Music

Rdio today announced support for CarPlay, allowing its users to listen and control content from the subscription music service using the built-in touchscreen of CarPlay-enabled vehicles.

CarPlay Support. Control Rdio playback and navigate your favorites and playlists from the built-in display in CarPlay-enabled cars.

Vehicles with CarPlay, Apple’s new feature that brings an iOS-like experience to in-dash touchscreens connected to an iPhone, first hit the road earlier this year in pricey new Ferrari models followed by an aftermarket solution from Pioneer. The service only has a handful of app partners so far, but we noted in our recent review that not all apps are playing nice with the feature yet. Apple currently lists iHeartRadio, MLB At Bat, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, CBS Radio, and its own Podcasts and Beats Music apps as supported apps.
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Twitter introduces new audio card, allowing in-line audio playback in mobile apps

Mike Beasley Oct 16 2014 - 1:49 pm PT

Twitter announced a change coming to its mobile apps today that allows users to play music directly from a tweet. The new Twitter Audio Card will allow certain users (there’s a list on Twitter’s blog) to share audio uploaded to SoundCloud with users in-line. Users will be able to listen to these embeds while they continue browsing their timelines.

Twitter says it’s just starting to test the feature right now and plans to roll it out to more content creators and partner audio sites in the future. You can try it out in Twitter for iPhone right now.

Apple begins rollout of redesigned iTunes Store ahead of OS X Yosemite launch

Mike Beasley Oct 10 2014 - 2:45 pm PT

26 Comments

Apple has started rolling out a redesigned version of the iTunes Store for users running iTunes 12 less than a week ahead of what’s expected to be the launch of OS X Yosemite. The new storefront takes design cues from the iTunes and App Store home pages on iOS devices, featuring a flattened, side-scrolling carousel at the top of the page in place of the old “card”-style header. This new header can be scrolled horizontally using two fingers or even dragged around with a mouse.

Individual pages for albums, TV shows, and iOS apps have also been redesigned and now feature more iOS-like controls throughout. Download buttons have been reduced to simple outlines. Shadows and textures have been removed throughout the store, putting the content directly on a stark white or dark gray background.

Apple reportedly removing Bose products from retail stores as NFL bans & Bose sues Beats

Jordan Kahn Oct 10 2014 - 7:23 am PT

54 Comments

Bose headphones and audio products could soon get the boot from Apple retail stores, according to a report from MacRumors citing “a reliable source.”

While Apple’s acquisition of Beats would seem like the obvious reason behind replacing the many Bose headphones and speakers currently used with iOS and Mac demo units, the report also claims that Apple will be removing Bose products from store shelves in addition to the demo units.
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Spotify music streaming service finally launches in Canada

Jordan Kahn Sep 30 2014 - 7:21 am PT

Spotify announced today that it’s finally expanding into Canada giving Canucks access to the music streaming service that was previously available in the UK, US and a long list of other European and South American countries.

The official announcement comes from Spotify’s blog following a beta period in the country in which the company invited select users to sign-up and try out the service.

Canadians that download the Spotify app will be able to access the service’s usual “fully licensed free tier.” That includes the ability to “shuffle play on mobile or play any song on tablet or desktop,” but users can also pay $10 CAD per month for the unlimited, on-demand experience with the highest quality audio and no ads.

A full list of countries that Spotify is currently available in is here.

iPodFather Tony Fadell discusses the recent death of the iPod classic

Zac Hall Sep 22 2014 - 2:00 pm PT

When Apple quietly pulled the iPod classic from its online store the day of the iPhone 6 event earlier this month, it meant the last iPod click wheel from Apple had finally been retired in place of touch screens and voice input. Tony Fadell, CEO of Google-acquired Nest Labs who is most known for his work in the iPod division at Apple through late 2008, spoke with Fast Company to discuss the death of the last click wheel iPod:

“I’m sad to see it go,” Fadell admits in a phone interview. “The iPod’s been a huge part of my life for the last decade. The team that worked on the iPod poured literally everything into making it what it was.” […] “Products just don’t come around like that often,” laments Fadell. “The iPod was one-in-a-million.”

Apple and U2 reportedly working on ‘secret project’ to bolster music sales

Benjamin Mayo Sep 18 2014 - 5:24 am PT

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According to TIME, U2’s partnership with Apple goes far beyond a free album in your iTunes library, much to the chagrin of some users. The group is reportedly working with Apple on a ‘secret project’ to rejuvenate digital music scales.

Details, however, are thin on the ground. Bono is quoted as saying he is developing a new music format that will somehow inspire consumers to buy complete albums once more. Without more information, it’s impossible to tell whether this is a silly pipe dream or an actual possibility. In the age of streaming music, the sales potential for individually bought songs is waning.

