Pandora enters the music promotion business with Open Music Submission service
The struggling musician is an almost iconic figure in today's culture. For every one that makes it, thousands sadly fail. Having talent is obviously the biggest key to success, but even that sometimes isn't enough. It needs to be combined with a bit of luck to get noticed.
Pandora wants to try and help open doors for these folks by getting their music out into the world and into the ears of potential fans. Today the streaming service unveils its new Open Music Submission Process. "Our goal is to enable every talented artist to reach the audience they deserve, without regard to the style of their music or their popularity", says Pandora founder Tim Westegren.
Beats Music closes access one day after launch
Just yesterday Beats Music sprung into life, with a plan to compete with the established giants already in the market, such as Google, Apple, Spotify and others. The launch was greeted with much fanfare, and all sorts of artists are involved in the project.
But 24 hours into the life of the new service, not everything is milk and honey. Apparently issues have arisen with service for those who already signed up, and now the Dr. Dre-sponsored music app is pulling back to address problems.
Kim Dotcom unveils Baboom music service
The famous, or perhaps infamous, Kim Dotcom once ran MegaUpload before a massive shutdown effort carried out by the government. He later launched Mega, flaunting it to the very people who set out to ruin him. But the flamboyant entrepreneur has always seemed most interested in music, and today he launches his very own streaming service.
Baboom launches, promising a combination of both Spotify and iTunes. Dotcom is soliciting artists to come in and set up their own pages, which will include a bio, images and videos. It is free for them to setup their presence on the new site.
Rdio follows Spotify, goes free for web-based streaming
Streaming the music you want continues to become easier, with more choice of services and increasingly better pricing. But prices can’t get any better than free, and that seems to be where this market is now headed.
Today Rdio joins Spotify in announcing it will now host free streaming on the web. "That means you can listen to 20 million songs plus all the albums, playlists, and stations you love anywhere there’s a computer. Absolutely free", the service announces.
Music download sales decrease for the first time ever
Music is my favorite hobby. Actually, calling it a "hobby" is probably a gross understatement. Whenever possible, I listen to music; before bed, while I write, in the car -- everywhere. When I think back to how much money I spent on music over the last few decades, it is actually depressing. Surely, I could have started an IRA instead and been on my way to retirement; no, I wouldn't trade my memories of listening to and buying music in record stores for anything.
However, the state of buying music has had its ups and downs over the last decade and a half. File-sharing services like Napster and BitTorrent sites have made music piracy easy. Ultimately, the music industry paid the price with a decline in CD sales. Many people blame the industry for its own woes, due to obscenely high CD prices in the late 90's and early 00's. However, all has not been lost -- there has been a digital-download purchase renaissance happening since the launch of Apple's iTunes in 2003. Year after year, sales of downloadable online music has increased -- until now. In 2013, online music sales have decreased for the first time ever. Oh noes!
HypedMusic closes down, the latest victim of the RIAA
While services like Grooveshark and Torch Music manage to survive, the Recording Industry Association of America is on a more or less constant attack of similar streaming sites. Now it seems the RIAA has managed to pull off a victory, strong-arming one service out of business.
HypedMusic calls it quits as a result of the cease and desist threats it has received. "I am not in any way condemning the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for what they did or claiming that in some way they 'wronged' me; they had the right to send me a cease-and-desist and I immediately complied", the developer laments.
Winamp is dead, Spotify tries to resuscitate it
You've known for a month, providing you cared enough to notice the news. AOL announced that its once prominent media player, Winamp, would cease to exist on December 20, 2013. But before the obituary can even be written, music streaming service Spotify has stepped in with its own tribute.
Today the company announces Spotiamp -- "to honour the engineering skill and passion that goes into building wonderful software that millions of people enjoy we would like to share a small tribute to honor the great legacy of Winamp".
Windows Phone 8 gets Xbox Music and Video, but do users love the new apps?
In a new attempt to level the playing field between Windows Phone 8 and its main rivals, iOS and Android, Microsoft has launched the Xbox Music and Xbox Video apps for its tiled smartphone operating system. The two offerings complement the existing functionality and add more options to purchase and consume content.
Until now, Microsoft provided no option for Windows Phone 8 users to purchase or rent movies from their smartphones. Xbox Video adds these features, alongside content streaming and download. Users have access to both popular movies and TV shows, like Fast & Furious 6 and Family Guy. For the latter category, the app allows them to get a Season Pass, that will automatically add new episodes to the user's collection.
