music

AUSTIN, Texas--From the band Love and Rockets lifting its name from the famous cult favorite Hernandez brothers' comic, to a suspiciously-coincidental Jack Kirby and Frank Zappa meeting, comic books and music have a long history of influencing each other.

The fusion of music and comics as directed by the comics' creators has been limited to a list of recommended tunes in the letters pages of the book -- until now. Today, Marvel Comics raised the curtain on a plan to turn that history on its ear with a digital comics-and-music fusion code-named Project Gamma.

Project Gamma is, in the words … Read more

Making a beautiful slideshow personalized enough not to resemble any other might be harder than it seems. For people looking for some customization options while keeping things simple to use, FotoMagico for Mac might be the solution. However, it comes with a rather hefty price tag.

FotoMagico for Mac can import images from iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom to integrate with the photographer's workflow. The documentation is rich enough to get you started in minutes. The strong point of this software is clearly its interface. It's well thought out and really intuitive, and everything behaves exactly as expected. Drag-and-drop … Read more

Apple's long-rumored streaming music service won't be arriving until this summer, or later according to a new report.

Citing sources, The New York Times says that Apple's still wrangling with Sony over licensing rights, adding delay to the service that Apple had originally aimed to launch last month. Those people now believe that negotiations will be sorted out in time for a launch this summer, or later in the year.

The report goes on to say that the service was being designed to come preinstalled on Apple's devices instead of an additional app that needed downloading … Read more

This post is really just an excuse to tell you again about Skip Tunes, an app I covered last year and have used pretty much every day since. If you are a Mac user and a frequent user of iTunes, Spotify, or Rdio, you need this app. It places a small icon in your menu bar, providing quick and easy access track information and play controls.

I finally got around to updating Skip Tunes this week (unbeknownst to me, the update was released months ago) and discovered that the play/pause and fast forward buttons disappeared from the menu bar. … Read more

Google's YouTube, the entertainment industry's longtime "frenemy," is emerging as an important component of record label plans to adapt to consumers who are taking their music mobile.

A part of the streaming-music service that Google is aiming to launch this summer is a new YouTube product that would be designed for the desktop and mobile devices, according to a person familiar with the negotiations between Google and the major labels. Such a mobile offering, coupled with the powerful YouTube brand, could ignite the nascent streaming-music business, now led by Spotify for on-demand music and Pandora for … Read more

HANOVER, Germany--For those who want to take their music with them, a more convenient option than lugging loudspeakers is now available: fist-sized, battery-powered devices called vibration speakers.

These chunky widgets transform a table, floor, car roof, or even window into a large speaker. One one end is a tweeter for playing higher-frequency pitches, and on the other a driver that moves the surface to which it's attached, converting it into a giant woofer.

The devices were thumping loudly on the CeBIT tech show floor here as manufacturers tried to drum up customers, distributors, retailers, and business partners. … Read more

Can't make it to this year's South by Southwest (aka SXSW) conference in Austin? At least you don't have to miss out on the music.

As part of its SXSW: Live from Austin series, NPR is offering The Austin 100 -- a collection of 100 songs by 100 artists, all in MP3 format, all absolutely free.

And I mean really and truly free: There's nothing to register for, no form to complete, and not a single Facebook or Twitter sharing requirement.

Just scroll down a bit until you see the Download the Music box on the … Read more

Beats Electronics, the company founded by hip-hop producer Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine, confirmed this evening it had raised $60 million in funding to spin off its forthcoming streaming music service into a separate entity later this year.

Codenamed "Daisy," the service was revealed in January by Iovine at the AllThingsD Dive Into Media conference. Iovine said he had 100 people working on a "curated" music subscription service he expected to launch this summer.

The funding round was led by Access Industries, an investment group founded by billionaire Len Blavatnik), Marc Rowan, James Packer … Read more

Tim Cook has held talks with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine about a potential partnership involving Beats' planned music service, Reuters reports.

The Apple chief met with music mogul Iovine in late February to discuss Beats' "Project Daisy," a music subscription service announced in mid-February, unidentified sources told the news agency. Iovine, who co-founded Beats with hip-hop producer Dr Dre, said at last month's AllThingsD Dive Into Media conference that he expects to launch a "curated" music subscription service this summer.

During their meeting, which sources described as "informational" and as including iTunes chief … Read more