Apple’s digital stores face second outage this week across all platforms (update: resolved)

Mike Beasley Sep 4 2014 - 4:37 pm PT

9 Comments

Earlier this week, iOS users discovered that the App Store was experiencing some technical issues that caused every item for sale to become unavailable. Now, only two days later, the company’s status page indicates that the App Store on Mac and iOS, iBooks Store, and various iTunes services such as the music store and Radio, are all suffering from even more downtime.

According to the status page, the issues first cropped up around 4:30 PM and have persisted for about three hours so far. A notice on the page states that only “some users” are having difficulty accessing the store, but there’s no mention of exactly how many users could be impacted.

Rdio preps revamped music streaming app with a focus on free stations

Mike Beasley Sep 3 2014 - 10:16 pm PT

The Rdio music streaming service is preparing to release an updated version of its mobile app later today will place a new focus on its free “stations” feature as competitors like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple’s one-two punch of iTunes Radio and Beats Music crank up the pressure on the service.

Rdio claims its free music library is as much as fifteen times bigger than those of competing apps. Like other online radio services, the new Rdio will automatically create playlists and stations from that library based on a user’s music preferences. Curated stations from musicians and other celebrities will also be available, much like in iTunes Radio.

Plácido Domingo to close iTunes Festival on September 30, show kicking off today with deadmau5

Benjamin Mayo Sep 1 2014 - 9:53 am PT

Placido Domingo has been announced as the final closing act for Apple’s iTunes Festival London. Apple has also added a few more acts than what had been previously announced, to round out the lineup. This includes The Mirror Trap, Friend Within and the London Electronic Orchestra.

The month-long festival starts today at 9 PM UK time (1 PM PST), with ‘Deadmau5’ headlining Monday’s show. A full schedule can be found online at http://itunesfestival.com.

Apple Store promoting upcoming iTunes Festival w/ pins and wristbands, music-related events

Zac Hall Aug 29 2014 - 8:49 am PT

After bringing the iTunes Festival to the US earlier this year at Austin SXSW, Apple’s annual music event in London kicking off next week has been the focus of much of the company’s attention recently. Earlier this week, Apple’s newly acquired Beats Music began promoting the iTunes Festival with a contest within the app to attend the festival.

Apple will also use its retail stores to further promote the event with iTunes Festival Pins to be worn by retail employees to “spark conversation about the event,” according to an internal document obtained by 9to5Mac. Retail employees will also receive iTunes Festival wristbands and redemption codes for music. Select Apple Stores will also host “music-related events” with local artists, according to the document.
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Apple promoting iTunes Festival contest within Beats Music in push for new users

Zac Hall Aug 26 2014 - 10:21 am PT

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In addition to updating the iTunes Festival lineup with new acts including Ed Sheeran and deadmau5 and reviving the Apple TV channel for viewing the concert on-demand and live, Apple’s recently acquired Beats Music is now promoting the iTunes Festival with a contest to attend the music festival in London. While tickets to Apple’s annual music event are free for attendees (and very limited), the contest by Beats Music to attend the iTunes Festival covers airfare both to and from London.

The promotion of the iTunes Festival in London by Beats Music, which requires users to download and sign up for the Beats Music service, is the latest in series of moves by Apple to promote Beats since Beats Electronics and Beats Music officially joined Apple earlier this month.

Sony’s discounted ‘Album of the day’ app goes international, up to 70 percent off popular artists

Ben Lovejoy Aug 14 2014 - 3:50 am PT

Sony’s Album of the Day app for iPhone and iPod Touch, which provides a daily discount of up to 70 percent on albums by popular artists, has gone international. Originally launched in Germany in March, it is now available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Every 24 hours, Album of the Day offers you one album from the artists you know and love at a special limited time promotional price. All deals live on your iPhone and are purchased safely through iTunes and saved to your iTunes library.

If you allow push notifications, you’ll receive a notification of each day’s deal, which is available for just 24 hours. You can download the free app from iTunes.

(via TNW)

Spotify starts sending invites for users to try service in Canada

Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2014 - 11:34 am PT

4 Comments

After revealing plans to finally bring Spotify to Canada last month, users in the country have now started receiving invites to try the streaming music service. A reader sent in the image above and others have received their invite over the last 24 hours,.

Congratulations — you’re in!

You’ve been chosen to try Spotify in Canada before everyone else!

Millions of songs are now waiting for you. The artists you love, the latest hits and new discoveries— all for free on mobile, tablet and desktop. Happy listening!

The company initially announced last month that the service would launch in the coming months, but now seems to be launching a test of the service with select users that signed-up here. Spotify is currently available in a long list of countries around the world, but it doesn’t yet list Canada on its website.

The company appears to be offering the service in trial mode for free but doesn’t mention pricing for a premium service for Canadians. Users that receive a code can access the service here.

