iHeart: Radio, Podcasts, Music Ratings and Reviews

Subscription is too expensive

Almost but not quite 5🌟, would have kept my monthly subscription but it’s way too costly. For just radio I thought, but considering it’s only $15 or so it’s not that bad. It would be great for a disc jockey (DJ) or a wedding event you can actually set up your own play lists so it can just continue playing continuously. Unless you feel the need to have the DJ interact with you like your in a pub or event to interact with the crowd. I’m sure that if you had issues to where you didn’t have a DJ show up for work then this would work for most small town or small scale clubs that’s holding only 50/75 people or so. I will say that most of the time I am able to find just about anything I want to listen when I had the subscription. And I didn’t have to listen to commercials. It’s really nice cause if you are a big music fan who buys a lot of tracks per month then I would just personally purchase a subscription to the iHeartRadio app. It’s just that cool. But being that I don’t buy that much music and I just couldn’t see spending that kind of money per month.

Developer Response ,

We understand! Glad you're enjoying the millions of live radio stations, artists, podcasts, and playlists that are available for free without any subscription cost. Thanks for being a loyal iHeart listener!

Was great on Windows Phone, new web app version six

Loved this app on my Windows Phone, installed it when I was forced to switch to iPhone (which has been an inferior user experience in almost every way - it can’t even do autocorrect as well as the WP, but I digress), and it was pretty similar throughout the fall of 2017... logged in today, December, to find everything changed. I can’t figure out how to get to my favorite artist-based station (can find artist in search, but there doesn’t seem to be a station option anymore?) can’t find the Recently Played Songs list once I’m playing a station. It’s fine to change things, but not in such an extreme way that it appears so nonsensical to even fairly on-top-of-things users that they can’t easily find the features that are important to them. I don’t know if it was a web app before, but it must be because I don’t recall downloading an update and everything is just a little off, not polished and smooth like a native app would be. I expected that sort of thing on a minority platform like WP, but it’s really disappointing to have a worse experience on a brand new iPhone. Anyway, this app is in need of some major organizing/UI changes before it can match the user experience of previous versions. If I have to put in hours curating my stations (which looks like the direction this is going), as opposed to having a variety of stations that are good, just need minor tweaks to be great, I’d might as well use Pandora!

Developer Response ,

Hi there, thanks for providing this feedback about your experience using the iHeartRadio app on your device. We'd appreciate some more info so we can help! Can you contact us via email to ios@iheartradio.com? Look forward to hearing from you.

Constant Pop Up Advertisements!

When listening to my favorite live radio stations (that already has their own commercials) on this app, very recently with the latest app update, every 15-20 seconds there is a pop up ad, some are just an ad, while others are full video advertisements that pauses the live radio broadcast which is so annoying!! And it just does not stop, the ads just keep on coming no matter how many times you X them out. When listening to iHeart Radio through Apple CarPlay, the ads just keep shutting off the live broadcast, not safe while driving that’s for sure!

The crazy thing is that free local radio stations already have commercials we have to deal with which I don’t mind them so much, but now it seems that iHeart Radio wants to take it a step further and give you even more ads for your enjoyment! With all my years using the iHeart Radio app, I’ve never had this many ads and bugs all in just one app, this is insane! And to top that off, you have to pay a monthly subscription to get rid of the ads in the app, I get it, it’s probably an inflation sort of thing, but this is really annoying having to X out of video ads that stop the radio broadcast ever few seconds, at that point, it’s almost unlistenable! Please iHeart radio fix it to where the ads are not as annoying and that don’t disrupt the users listening experience! Thank you!

Developer Response ,

Hi Fastcars901, we'd appreciate some more info so we can help! Can you contact us by sending an email over to android@iheartradio.com? Look forward to hearing from you.

iHeartRadio

I would have given it a five star BC I simply love being too listen to my home rock station when I'm working BC I work out of town most of time. But for some crazy reason lately it has started at 100% volume, even just now I got a head start on it and began working it down to about 60 % for it just to jump right back full blast even though I was holding down on volume button. Now I really can't explain how out why it would be turning down and almost to the half mark just for it to jump to the full volume while I'm still holding on the volume but this is not some thing that I can take or tolerate at 615 am nor will my boss's or work mates at this time in the morning and hell it could give some one a heart attack when u go from nor hearing a thing where a needle could be able to be heard hitting the floor. But you could say every one is awake today after this Bluetooth box going off. Please let me know what could and out can be done and if it's anything to do on my part in really sorry for not given the extra star but I had the volume working down for it to start over. Thanks and please have this fixed or fixed for me. Have no complaints about anything else so everyone download this app and listen to your favorite tubes so day and all the time for free.

Developer Response ,

Hi Todd, we're here to help! Shoot over an email to ios@iheartradio.com so we can take a look at what's going on behind the scenes!

Bout Ready To Delete This App

IHeart radio came up with a good concept with all the live radio stations. There’s only one big problem. IHeart radio won’t let you enjoy them. They are constantly interrupting whatever station you have chosen to listen to with random songs that I guess they believe you want to hear. I would just like to listen to the radio station that I chose. That’s why I chose it. Some times they will play the same song twice within three songs. Then they tell you that you can use the thumbs up & thumbs down buttons for songs you like & dislike & they will customize your experience to your liken. Thing is, I’ve clicked the thumbs down button repeatedly for certain songs & they continue to play the same ones every single day. Every time I hear Blink 182 or the Foo Fighters I just go ahead & turn the app off. I guess they think I like them as often as they interrupt what I’m listening to by playing those two bands & I’ve hit the thumbs down button probably 1000 times yet they still play them every day. I’m bout ready to delete the app for the simple fact that they won’t allow me to enjoy the station I’ve chosen for playing crap that I’ve repeatedly clicked the thumbs down button on every time they decide to interrupt what I’m trying to listen to. It’s so darn aggravating!!

