Beats Music will launch in January, strikes partnership with AT&T
Beats Music will launch its music subscription service in January, likely at CES, and the company is partnering with AT&T to get on people’s mobile phones.
A GigaOM guide to streaming music services
Are you overwhelmed with the possibilities available for music streaming? This quick graph breaks it all down.
Music startups aren’t dead — they’re just changing
Rumors of the death of the digital music industry are greatly exaggerated, says former Last.fm executive Matthew Hawn. While there may not be much room for profiting from recorded music any more, an entire generation of companies are building a different, more exciting future.
Paying to play: The fight over online music
That shift in listening from recordings to streaming services marks an acceleration and amplification of the broader shift in the music business from a an economy based on the sale of goods to one based on access to performances. And it is fueling the fight now erupting on Capitol Hill over the royalty rates assigned to different types of performances.
Clik brings smarts — and convergence — to multiple screens
A new platform has emerged to create converged applications between the TV, PCs and mobile devices. Clik, which released a mobile app that can connect to any screen with a browser, is also releasing smart TV platform for developers.
Facebook debuts “listen with” button to make music more social
Facebook on Thursday debuted a new “listen with” feature that lets groups of people listen to the same song at the same time. The new feature is most directly comparable to turntable.fm, which lets people create music listening rooms and share DJ duties with their friends.
Want a Spotify US Invite? Here is how you get it.
Last week, Spotify launched in the United States with much fanfare. Many of our readers pinged me asking for get an invitation to Spotify’s music service. We talked to some folks over at Spotify and worked on getting you access. Here is how.
“Digital music has to be simple like a CD” Spotify CEO
Daniel Ek, co-founder of Spotify talks to me about Apple, Android and his service on consumer devices and in cars. More importantly he shares his vision about the company and what he wants it to be when it grows up in a couple of years.
Today in Social
You’re not likely to have missed the hype surrounding Spotify‘s U.S. launch today. It finally signed the last of the big four record labels yesterday. Today Spotify starts selling its premium music services: unlimited on-demand streaming to a PC for $5/month, or a $10 version that supports mobile access and offline listening. Its ad-supported free service is invitation-only. I’m not as excited about Spotify as the hypesters. Rhapsody, Napster, Rdio and MOG offer similar services and may also get some special Facebook treatment that Spotify is promising but doesn’t have yet. There’s a limited market among serious music fans (perhaps 5-7 million) for premium celestial jukeboxes. And one of Spotify’s tickets to European success was upselling from its free offering, which has had its hours cut back and won’t be widely available in the U.S. initially. But Spotify’s certainly getting enough buzz and rave reviews that it won’t have to spend all of its recently raised $100 million on advertising.
Revealed: Facebook’s music plans tap Spotify, others
Facebook has been talking to various music services with a focus on social sharing and discovery of music. In this exclusive report, we share some of Facebook’s plans and features. Expect these announcements at its annual developer conference, likely to be held in August.