Style Jukebox takes your music collection to the cloud [Q&A]
Nowadays, cloud services like Pandora and Spotify allow us to listen to our favorite tunes no matter where we are, without having to actually own a single song. But what happens to our music collections, which we have built up over the years? Some of us have thousands of tracks, stored locally on devices like PCs. Should we just abandon our beloved content and embrace alternative ways of enjoying it?
Luckily, answering this question does not involve making a compromise. Cloud service Style Jukebox aims for the middle road, by providing a convenient solution that allows users to upload the music they own to the cloud and play it on PCs, smartphones and tablets. It is designed to work both with and without an Internet connection (the content can also be downloaded for offline playback), which makes it a good fit for those who use devices which are not always connected to the cloud. As Style Jukebox's motto says, "Your music, anywhere, on all your devices".
Now you can listen to Rdio in 51 countries
Our smartphones have become not just entertainment devices, but also our constant travel companions. This means that media services are always at work, trying to get into new markets, in an effort to be with you wherever you go. Now streaming music service Rdio has announced a major roll out that includes 20 new nations.
Today's news brings the total number of countries in which Rdio is available to a more-than-respectable 51. The company brags that this makes it "the second largest music subscription service in the world in terms of countries serviced" (the largest subscription service is Deezer).
Deck the halls -- Rdio unveils holiday stations, playlists
It's that time of year, when the temperatures dip and the snow begins to fall, well, depending on where you live. This is also the time of year when a few radio stations suddenly change formats, and you can't turn the dial without hearing Bing Crosby or Burl Ives. Streaming radio company Rdio is taking a similar approach.
The music service has announced its 2013 lineup of holiday stations and curated playlists to get you in the spirit. "All of your musical needs for the holidays can be found right here on Rdio", the company announces.
Pandora delivers Christmas music -- and statistics
Thanksgiving is in the rear-view mirror and Black Friday shopping has begun. What does this signify? The official kick-off of holiday music of course! Sure, you can listen to that genre of music year-round, but you will look like a loon. You can now officially enjoy it and appear completely sane.
While you can listen to your local holiday station on the radio, that is not very tech-savvy. Quite frankly, FM radio is reserved for Luddites since the invention of streaming music and satellite radio. Today, streaming music service Pandora invites listeners to enjoy some special holiday streaming stations.
Winamp petition is latest to likely fail
When companies announce their intention to shutter services, fans suddenly appear from nowhere, begging for a change of heart. Some months ago there was a petition asking Google to grant Reader a stay of execution. It's not the first and it won't be the last petition Google has ignored -- there's currently one begging for Android 4.4 KitKat to be made available on the Galaxy Nexus, and of course another one asking for the old YouTube comments system to be restored.
Last week AOL, once the darling of the internet back when it was all shiny and new, announced it will be killing off Winamp, the popular media player released back in 1997, and purchased by America Online in 1999 for $80 million.
End of an era -- bidding farewell to Winamp
This was bound to happen sooner or later, although I would have preferred the latter. Winamp has announced that, starting December 20 2013, the site and associated cloud services will no longer be available to the public. What is even worse is that the longstanding media player will also be pulled from winamp.com. This is a sad moment indeed.
I have fond memories of Winamp, which makes it difficult for me to imagine a world without it. After all, when I got my first computer -- more than a decade ago -- it was one of the few pieces of software that came installed on my measly Windows 98 Second Edition PC. At the time, Winamp was my portal to listening to my favorite music. We have bonded and having to see it go away after all this time makes me feel like I'm never going to meet a best friend ever again.
The Divoom Bluetune Bean speaker sounds off [Review]
Bluetooth is everywhere these days -- in our smartphones, tablets and even in newer computers. We use it for the mouse, keyboard and other items. Increasingly, that extra item is a speaker, or perhaps two, in the case of the new Logitech Mini Boom. But that's far from the only show in town, as Divoom also produces a speaker that it hopes can rival competitors in the market.
That market has become increasingly competitive, which is not particularly surprising given the growth of handheld devices, some of which produce less-than-ideal sound quality. The Bluetune Bean attempts to help alleviate this problem, by providing an external source to pound out your tunes with a bit more fury than the tiny built-in speakers that come as part of your tablet or phone.
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