As everybody in Apple-land already knows, Apple has published its new guidelines for Apple Store app developers. James Gralian, one of our regular Radio Survivor readers, was kind enough to point out the parameters for media applications, which include the following guidelines relevant to radio app developers (note section 9.3, to which we added italics):
9.1 Apps that do not use the MediaPlayer framework to access media in the Music Library will be rejected
9.2 App user interfaces that mimic any iPod interface will be rejected
9.3 Audio streaming content over a cellular network may not use more than 5MB over 5 minutes
9.4 Video streaming content over a cellular network longer than 10 minutes must use HTTP Live Streaming and include a baseline 64 kbps audio-only HTTP Live stream
5MB over 5 minutes doesn’t feel like a terribly harsh limitation. According to this estimate, a typical one hour of 56k audio streaming grabs 25 MB of bandwidth.
But it is a cap. Any comments, developers?
Oh, and the Youtube video is of an iPhone radio app that seems to have survived Apple’s “over-the-line” guidelines.
“We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line,” the developer rules explain. “What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, ‘I’ll know it when I see it’. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.”
So sexy music and the ooh-so-French schtick is ok, for now.
