Music

Spotify's Daniel Ek: I don't worry about Apple, Google

AUSTIN, Texas -- Google is aiming to roll out two subscription music services this summer, and Apple is reportedly trying again to tackle the streaming business. But Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek says he's not concerned, because his company is laser-focused on music and music only.

"We're obviously watching what everybody is doing," said Ek, who wore a Gibson guitar T-shirt and was interviewed by Forbes Associate Editor Steve Bertoni at the SXSW Interactive conference. "Music is something that is so inherently important to people that it makes sense for gigantic companies to have … Read more

Spotify: Growing like mad, yet so far to go

AUSTIN, Texas -- It's not a bluegrass jam on the legendary Austin City Limits stage, but for Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, it nonetheless will be a heady moment.

When Ek sits for a fireside chat at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival here later today, the Swedish-born, aspiring music industry mogul will be able to share some fresh bragging rights: Spotify has signed another 1 million subscribers since December, bringing the total to 6 million and cementing its position as the fastest-growing digital music company ever -- second in reach only to Internet radio company Pandora. A company … Read more

Rdio adds seven new countries to its free-music option

Continuing its recent push into international markets, Rdio announced today that it has expanded its free streaming music service in seven new countries, bringing its total global presence up to 24.

The free music option, which launched to its first international customers in January, is now available in Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Mexico. The expansion comes on the same day that Bloomberg reported that music streaming rival Spotify was close to deals with record labels to expand its ad-supported mobile radio service outside the U.S.

Much like Pandora, Spotify's music service has advertisements seeded among … Read more

Cell phone thief caught when his pants play different tunes

The most effective crimes, like business deals, take a lot of planning.

You have to consider the eventualities and anticipate the unexpected.

There may, therefore, have been insufficient aforethought in the cell-phone scheme of newly convicted thief Florin Constantin.

Constantin, 28, who arrived in England from Romania earlier this year, used a unique means to store multiple cell phones. He wore a pair of specially-designed leggings beneath his pants.

As the Daily Mail reports, he then headed to the Waterfront bar in Norwich to allegedly help steal as many cell phones as possible from the unsuspecting.

All, apparently, went quite … Read more

Project Gamma brings intelligent audio to digital comics

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

Apple's biggest problem: People might quit?

There is something slightly entertaining about the alleged crisis at the world's most famous and successful company.

Just because a bunch of greasy-haired speculators have decided that Apple's shares are worth less than Google's (this week), garments are rended and teeth gnashed.

And then there's teens. Apparently, they're all fleeing the brand and rushing toward Microsoft's Surface. Which, apparently, isn't selling well.

In times of such rampant face-contorting and mind-numbing, I always remember the words of Mitt Romney: "Companies are people, too."

And so it is that in a rather more measured discussion … Read more

Samsung exec: Surface isn't selling; Windows 8 no improvement

A certain panic seems to be fomenting among tech companies.

The old order is dissipating and the new order is, well, disordered.

So the occasional finger gets pointed and noses get disjointed.

The latest little brouhaha involves the seemingly harsh words of Jun Dong-soo, the president of Samsung's memory-chip division.

He seems to believe that Windows 8 really isn't terribly good. Indeed, as The Korea Times has it, he said: "I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform."

"Better" is always a relative word. Those of a … Read more

Sony Chairman Howard Stringer to retire in June

After having led Sony's board of directors for a year, former CEO Howard Stringer has announced that he will retire from the company in June, the Financial Times reported.

Stringer had his role with Sony increasingly minimized over the last few years. After serving as CEO from 2005 to 2012, Stringer was replaced in that role by Kazuo Hirai, who was at the time head of Sony Computer Entertainment. Stringer remained on the board and then replaced board chairman Yotaro Kobayashi in June of 2012.

Stringer spoke of his decision to retire during a Japan Society lecture in New … Read more

Pandora CEO calls it quits

Pandora CEO Joseph Kennedy announced today that he is leaving the music-streaming company after nearly 10 years at the helm.

He didn't say why he was stepping down, only that "the time is right."

"As part of our board discussions of the road that lies ahead, I reached the conclusion and advised the board that the time is right to begin a process to identify my successor," he said in a press release. "There is a tremendous market opportunity ahead and I look forward to continuing to work with all the great people at … Read more