TuneIn‘s online radio service that lets people listen to music, sports and news on their smartphones and on the web, just announced that it is now available on 200 different distribution platforms. The platforms include everything from smartphones, home entertainment systems, connected TV and – most recently – connected cars. Indeed, the 200th platform the company announced today is Tesla’s new Model S premium sedan, which our own Colleen Taylor took for a spin last week.
While it doesn’t get a lot of hype and generally flies under the radar of the Silicon Valley press, TuneIn recently told me that it is growing rapidly thanks, in no small part, to the popularity of its smartphone apps. The service, which raised funding from Sequoia Capital in 2010 (and is rumored to have raised a very large undisclosed round earlier this year) currently offers its users the ability to listen to 70,000 stations and 2 million on-demand programs.
On the Model S, Tesla drivers will be able to control the app using the car’s 17″ touchscreen to listen to programs from small local stations and heavyweights like ESPN Radio, CBS and others. Unlike other connected car platforms like Ford’s SYNC AppLink, Tesla drivers don’t have to use a smartphone to connect to the service, as the Model S offers a 3G connection as an option on some packages.
