Pandora celebrates 10 years of streaming music

10th-birthday

The old adage about how children grow up so fast can easily be applied to many things. The tech world is littered with things we take for granted, and these would once have felt like science-fiction to us. Streaming music is one of those things -- who would have thought you would one day have all of the music you wanted with no vinyl, tapes or CDs?

Pandora is now celebrating ten years in the business. It's hard to believe the little service, created by by Tim Westergren and powered by the Music Genome Project, managed to crack the code and bring music that suits a particular taste, even introducing artists you may have never heard before. Create a station based on an artist, or multiple ones, and Pandora will cook up something to keep you interested.

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Apple Music misses a beat

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Yesterday, I joined the 61 percent. The figure represents the people who, in a MusicWatch survey of 5,000, had turned off auto-renew on their free Apple Music trial, which for all ends September 30. Unless something really big comes out of this week's media event, where new iPhones could debut and iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan receive release dates, I will listen elsewhere. For now, I will stream higher-fidelity tracks from Tidal, and expand my musical horizons at services like SoundCloud.

Strange thing: I don't dislike Apple Music. Curated playlists are "frak me" good. Family pricing, $14.99 per month, is very reasonable. The library is voluminous; if I want to listen to it, Apple Music likely has it. Then there is the benefit of easy access to my own library of about 14,000 tracks alongside juicy fruit picked from the orchard.

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Iron Maiden and Onkyo produce rock and metal friendly Ed-Ph0n3s headphones

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British metal band Iron Maiden has teamed up with Japanese firm Onkyo Corporation to produce a set of headphones -- or Ed-Ph0n3s, named after the Eddie mascot. Founding member and bassist Steve Harris used the headphones when mixing the new album The Book of Souls, and fans of the Maiden will be able to get their hands on a pair of their own too.

Designed specifically with rock and metal listening in mind, the Ed-Ph0n3s were on display at IFA 2015 in Berlin this week. We'd already seen mock-ups of the full-ear bins at CES earlier in the year, but now we've seen the finished product and know more about the specs.

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Spotify publishes new, clearer privacy policy following complaints

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It's only a couple of weeks since Spotify last updated its privacy policy, but the wording was such that many users were upset at the access the company appeared to be asking for. The backlash was so bad that the company was forced to apologize and now it has gone a step further and published a new, reworded version of its policy.

Spotify again admits that the previous version of the privacy policy led to some "understandable confusion", before launching into plain English remodeling of the document. With a new policy that is now more intelligible, the company will no doubt be hoping to claw back those users who were driven away.

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SCOSCHE boomBOTTLE+ is the perfect Bluetooth speaker for an apocalypse

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The Walking Dead is one of my favorite shows. Not only are both the acting and stories wonderful, but the post-apocalyptic setting is exciting. For whatever reason, Americans seem to be obsessed with TV and movies that involve the breakdown of society.

If this type of scenario ever became real, you would want to stockpile guns, bullets, water and canned food. But how will you listen to music? If you are able to access electricity, and want to rock out to your favorite tunes, you will need a very rugged Bluetooth speaker. The SCOSCHE boomBOTTLE+ appears to be exactly that. It is durable, waterproof and serves as a way to charge a USB device. Oh yeah, it looks really cool, too.

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iHeartRadio launches a Windows 10 app

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Windows 10 has been live for a few weeks now and is getting a lot of attention, deservedly so. Most users seem happy to either be away from Windows 8 or to have avoided it all together. Now it's a matter of getting the apps which are the lifeblood of any ecosystem, both PC and mobile.

To that end, music streaming giant iHeartRadio is announcing its Windows 10 compatible app. "iHeartRadio for Windows 10 will include its signature, customizable listening features known to iHeartRadio's audience of more than 70 million registered users as well as new innovations optimized exclusively for Microsoft Corp.'s most personal, productive and secure operating system yet", the company announces.

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Tidal might be history in less than a year

Tidal

Seventy-one percent of top music executives believe that Jay Z’s music streaming service Tidal will fold in a year or less.

Following Jay Z’s acquisition of the streaming platform in March for $56 million (£36 million), the company’s valuation spiked to a reported $250 million (£162 million) just a month after.

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TuneIn Radio rolls out a Premium version of service

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In the world of streaming entertainment, TuneIn Radio is a bit unique. It isn't just music, you get the news, sports and even podcasts. The Amazon Echo even utilizes it to play content, as well. So what more can you want from the service? Well, how about a Premium option.

This ups the offering, bringing all sorts of new content, including sports and commercial-free music. Enjoy Major League Baseball games, as well as Barclays Premier League and Bundesliga matches.

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Spotify says sorry for confusion over its privacy policy

Spotify apps

We reported earlier today that streaming music service Spotify had upset a lot of users with changes to its privacy policy. In particular sections concerning what information the company is allowed to collect have sent some users into a spin.

Evidently stung by the reaction, Spotify has been quick to respond. In a blog post by CEO Daniel Ek it says sorry and explains more about what the changes actually mean.

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New Spotify privacy policy angers users and drives some away

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Spotify has updated its privacy policy, and a lot of users are now very unhappy. The change was prefaced a few days ago on the Spotify blog and the new policy started to roll out on 19 August. As it starts to hit accounts around the world, users are sitting up and paying attention; many are not happy with what they see.

What are people so upset about? Spotify might now access your Facebook likes and posts, photos and contacts you have stored on your phone, and even the speed at which you are traveling. The company says that the changes have been made as part of a move to "be as open and transparent as possible", but it has left large number of users questioning motives, and many have been pushed to quitting the music service completely.

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Age ratings come to YouTube and VEVO music videos

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Under a new program designed to protect children from seeing adult content, YouTube and VEVO have announced new age ratings for music videos in the UK.

It is the first initiative of its kind, which will block videos that show inappropriate content. Musicians like Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Robin Thicke have irked parents with the lack of clothing and rather provocative music videos released on the web.

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President Obama arrives on Spotify and creates playlists for everyone

Obama

Do you want to hear music chosen by President Barrack Obama? If you use Spotify then you'll be in luck. The company is one of the leading music streaming services in the increasingly competitive market. Now it has scored a big win, landing one of the world's most well known leaders.

Spotify announces the arrival of POTUS and seems quite excited about the arrival. You can't really blame them, it's not everyday that the President adopts your service.

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Rdio introduces live broadcast radio stations

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In the growing online music streaming industry, Rdio has become one the major players. But it's a cutthroat business, and you have to innovate to stay near the top and keep customers happy or they'll flee to another service.

Now Rdio has come up with something new -- streaming broadcast radio stations. The company is diving in big too, with 500 stations, all owned by Cumulus Media.

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BBC iPlayer Radio hits one million downloads

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People still want downloadable music and radio programs, despite the surge in popularity of streaming services, as the BBC has found out. Its iPlayer Radio service has just reached the milestone of one million program downloads.

"We knew from the success of our Podcast service that there was a demand to download BBC radio and music content to listen to whenever they wanted," Andrew Scott of BBC Digital told Digital Spy. The download functionality was added to the on-demand service less than a month before the figures were compiled.

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Apple Music has 11 million trial users

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Apple Music's success will be determined by its number of subscribers, and, by that measure, the streaming service is heading in the right direction. Just over a month after the big launch, Apple Music has reached 11 million trial users.

Of the 11 million users who are trialling Apple Music, two million went with the family membership. It allows up to six users to share a subscription to the service, for $14.99 per month. A plain subscription costs $9.99 per month per user, which is not as attractive, cost-wise, in comparison.

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