Pandora

When we get a Wi-Fi radio in for review and find that it uses the Reciva database to offer up Internet radio stations, it's usually a good sign. Reciva's database of stations is nearly comprehensive and we always appreciate that you can manage the thousands of available stations using Reciva's Web site.

In addition to traditional Internet radio stations, Reciva announced Monday that it's adding Pandora support for 10 devices, including Wi-Fi radios from C Crane, Grace Digital, Livio, Sonoro audio, and Tangent Audio.

While some of the radios listed already included Pandora support (such as … Read more

The new Livio Radio certainly isn't the first Wi-Fi radio to feature Pandora access--the Squeezebox Boom and the Grace GDI-IR2000 both offer the functionality--but it's certainly the first model seemingly designed around the streaming Internet music service.

With a standard tabletop radio design, the Livio gives you full access to Pandora, and also makes it easy to interact with the service by putting "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" buttons on the front panel and the remote. The Livio can connect to your home network using either the integrated Wi-Fi or the Ethernet port around … Read more

I'll readily admit that I'm not in the target audience for the new SlotRadio MP3 player from SanDisk, which became available last week.

The $99 device comes with a microSD card containing 1,000 songs, selected by Billboard editors from top-charting radio hits of the last 40 years or so, arranged in seven playlists--rock, country, hip-hop, and four others.

You can't edit or rearrange the playlists, you can't move the songs to your computer or any other device, and the only way to get new songs is by buying new 1,000-song cards for $39.99 … Read more

The folks at Smule, Pandora, Nokia, and BlueRun Ventures may not agree on everything, but during a Thursday night panel discussion on the business of mobile applications, their attention centered on a single device time and time again: the iPhone.

From the ease of the iPhone's paint-by-numbers SDK to its extremely accessible on-phone App Store and unified hardware and software package, the conversation on all sides of the table both challenged and defended claims of the iPhone's hegemony.

Pandora's Chief Technical Officer, Tom Conrad, credited iPhone's App Store with the success of Pandora's free music discovery … Read more

SpiralFrog met its end just days ago, and already, operators of other ad-supported music services are rushing to put distance between their business models and that of the doomed site.

"The concept was good, but the management, board (not all), and execution were poor," wrote Robin Kent, the former CEO of SpiralFrog who went to work as an adviser to Qtrax, one of SpiralFrog's competitors. "It was obvious to anyone...it wouldn't survive."

What might encourage supporters to jump to the defense of ad-supported music services, which don't charge users to listen to … Read more

The 3.0 version of the iPhone firmware is coming in the summer and will feature copy and paste, MMS, search, and more. All things a cheap Nokia phone can do now, but hey, the iPhone couldn't and now it can. So there. We also review the sleek new Dell Adamo and take Australia to task for a fine for hyperlinks.

Live blog: iPhone OS 3.0 preview http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10197216-37.html http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/03/16/the-iphone-os-30-announcement-scorecard/

Hands-on with the Dell Adamo http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10197525-1.html … Read more

Pandora's free online music service is coming to the Vudu set-top box.

Vudu has announced the availability of "immediate access" to the Pandora service for users of its media-on-demand box. Vudu's iteration will allow on-screen access to the music service (as shown above), as well as the ability to toggle between multiple Pandora accounts (so several family members in a given household can access their individual personalized stations, for instance). Pandora joins the recent addition of YouTube, Picasa, and Flickr to Vudu's movie box.

Vudu is pledging to open its Rich Internet Application platform to … Read more

As someone who spends most of his day on the computer, I need to do everything I can to keep myself entertained. Sometimes, that manifests itself in games and other times I find entertainment on the Web through online music services.

For years, I used Pandora, the song-discovery service powered by the Music Genome Project, and loved every minute of it. But over the past couple months, things have changed and I've quickly started to dedicate all my music time to MySpace Music.

The reasons why are numerous, but I should first note that I've got some issue with the service. First off, it's inundated with ads, and no matter where you go, you can bet that any MySpace Music page will be flanked by blinking advertisements or other unwelcome additions that detract somewhat from an otherwise outstanding service.

I should also mention that MySpace Music doesn't allow its users to share playlists, which is a bit annoying. You also can't have it "on-the-go" nearly as easily as you can with a site like Pandora, which offers a mobile app for those who want to hear music while away from their computer.

Other than that, though, I simply love MySpace Music. It's the single reason why my love affair with Pandora is over and it's my first destination when I want to listen to music while I work. Simply put, it's outstanding.

Songs, songs, songs As much as I enjoy the discovery engine on Pandora, I'd much rather have the option to build my own playlist of songs and listen to only those titles I want to hear. That's a luxury I really don't have on Pandora, but it's the backbone of what makes MySpace Music great.

MySpace Music currently offers millions (yes, millions) of songs from artists ranging from the popular, like Britney Spears and Bruce Springsteen, to the obscure, like Deerhunter. And unlike most services in the space… Read more

Few people know this but for a little while last year, the music-royalty rates that Web radio stations have complained about for years appeared to be behind them.

In a midtown Manhattan law office last November 6, representatives from Webcasting companies and SoundExchange, the group that collects royalties for recording artists and labels, struck a deal "in principle," said sources familiar with the negotiations. The agreement was designed to restructure the royalty rates Webcasters have long said would decimate the sector.

But a week ago, came word that a final deal was never signed. The Digital Media Association (DiMA), the group that represents most of the largest Webcasters, including Pandora, Live365 and Yahoo, announced that the parties failed to reach an agreement. How could that happen? Both sides told members of Congress in September that they were close to a deal. In November, the blog All Things Digital reported a settlement was within grasp and quoted Pandora founder Tim Westergren saying "all the hard stuff has been done."

After interviewing multiple sources on both sides of the issue, the picture that has taken shape is that Webcasters blew a golden opportunity to reach an accord that would have given them much of what they asked for. What appears to have happened is that some in Webcasting were willing to play a game of brinkmanship with SoundExchange. At the very least, the actions of some larger Webcasters undermine their claims that they can't afford to continue for much longer without a settlement.

There is still a chance the two sides can come to terms. Talks are ongoing. But as it stands, time is quickly running out and nothing has occurred to indicate a breakthrough is near, according to sources on both sides. If a settlement isn't reached, its conceivable that some Web radio stations that legitimately can't afford to pay the performance fees set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) two years ago may be in jeopardy. Representatives from SoundExchange declined to comment. Westergren did not return repeated phone calls.

Did Real want a deal? There's no doubt who the music side blames for derailing the agreement. … Read more