music

The future of music, according to Spotify's Daniel Ek

AUSTIN, Texas--Daniel Ek was waving his arms in the air, as if molding invisible clay. He swiped his right hand karate-chop style, made a big loop, and then grabbed an imaginary dial with his left and twisted his fist.

Ek, you see, was talking about the future. In this not-so-far-off future, maybe a decade from now, we're all connected, everywhere, all the time -- perhaps via Google Glass, perhaps via sensors built into our clothes, or through other wearable computing devices. Our touch-screen life will require no touching whatsoever, as we control what we're listening to or seeing … Read more

Nokia brings Music app to Windows 8, RT

Nokia today launched its music app for Windows 8 and RT tablets and PCs, extending the Finnish handset maker's reach in the mobile market.

The free music streaming app, Nokia Music, first appeared on Nokia Lumia smartphones, and Nokia in January enhanced the service to include a premium version, dubbed Nokia Music+, for a monthly subscription fee of $3.99. With both, users are able to create their own mixes or stream from playlists curated by Nokia's team and artists. Mixes also can be saved for offline playback. The premium version gives users unlimited skips and unlimited downloads.… Read more

For labels, Apple's iRadio deal could be sweeter than Pandora

Apple is close to striking a streaming deal with two of the major music labels that could end up far sweeter for the music industry than what the labels currently get from Pandora, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

Much has been made in recent weeks of Apple trying to squeeze the labels on terms, and the deals do have Apple paying the labels a per-stream rate that's half of what Pandora pays. But CNET has learned that Apple's planned music service would offer new revenue streams as well.

That includes a quick way for consumers … Read more

QMidi for Mac Review

Finding suitable programs to play certain audio and karaoke files can be difficult. While basically functional, QMidi for Mac's dated interface and lack of instructions could make it a less attractive download for all but the most experienced users.

QMidi for Mac comes with a free trial version with a pop-up nag screen. After the installation completed, the user is prompted to purchase the full version, which costs $12. This menu can be dismissed after waiting a few seconds. The program lacks user instructions, but support for updates is available and additional program versions have fixed reported bugs. The … Read more

Llama Music Cleanser Review

If you've got a big music library, you may not want it all on your computer. Whether you're just trying to save space or you're tired of some songs, Llama Music Cleanser can help. It walks you through any music folders you need to help you track songs you don't want to keep. Then it removes them from your computer with one push of the button.

The program comes as a slim Java executable, so it downloads quickly. To keep the program light, the developers sacrificed any notion of making it look good. Instead, it looks … Read more

BlackBerry to shutter its BBM music sharing service on June 2

BlackBerry's BBM music sharing service will be no more.

As of June 2 the service will be shuttered, according to Mobilesyrup. BlackBerry sent out a mass e-mail to all of its BBM Music subscribers today informing them of the news.

Here's a portion of BlackBerry's e-mail, according to Mobilesyrup:

BBMT Music service will be discontinued as of June 2, 2013*. For paying customers, April is the last month that you will be billed. In May, as your BBM contacts stop using the service, songs in your playlists will begin to turn grey and will no longer be … Read more

MP3 resale violates copyright law, court rules

A court ruling has put the kibosh on reselling digital media.

In a lawsuit between Universal Music Group's Capitol Records and MP3 reseller ReDigi, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan has sided with the record label and said that reselling songs bought on iTunes, Amazon, or other digital music venues is akin to copyright infringement.

"The court grants Capitol's motion for summary judgment on its claims for ReDigi's direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement of its distribution and reproduction rights," Judge Sullivan wrote in a summary judgment filed Saturday. "The court also denies ReDigi's … Read more

The 404 1,238: Where we open up for Bayside (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Listen to the music of Bayside and check them out at one of their upcoming shows.

- Nick's clothing label is called Born and Bred, and 404 listeners can save 20 percent off all merchandise with code BB404.

- Follow Nick Ghanbarian and Born and Bred on Twitter

Episode 1,238

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The one bright spot for the music labels: Digital

The music industry is still in rough shape, based on data released today by the Recording Industry Association of America. But U.S. digital revenues continue to climb, helped by the growth of so-called "access services" such as Spotify, YouTube, and Vevo.

And the bigger picture shows that the beaten-down industry is stabilizing. Recorded music sales slipped 0.9 percent from 2011 to 2012, totaling $7.1 billion. That's roughly in line with the total sales for the last few years.

Sales from digital formats, meantime, rose 14 percent from 2011 and last year surpassed $4 billion … Read more

Microsoft, Spotify, The Echo Nest team up on MixShape

A triumvirate of companies have come together to deliver a new way of handling playlists, both in the browser and through Spotify.

Microsoft, Spotify, and a "music intelligence" start-up named The Echo Nest announced yesterday the launch of a visual playlist tool called MixShape. The feature allows users to toss their Spotify playlists of up to 300 tracks into MixShape and come away with a finely tuned playlist, complete with visual display. MixShape analyzes the tracks and creates a mix for the "optimal flow between songs." That flow depends on the "mood" the user … Read more