When I tried Spotify, the free on-demand music-streaming service currently available only in Europe, I was impressed by its iTunes-like user interface and how fast the songs loaded. So when I saw Monday's news that Spotify has submitted an iPhone app to Apple for consideration, I got excited.
(Credit:
Spotify)
Then I read more closely: to use the mobile version of Spotify, you'll need a premium subscription. The service isn't available in the United States yet, but a premium subscription in the United Kingdom costs 10 pounds a month, which translates to about $16.50 at today's exchange rate.
That's in line with prices for other portable subscription music services, such as the Zune Pass or Rhapsody to Go. Those services aren't available for the iPod or iPhone, but Spotify's not doing anything groundbreaking here; it appears to be trying to fill a gap that Apple has left open by refusing to introduce its own subscription service.
The video demonstration also makes it look like users have to side-load playlists from their computer before accessing them on the device. I want what you get with the Zune Pass--the ability to stream songs on demand from any location with a Wi-Fi connection.
Corrected at 3:45 p.m.: This story mischaracterized a demonstration video for the application. It does show the ability to search Spotify for any song wirelessly. I got confused because it started with the caveat "playlists you've already created." It wasn't clear whether the search results were coming from those playlists, but they're not. My bad.
Follow Matt on Twitter.A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how Seattle company Melodeo had created an iPhone application for the band Presidents of the United States of America, which delivers the band's music in a direct stream, rather than forcing users to download (and pay for) each song individually.
On Thursday at South by Southwest (SXSW), digital-marketing and distribution specialist The Orchard announced that it's adding iPhone applications to its arsenal of tools.
The Orchard handles songs from more than 14,000 acts, focusing on musicians on independent labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Ipecac, and Lookout (just to name three with which I'm familiar). Now artists--or, more likely, their labels or management teams--will be able to create a customized iPhone app through The Orchard's standard set of management tools.
The iPhone applications themselves will be developed by design and branding firm Fluidesign.
Artists will be able to offer as many songs as they like as free streams (a link will let users click to download the songs from the iTunes Store), as well as post photos and aggregated news from various sources (such as RSS feeds or Twitter streams, if the band is into such things). Musicians will be able to set their own prices, but The Orchard envisions this as a promotional tool rather than as a revenue generator, so it is encouraging its clients to offer them for free.
The first app available is for The Black Lips, but when you run a search for that band's name in iTunes, the app shows up listed only as Mobile Roadie, the name of the platform for iPhone apps developed by Fluidesign. This link will take you directly to the application in iTunes.
Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired has an interesting post today about Seattle band Presidents of the United States of America.
It's like a radio station with all PUSA, all the time.
(Credit: Melodeo)In addition to selling its songs on iTunes in the normal fashion, PUSA has just released a $2.99 application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that will let you stream songs from four albums (the ones whose rights are owned by the band), plus assorted other flotsam (live tracks, demos, whatever).
The application was built by Melodeo, whose vice president of business development is none other than PUSA's Dave Dederer.
The songs are streamed, not downloaded, which means that you need a live Internet connection to hear them. In other words, imagine Pandora or Slacker, but focused on one band and with no restrictions on song order or skipping.
The trick with this kind of compilation is clearing the rights--radio station compilations, for example, would probably be impossible because so many licensees would have to be contacted. But I think that this could be a very interesting way for bands to earn a little bit of money from music to which they have exclusive rights.
Imagine your favorite band releasing an application with demos and outtakes from its latest album, on the same day the album itself goes live to iTunes and other download sites. Imagine it releasing concert recordings the day after a concert takes place.
Record labels could also benefit--Melodeo is apparently already working on a compilation for a Seattle-area label. Perhaps this is the digital replacement for the old SubPop singles club?
Shazam has been around for a few years now--CNET U.K. took note of the service back in 2006--but with today's launch of Apple's App Store, it could become a whole lot more popular. It has the potential to change how people discover and buy music.
Shazam lets you identify whatever song is playing nearby, tag it, and buy it directly from your iPhone.
(Credit: Shazam)The concept behind Shazam is simple: whenever you hear a song playing and can't identify it--on the car radio, at a friend's house, at a bar--you activate the Shazam application on your mobile phone. It "listens" to the song for about 30 seconds, then sends a text message to your phone identifying the artist and title. Shazam's database contains audio fingerprints for nearly 5 million songs, so there's a pretty good chance of a positive ID. However, closing the loop with an actual purchase was hard--you had to tag the song, then consult a Web site to see your tagged item, then go to another service (such as iTunes) to buy it.
The version of Shazam for the iPhone 2.0 fixes this problem: once you've tagged a song in Shazam, you can launch iTunes directly from that tagged song and buy the song immediately. That's assuming you have a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet--iTunes doesn't let you download music over a 3G data connection yet. (This is weak, but it's not Shazam's fault. Once Apple, AT&T, and the music companies work out all the business details to allow 3G downloads, Shazam could become even more useful. )
Downloading Shazam from the Apple App Store is free for the time being. No charges are mentioned in the terms as far as I can see, but the company reserves the right to begin charging for its service later (after notifying users). Using Shazam from other phones generally costs half a U.K. pound (about $1) per identification, or 2 pounds (about $4) per month for unlimited usage, so a similar fee structure could apply to the iPhone version as well.
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