Developer Response ,

Hey, we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you but we want to help! Please send an email to ios@iheartradio.com so we can look behind the scenes at your listening experience!

Good App for streaming

It really is a good app. On the plus side, it is efficient with band usage if you have a limited internet plan. It is stable, with good buffering (I have lousy internet in my area so this is vital to me).
It has a lot of content, including podcasts galore that can be downloaded.
The minus, for which I deduct the stars has been to do with the ads. (I know, I could subscribe, but the monthly is too high for what I am listening too. Maybe some day someone can develop some sort of tiered subscriptions for those of us who just listen to limited content).
I listen to a 24 hr news show with commentary. I grew up listening to KFI640 Los Angeles every morning. I don’t begrudge iheart for slipping in a couple of ads here and there, but you step right over THE PROGRAM ITSELF! Your ads should step on top of their ads, not the program. I want the whole news, not just the commentary. That’s what I chose, and it infuriates me when you cut the program off for a crappy 7-11 add, for which I will NEVER set foot in as my blood pressure rises, every time I see the sign and am reminded it’s going to INTERRUPT the program I am listening to in the morning. Iheart could program the timing of their ads better than this.

Developer Response ,

Hello, we're sorry to hear about your less than ideal listening experience. It would be incredibly helpful if you could email us at ios@iheartradio.com and let us know the name of the ad as well as the time you heard the ad.

Subscription

I was charged $5.99 for a subscription that I was “tricked” into signing up for. I canceled the subscription within minutes of discovering that I had signed up for it, but ended up being charged anyway. I went to the online help on the iHeartRadio app to verify that my subscription was canceled and there is no unsubscribe button to hit. I then emailed iHeartRadio and received this response. “iHeartRadio Customer Support does not internally handle subscriptions processed through Apple. However, if you need to cancel your subscription, you can do so by following the procedure below:”

I folloedthe procedure “below” only to get to a dead end. I sure hope I don’t get charged again, I guess I will have to open up a dispute through my credit card company at this point. In the future I will be very very careful what buttons that I tap. It’s a shame that the app gets updated and changes around so much that it is unfamiliar if you don’t use it every single day. Through the many updates I have also lost my favorite stations and my saved stations, and it gets really frustrating.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, we're so sorry to hear about your less than ideal experience. Would you be able to reach out to us at ios@iheartradio.com. We want to keep you as a listener!

Great but one issue...

I am completely loving this app. Features that I love is that it plays in the background of any other app. This is the best especially when using Waze in the car. I can still get the verbal directions from waze and the volume of iHeartRadio goes lower but doesn’t shut off! Also, when I close the app mid podcast, the podcast restarts automatically upon returning to the app. This also continues playing when minimized and when the phone is locked.

The only feature that I would love to see change is the order in which the podcasts play. Instead of going up the list, example #4 to #5, the podcasts will play going down the list from #5 to #4. This means that you have to physically go into the app and click on the next podcast on the list. This is something that I hate doing, particularly when driving as it’s dangerous! I would love for iHeartRadio to fix this issue so that I can play a podcast list, and let it run up the list without needing to reopen the app and physically tap the next on the list.

Besides this issue, I love this app for podcasts!

Good App (Usually...)

Edit: It seems like all of the other problems I list below are gone now, due to the fact that I can’t get the app to play ANY music now. None of my stations work, they all constantly have a loading symbol, and where the artist’s other songs/info are, it says, “Artist Profile is not available at this time”. The app is completely useless to me at this point because it doesn’t do anything, and this started today only a few hours ago. This can’t be a phone problem because I have the latest iOS on a brand new iPhone 8. I’m hoping this will be fixed soon.

I've used this app for a few years, and I've discovered many new artists and songs through this app. However, I've been experiencing a few problems lately. My biggest problem is that sometimes the app will refresh in the middle of a song, and not just pause it, but get rid of the song completely. I'm not sure if I can fix this in my phone settings or if it's an app issue, but this has never happened before. Another issue is that some ads with sound play at the same time as a song, which is obviously annoying. Overall, it is a good app and does what it promises, but with a few bugs.

Developer Response ,

Hi Rosemary, sorry about that! iHeartRadio should be working again. If you’re still experiencing issues please send a message to ios@iheartradio.com and we'll take a look behind the scenes. Thanks for bearing with us!

It’s all about the money

I really thought I’d struck gold when i-heart radio was commercial free without a fee. Then it happened, they now charge for commercial free and the free station is littered with commercials that are louder and obnoxious in between the music I love to listen to each day. It’s sad it’s about the money and nothing is sacred anymore without a profit motive. The commercials can’t be manually jumped over and they are louder than the volume of the music. They interfere with atmosphere of the songs being played. I manually reduced the volume so I don’t have to listen to the drivel of each commercial played. Then they put you through a torturous video commercial at startup before you get to listen to your favorite music.
Honestly, I can’t even remember one of their commercial sponsors except for the monotone , “Cars for kids “ that I muted until it goes over. We are so mercifully pelted with commercials these days that I don’t honestly remember any commercial I hear. If I’m going to by something, I use a search engine to find what I’m in need of and not brainwashed into buying something from an obnoxious repetitive commercial. If anything, I’m repelled by the commercials and boycott their products. Thank you for the opportunity to vent my displeasure with today’s technology held hostage by advertising ad-nauseum. Yuck!

Developer Response ,

Hi Chief, thanks for the feedback. Ads help keep iHeartRadio free for everyone. If you feel you're experiencing an excessive amount of ads please let us know. Email ios@iheartradio.com and make sure to let us know the station and time you heard the ad.