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Posts tagged with "music"

Last.fm Updates iPhone App with Retina Graphics, Recommendations

In spite of the lack of appreciation for Apple’s new subscription system from Last.fm’s co-founder Richard Jones, the popular music service released an update to their official iPhone client today – and it’s a rather big update. Version 3.0 of the app, available here, adds the much requested Retina Display graphics with an improved interface design (about time, considering the iPhone 4 was released 8 months ago), Last.fm music recommendations for artists and new albums you might like, possibility to (finally) check your profile on the go, including top charts, friends and recently played tracks.

Last.fm 3.0 for iPhone, however, comes with other features, too. First, a menu to check on concerts available in your area (sadly, no one wants to play here in Viterbo) and the events your friends are attending. This is pretty cool and adds another layer of social interactivity to Last.fm, and it’s also something Apple has been rumored to be willing to implement in iTunes for a long time. You can now listen to two new radio stations or, alternatively, edit existing ones directly from your device to restrict them to a specific tag. Two weeks ago, Last.fm announced the Radio functionality would soon become a subscriber-only feature (thus the issues with Apple’s new policies).

Last.fm 3.0 for iPhone is available for free here.

Last.fm Co-Founder Doesn’t Like Apple’s Subscriptions

Just about everyone on the Internet now knows that some folks are really upset over Apple’s recently announced subscriptions for iOS apps. In case you missed the news, Apple is now allowing publishers to implement subscriptions for content-based apps using the same iTunes payment method customers rely on for their App Store purchases, but Apple keeps a 30% cut off every recurring subscription. As you can guess, several publishers think a 30% cut off a minimal monthly (or yearly) fee is too much, making it impossible to break even. In fact, music service Rhapsody has already announced it won’t offer subscriptions for iOS devices. And it looks like other publishers will follow if they think a business model can’t be built upon Apple taking its 30% on every transaction.

While the fact that Apple takes a cut on purchases made through its App Store doesn’t come as a total surprise, the 30% number does as many, including yours truly, initially thought subscriptions would feature a lower cut from Apple. Still, this is happening right now and what we can do is wait and see what publishers and content providers like Amazon and Netflix will do. But in the meantime, it appears that Last.fm co-founder Richard Jones isn’t really excited about these subscriptions, either. “Excited” is actually an euphemism, considering that in a private IRC chat posted by GigaOM he says “Apple just f****** over online music subs for the iPhone”.

While we can’t verify on the authenticity of IRC chat, there’s more coming from Mr. Jones. He suggests Apple might have come up with these high terms to leave room for its own music streaming service later in the year, which will surely make some companies like Spotify and Rdio struggle to find their way between affordable consumer prices and Apple’s cut on subscriptions. Oh, and what about Last.fm? They announced their very own subscription-based service two weeks ago, and now if they want to keep their app in the Store it looks like they’re going to have to rethink the whole strategy. Or perhaps Last.fm will simply pull the app from App Store, as Jones believes “people on the iPhone will always subscribe using iTunes” because it’s easier.

So far, Apple’s subscription service hasn’t been a popularity success among publishers. But we believe we’ll hear the actual results of this new functionality in a few weeks, when customers will get used to the advantages of iTunes-based subscriptions and some publishers will (likely) see the first promising numbers coming in. If Apple will have to change its stance on subscriptions, you can bet they will. Now, we wait and see how the publishing industry reacts in the App Store.

Sony Will Stay On iTunes, “Music Unlimited” Service Launching Today

Last week, Sony PlayStation’s Australian group chief Michael Ephraim hinted that Sony might soon remove its music content from the iTunes Store as, according to him, publishers were “held ransom” by Apple’s terms and lead in the digital music industry. The statement, picked by all major Apple-related publications, quickly made the rounds of the Internet as proof that Sony, disappointed by the rejection of their ebook reader application for iOS, was aiming at leaving Apple’s infrastructure altogether to focus on its Music Unlimited service.

Today, Sony Network Entertainment COO Brandon Layden says the company has no intention of leaving iTunes, although, in fact, Music Unlimited is launching today in the US, Australia and New Zealand:

Sony Music as I understand it has no intention of withdrawing from iTunes, they’re one of our biggest partners in the digital domain. I think those words were either taken out of context or the person who spoke them was unclear on the circumstances.

Layden is not directly involved with Sony’s music business but he sure would know if the company (one of the biggest iTunes music publishers) was planning on ditching the iTunes Music Store. Admittedly, Sony would be crazy to remove its catalogue from the iTunes Store – which is still the most successful online distribution service for music and movies. In the meantime, Sony is launching their music streaming platform today (for $10 a month), but it won’t work on iPhones and iPods. And i likely never will, unless Sony will agree on Apple’s 30% cut on subscriptions offered through the App Store.

Shazam’s Music Sourcers Add Jobs To Music Industry, Give Music Lovers Their Ultimate Job

Shazam the popular music-identifying app on mobile phones is giving some music aficionados their ultimate job, listening to new music all day as a ‘music sourcer’. The New York Times spoke to one such person working for Shazam, Charles Slomovitz whose job requires him to hunt down new music and artists to ensure Shazam’s music-identifying engine can identify song that its users may hear.

Shazam has grown to a user base of over 100 million users who ping the service 3 million times a day, and Andrew Fisher, Shazam’s chief executive says that “when people use a service like Shazam, they expect it to work all the time”. As a result Mr. Slomovitz and others around the world who find new music are vital to ensure the accuracy of Shazam, which is available in over 200 countries. Similarly Pandora has also created new jobs in the music industry with its so called ‘musicologists’ who analyze songs on the basis of numerous characteristics to give users the ability to find similar music.

