Clear Channel unveils new iheartradio streaming radio app for iPad

Free to download and offers 750 radio stations to listen to, with additional social features.

US radio giant Clear Channel's iheartradio apps have been popular, passing 10 million downloads in August last year across various smartphones. Now it's available for iPad, in a newly-released tablet version.

The app went live on Apple's App Store on Friday (8 April), and is free to download. It allows users to stream 750 US radio stations in 'high-quality' AAC format.

Users can search for stations by location, name or music genre, and save their favourites for faster access. The app supports Apple's AirPlay technology, so audio can be streamed wirelessly to hi-fis and TVs, and also multi-tasking so it can run in the background.

There are social features in iheartradio for iPad too, with users able to see related tweets while listening to a station, and share station details via email, Facebook and Twitter. Photo galleries and videos are also pulled in to provide a more visual experience on the iPad.

The app will compete with the popular Pandora Radio app on iPad, although that's focused on personalised radio channels rather than streaming the existing radio channels offered by Clear Channel. However, the latter company recently bought the Thumbplay Music service and revealed plans for its own personalised offering - which will presumably be added to the iheartradio app when it launches.