Articles about Music

Some music players are smart. Not only will they play your tracks, but they'll try to tell you more about them, perhaps downloading and displaying the lyrics.

Windows Media Player and iTunes aren't quite so clever, but that's where Song Buddy comes in. This free app for Windows, iPhone, iPad and Mac detects the "now playing" artist and displays other releases, concerts, images, a biography, links and more.

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My biggest hobby, other than tinkering with computers, is listening to music. As a young kid, I discovered my love for music by watching MTV in the 1980s. While I love all genres, I am truly a Hip-Hop fan. Say what youy want about rap music, but there is much knowledge in the lyrics. Sure, some of it is ignorant, but I have learned countless lessons from KRS-One, De La Soul and Common to name a few.

Unfortunately, the internet and piracy threatened the future of the music business. It was a perfect storm, as album prices were getting extremely high around the same time broadband connections became widely available. And so, people justified their theft by decrying the cost of CDs. While online music sales from places like iTunes were more reasonably priced, the damage was done -- album sales were forever doomed. Luckily, streaming services are here to save the day. Things like Beats Music and Google Play Music All Access offer unlimited music in exchange for paltry monthly fees; piracy simply is not worth the effort. As can be expected, these services are driving the final nail into the coffin of album sales...and that's a good thing.

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While Windows Phone gets a lot of attention for what it doesn't have, the Microsoft mobile platform is slowly making progress. Now it is scoring a major win, and getting on par with rivals, as Spotify announces it will be going free for Windows Phones.

The new update means customers can now listen to their music without ponying up the monthly fee for a Premium account. The new free version is ad-supported, and customers can still choose to pay the monthly fee for Premium, and eliminate those ads -- and also get offline playlists, as well.

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Apple launched, almost a week ago, the second public beta build of OX 10.10 Yosemite, which, among other improvements, includes a healthy dose of bug fixes. But, for some reason, the company has not yet addressed a glaring sound problem, where the audio stops working until a restart is performed. It is likely this occurs in the developer-only builds too. (It looks like this may even happen with the stable -- final -- version of the operating system.)

I am not alone in experiencing this problem, as I have seen other OS X 10.10 Yosemite users reporting the same issue with the built-in audio. In my case, after some testing, it appears that this issue occurs after my 2013 MacBook Air wakes up the built-in and external displays from sleep. (The sound also appears to have been disabled even after a clean install of the stable release; check the information pertaining to it at the end of the story for another solution.)

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Rdio, one of the top streaming music services, and SoundHound, an ace at recognizing what music you're listening to, are teaming up to bring better integration to customers. The two companies are announcing a new agreement that will bring them together in a unique way, allowing customers to utilize the two in tandem.

Beginning now, the latest SoundHound update will begin placing tagged songs into a playlist titled, appropriately enough, "Soundhound". This playlist will be accessible from within your Rdio account. The new service is named "Connect to Rdio".

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Samsung has a new option for music fans with the addition of the Light Box mini to its line of Level premium audio products that doubles up as a microphone when calls are received.

The new speaker is 30 percent slimmer than its predecessor, the Light Box, and despite this it still provides the same high level of sound that is expected from Samsung’s Level products.

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Selling music seems to be a lucrative business these days, at least judging from all of the streaming services flooding the market. So how does one manage to differentiate itself and set things apart from rivals like Rdio and Google?

Apparently, for Spotify, this means moving into the merchandise business -- a rather lucrative one, given the price of concert tee shirts at shows, though Spotify doesn't plan to profit from this endeavor.

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Creative is a company that is very hit or miss. Over the years, I have enjoyed many of its products -- mostly sound cards. However, while much of the company's hardware is solid, software and drivers have been dreadful. In fact, driver support and performance in Windows Vista and 7 were so bad, that many users decided to boycott the company altogether. If a card actually worked, it was often subject to random cracks, pops and screeches -- painful for ears. I spent many nights in Creative's forums witnessing the atrocities of both its drivers and poor customer support.

With all of that said, I am not one to hold grudges and never want to see a company falter. Yes, I am willing to start looking at Creative products again after a long hiatus since my X-Fi Elite Pro woes from years ago. Today, the company announces some inexpensive speakers that appear to be a good value -- the T3250 Wireless Bluetooth 2.1 Speakers.

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Smart TVs and Blu-ray players have become all the rage these days, with customers using them to replace the need for a set-top box, though in most cases apps can be limited. So when a new one debuts on a platform it can be a big deal to customers who invest in that particular device for their living room.

Now Spotify announces it will be making its way to Vizio TVs. The app will begin appearing for download in the Internet Apps Plus store right on the big screen.

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It seems all of us have made some switches thanks to warm weather here in the northern hemisphere, where summer is in full swing. Working outside seems prevalent, and that means, in many cases, an entirely different set of hardware.

I, for one, make my porch my office when the weather gets nice, and to do so means certain sacrifices -- or does it? As it turns out, not so much. I'm managing just fine with what I am using, able to get the job done with only the very rare exception that forces me to flee to my (rather baking) third-floor office to use a Windows computer.

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Just a few weeks ago, Amazon added one more perk to its Prime service, gifting customers with a music streaming service. The launch was a bit clumsy, as many of the songs and artists searched for were not available. However, as I wrote at the time, I expected that to improve.

Today the first leap forward takes place. The retailer is adding hundreds of thousands of new songs to the service, and also promising hundreds of new playlists.

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Still procrastinating about installing a whole house audio system? The choices continue to grow, and one of the best known is Libratone, a Scandinavian company that brings a unique design to its networked speakers.

Now the manufacturer has paired with music streaming service Spotify, bringing the Connect functionality to the platform. This service provides customers with streaming options to speakers all around your home -- provided they are connected to your Wi-Fi network.

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Google has slowly brought YouTube around to being a fully legal service, and made agreements with music labels and TV networks. Granted, some content still gets taken down -- that can't be unexpected when the users are providing much of the content.

Now the video streaming service is bringing a weekly hour-long new music show to satellite music provider SiriusXM. The new show kicks off today at 6pm Eastern Time, and can be found on the Hits 1 station for those who subscribe to the radio service.

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Taste in music is very personal. My favorite genre is Hip-Hop, but many people detest that music type. And really, that's OK -- not everyone has to like everything. However, it is nice for people to respect all music. Even though I listen to songs from Slum Village, Lil Wayne and Mobb Deep, I can respect others too. Hell, I went to the Beach Boys concert this past Saturday night and had a blast.

As polarizing as music can be, so too can music mediums and hardware. Some people still swear by vinyl, others by CD and people like me are OK with streaming music services and MP3. Sadly, when it comes to hardware, like speakers and headphones, it seems consumers are adverse to spending money on quality. It is crazy to see people listening to music with expensive smartphones and tablets with $10 junk ear buds. Today, I am looking at an expensive and polarizing set of on-ear cans -- Beats Solo2.

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Is there room for one more music app in the market? Radical.FM is hoping so, and it has big plans to become your service of choice, competing with the big names like Spotify and Rdio. Today the company is planning an ambitious app launch for the Android platform.

"The app is free, commercial-free, and available for immediate download in the Google Play Store", the company states. This is the first foray into the Google mobile platform, but the service was already available for iOS.

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