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Replacing Flash Storage With The Cloud→

Replacing Flash Storage With The Cloud

Speaking of streaming for media through MobileMe, Chris Foreman at Ars Technica makes a good point:

Relying solely on the cloud, whatever the particular method, ignores the reality of wireless networks. Even in major cities, wireless data connections are not 100 percent ubiquitous. There are areas where connections are tenuous or nonexistent—suddenly, if you have zero bars, you would have zero data. As frustrating as it might be when you drop a data connection when trying to access a webpage, we believe the experience would be far more frustrating if your device became effectively useless anytime you went deep inside a large building, down into a basement, or on the subway.

While WiFi can help mitigate the problem somewhat, there’s still the issue of how quickly data usage rates would skyrocket if a potential iPhone nano streams all its data from the cloud. Part of the alleged reasoning behind Apple releasing an iPhone nano is the ability to offer a lower-priced device, possibly without a contract. But what benefit would this lower-cost device offer consumers if it required them to pay yet higher monthly data bills?

Ars’ report is more geared towards the recent rumors of an iPhone nano with no internal storage at all (which is incorrect anyway, as a minimum storage for the OS must be provided – you can’t “stream” iOS), but the problem remains: if Apple is moving to the cloud, then we’re all becoming dependent on always-available, reliable and “fast enough” internet connections. That’s why I believe a caching system for offline access will be needed in order for this to work properly for everyone.

The Spotify apps already do this and it’s great. You stream music, but you can save songs in your device’s cache for when you don’t have a 3G or WiFi connection available. Sure, cache can grow huge in size and waste space, but at least you’re sure you always have full access to your files.

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MobileMe Music Streaming: Keep It Simple

According to recent speculation, Apple is launching a complete overhaul of MobileMe this summer that will include a streaming option for media like music, movies, photos and videos recorded through an iPhone. Steve Jobs himself said in an email from last year that MobileMe would get “a lot better” in 2011. The fact that Apple is working on making MobileMe free in more sections, and more powerful and feature-rich when it comes to cloud-based access to files and media, seems pretty much obvious at this point.

The problem is “how”. With the rumors floating around, all kinds of speculation have arisen lately: cloud storage for your entire iTunes library, through a subscription à la Dropbox; cloud storage through the existing MobileMe plans; cloud storage for free. The list of possible implementations goes on and on. Yesterday, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple weighed in with an interesting theory about a user’s Mac as a the actual cloud behind MobileMe’s streaming:

Instead of trying to provide everyone with cloud storage, I believe Apple will use MobileMe as the brain of the cloud service. The actual storage will be on our individual machines. In effect, in the cloud.

MobileMe would handle the settings and streaming settings, the files would reside on our Macs. Jim further explains:

Here’s the thing — those songs won’t actually be on my iPhone until I tap to play them. As soon as I tap to play, it will download to my phone. You can scroll through your music library and choose something else and it will download and play.

In effect, what Apple’s doing is setting up a streaming service that you host. By using advanced caching and MobileMe as the brain behind the operation, you will always have access to your media.

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Lady Gaga’s New Single Becomes Fastest Selling iTunes Song Ever

We at MacStories aren’t exactly “fans” of Lady Gaga’s music, but the results achieved by her latest single “Born This Way” are noteworthy: in five hours, the song has become the fastest selling iTunes single of all time, jumping to the #1 in the iTunes Store in 21 countries. The song was released yesterday and it’s also available for listening on VEVO’s Youtube channel.

Lady Gaga isn’t new to Apple-related coverage. In September, for instance, Steve Jobs featured a video on stage during the new iPods / Ping introduction showing Lady Gaga giving her support to the new social network. Video is embedded below.

Oh, and apparently she also likes Infinite Loop. [via Music News Daily] Read more

Spotify Looking Forward To U.S. Launch “In The Coming Months”

European-based music streaming service Spotify is once again looking forward to a successful launch in the United States “over the coming months”. An email posted by All Things Digital reveals that the company told customers in the U.S. who happen to have a Spotify test account that they’re going to have to start paying for the service sooner or later.

Hello from Spotify!

You are one of only a few people who has access to a Spotify promotional test account in the USA, and we hope you’re enjoying listening to Spotify through our Premium or Unlimited service.

We are really looking forward to launching the service in full in the USA over the coming months, and hope that you will continue to use the service and be one of our key advocates.

We need to make some small system changes to our payment system for our USA launch, and so in order to make the transition for you as smooth as possible, we have credited your Spotify account with 1 month worth of FREE Spotify Premium/ Unlimited!

Apparently, Spotify provided thousands of people in the music industry, bloggers and VIP with unlimited, free test accounts with full access to the Spotify library, no-ads and mobile iPhone app which, if you know how Spotify works, isn’t really a “plan”. Spotify offers a Premium subscription free of ads and compatible with mobile applications, but it will cost you around $13.

The service has been reportedly in talks with EMI and Universal to close deals for US music distribution, although so far the company has only got Sony on board. In the past, reports suggested Apple may have interfered with Spotify’s plans to launch in the United States by trying to convince music labels that iTunes has a better business model than Spotify. At the moment, Spotify has native Mac and iPhone apps to bring music streaming to the desktop and mobile devices.

Turn Off Ping’s Annoying Email Notifications

Last week, I noticed Apple started sending me emails about people following me on Ping. Yes, Ping: remember it? Apple’s “interesting” attempt at doing social networking within the iTunes Store. Something that has received awards like worst product of 2010. Still, back to email notifications. It looks like Apple turned these on by default recently, without asking for user’s confirmation, apparently. Another little trick to remind us Ping exists, I guess. Indeed, the Ping homepage features these new notifications as “What’s New In Ping”. Read more