prefers the one whose key suits the song before it.
Do you train AI on my listening data?
No. Your listening, your likes and dislikes, your messages to Rad and your voice requests are never used to train an AI model.
Your request goes to the providers that generate Rad’s words and his speaking voice, then it is discarded. Rad does not learn from your account.
What we do keep is aggregate usage, in a form that does not identify you, so we can see which features people use.
What is Rad+ and what does it cost?
Rad+ is the paid upgrade. It adds a better voice, unlimited Ask Rad, custom stations and concert alerts.
It is $2.99 a month and you can cancel any time. Rad.FM is free to use during the TestFlight beta.
Is there an Android or web version?
Not yet. Rad.FM is an iPhone app, distributed through TestFlight while the beta runs.
The web version of this site is for reading about it and for managing Rad+, not for listening.
How long has Rad.FM existed?
Rad has been on air since 2019, first on Radiant. That predates the AI DJ features the large streaming services launched later.
Spotify launched its DJ in 2023. Rad.FM was running the same idea four years earlier.
Still deciding?
The side by side comparison puts Rad.FM, Spotify DJ and Apple Music in one table, including the parts where the other two win.
iPhone, with Apple Music.