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Spotify

Create Spotify playlists from songs you liked on Pandora

I was probably one of the last people in our great land who regularly purchased CDs. After Spotify landed on our shores, however, I finally stopped the practice of buying them, instead relying on Spotify and Pandora for my listening pleasure. I enjoy both services, and now with a Chrome extension called Pandora to Spotify Playlist Converter, I can get the two talking to one another, to a degree.

The conversation is one-sided. That is, the extension helps you move tracks from Pandora to Spotify. Specifically, it lets you copy links for tracks you've liked on Pandora and paste … Read more

New Myspace sees big losses -- just like old Myspace

The new Myspace has had a tough first year and is again looking for funding.

According to Business Insider, a little more than year after Interactive Media Holdings -- which is mostly owned by the Vanderhook family -- took control of Myspace, the company has lost more than $40 million on $14 million in revenue this year.

Myspace expects to lose another $25 million in funding next year, according to the documents. Meanwhile, the company is out looking to raise $50 million in investment, says Business Insider.

Too much shouldn't be made about the losses, as the new Myspace … Read more

Enable Spotify's Web player right now

Unlike Pandora and Last.fm, Spotify has relied on actual clients to deliver music to its subscribers. Whether you're on the computer or a mobile device, Spotify has apps that will let you listen to your tunes, change stations, etc. However, this doesn't always work if you're using a computer that isn't yours, or you detest adding yet another app to your devices.

As an extra streaming option, Spotify is rolling out its Web player to user accounts. The Web player is located at http://play.spotify.com, but if you don't have access, you … Read more

Spotify reportedly near financing round for a $3B valuation

Spotify is close to closing a $100 million financing round that would value the company at a little more than $3 billion, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.

The capital would come from multiple investors, including Goldman Sachs, although the Journal did not identify who the other investors were.

CNET has contacted Spotify for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

In a funding round last year, the music-streaming service raised about $100 million from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Russian investment firm DST Global, to give it a $1 billion valuation. More … Read more

Web radio growing faster than on-demand services (study)

Music listening patterns continue to evolve and not just from analog to digital but from downloads to streaming, according to findings from Internet research firm, NPD.

For the quarter ending in June, the audience for Internet radio services in the United States, which include companies such as Pandora Media, grew 27 percent from the same period a year earlier, NPD reported. In comparison, on-demand services such as Spotify, YouTube and Rhapsody, grew 18 percent over the same period.

Web radio stands to be an important money maker and it's not hard to figure out why the music sector and … Read more

Is Spotify unfair to musicians?

Is $10, or the price of a few Starbucks lattes, really too much to pay for an album? Is $10 really too much to support musicians well enough they'll want to record more music? I still play LPs I bought when I was a teenager, and I can't think of anything else I still use from that part of my life. Those records are, if anything, more valuable to me now then they were then. I'm old enough to remember when record companies were freaking out about kids making cassette copies of albums, but producer and engineer … Read more

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A couple quick housekeeping notes before we dive into today's deal...

First, I've heard one too many complaints from readers about 1SaleADay's slow shipping and poor customer service. I've asked the company to comment on these issues, but have yet to receive a response. Until I do, I won't be sharing any more of its deals. I'm not saying you shouldn't patronize the company, only that you should expect slow shipping and little-to-no information about your shipment.

Second, I get a quite a lot of reader mail, and I apologize that I can'… Read more

What is FLAC? The high-def MP3 explained

In the late 1990s, one of the original portable music file formats -- the MP3 -- was causing quite a bit of bother. It had earned itself a reputation as a pirate format, and this was mainly due to the sharing site Napster, which was at the height of its notoriety. While MP3 inevitably prevailed, there is a much better choice for high-quality music, and it's gaining in popularity.

FLAC is a musical file format that offers bit-perfect copies of CDs at half the size, and is compatible with many phones (including the iPhone -- with an app), MP3 … Read more

The 404 1,149: Where everyone should get their Big Exit (podcast)

While we all patiently wait for Justin Yu's airline troubles to dissipate, CNET editors David Carnoy and Ty Pendlebury join Jeff on the show to chat about the world of self-publishing, the best places to find FLAC music, Microsoft Surface, Xbox Music, and the places you're most likely to break your iPhone.

Topics from today's show:

- Check out David's new book "The Big Exit." Or, for a chance to win a digital or hardcover copy, send an e-mail with "The Big Exit" in the subject line to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com.

- Microsoft Surface dates and prices

- Don't worry, the iPad Mini will come in just 24 easy-to-understand versions.

- Xbox Music is coming. Don't call it Zune!

- Ty's FLAC music-finding guide

- Where you're most likely to break your iPhone. … Read more

Microsoft bakes Xbox Music into Windows 8

Microsoft plans to use the full force of its dominant Windows operating system to challenge iTunes and Spotify in the digital music business.

The software giant has baked its new 30-million-track Xbox Music service into Windows 8, making it the default way for users to listen to songs. The service, which CNET first reported in February and the company announced in June, will let users stream music for free, creating custom playlists, as long as they're willing to hear occasional ads. They can also subscribe to an ad-free version for $9.99 a month. And users can buy and … Read more