(Thanks Josh!)

Changing the lives of people with Alzheimer’s, one iPod and one playlist at a time

Ben Lovejoy Jul 22 2014 - 4:03 am PT

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVkrI1R0XjA]

Alive Inside, a documentary film being shown in selected theaters across the U.S., tells the story of a social worker using iPods and personalized playlists to bring new life to nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s.

Dan Cohen puts together playlists of music from when the patients were young, transfers them to an iPod and then plays them to patients who had been unresponsive to conversation, generating dramatic transformations, reports Re/code.

Audiences first encounter Henry hunched over in his wheelchair, head down, hands clasped firmly together, unresponsive to the world around him.

As soon as a pair of headphones are placed on his head, the 94-year-old dementia patient opens his eyes, sits up straight and begins swaying and humming along with the music. Henry speaks animatedly about his favorite band leader, Cab Calloway, and even begins to emulate the jazz artist’s style of scat singing — at one point launching into a rendition of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Cohen discovered that music tapped into parts of the brain that could not be reached in other ways, and could revitalize people even in late-stage dementia, “demonstrating music’s ability to combat memory loss and restore a deep sense of self to those suffering from it.”

Described as “a joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity,” Alive Inside won the Audience Award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Apple is reportedly helping to promote the film, and a list of theaters where the film can be seen is available here.

Many (most?) iTunes song previews have reverted back to 30 seconds – likely glitch

Ben Lovejoy Jul 11 2014 - 3:51 am PT

8 Comments

MacRumors notes that many iTunes song previews have reverted back to 30 seconds. Previews were increased to 90 seconds in the U.S. back in 2010 with the increased time rolled out internationally the following year.

It’s not immediately clear what is behind the change, nor what is determining which tracks are affected, but as we’re finding different people are seeing different length previews for the same tracks – even when both are in the same country – some kind of glitch may be the most likely explanation.

Apple apparently presented labels with a fait-accompli when it first extended previews to 90 seconds, writing to representatives to advise them of the change, rather than specifically seeking agreement.

Some labels objected to this, with extended previews delayed for some albums.

We’ve contacted Apple to ask for a statement, and will update if and when we get a response.

On the topic of iTunes, Germany is now seeing Rotten Tomatoes ratings with some movies, along with a new price button in the status window while previewing music or films.

Capo touch brings music learning to iOS, Mac version adds iCloud Sync and more

Zac Hall Jul 10 2014 - 7:00 am PT

Earlier this year we showed you Capo, the software that turns your iTunes library into songs you can learn to play on guitar, when version 3.0 of the music learning software for Mac was released. Today SuperMegaUltraGroovy is releasing the first mobile version of that powerful software for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and the developers are updating the Mac version with brand-new features as well.

Using Capo touch on iOS is as simple and easy as you would expect featuring super fast access to music stored locally on your device with cool features like the ability to speed up and slow down music as well as suppress the vocals of a song to focus on the music.
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Spotify for iPhone/iPad (finally) lets you search downloaded music while offline

Mark Gurman Jun 30 2014 - 10:48 am PT

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Spotify has updated its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch application with the ability to search for downloaded tracks while offline. It is shocking that it has taken several years for the service to gain such rudimentary functionality. The iPhone app gained a new design earlier this year.

Rap Genius now lets you annotate, copy, and paste lyrics and news from your iPhone

Zac Hall Jun 26 2014 - 9:34 am PT

The popular lyrics and annotation site Rap Genius launched its iPhone app earlier this year, and today it released a big update. The latest version of Genius by Rap Genius, version 1.5, now lets you create annotations to content directly from your phone. Previously you could only view annotations from the mobile app. The update also adds another desired feature: copy and paste support. Now you can finally highlight lyrics, copy them, and paste them somewhere else on your iPhone as you would expect.
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iTunes Radio streaming is now free on T-Mobile, other services also included

Mike Beasley Jun 18 2014 - 6:43 pm PT

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T-Mobile has just announced at its “Uncarrier 5.0” event (which apparently double as the Uncarrier 6.0 event) that all streaming music services will now be free to stream on T-Mobile, including iTunes Radio. This also applies to Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker Radio, and Spotify.

Any streaming you do will always be done over the company’s fastest available network, and won’t count towards your high-speed data limit.

Customers can visit T-Mobile’s website to request new services to be added to the “music freedom” selection. As streaming services gain votes, they will be added to the program.

How-to: Unofficial tool allows you to import iTunes and Rdio Playlists to Beats Music

Mark Gurman Jun 13 2014 - 12:00 pm PT

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While Beats Music will soon be owned by Apple, the music service does not easily integrate with iTunes. For instance, there is no official Beats tool to link your iTunes library for streaming from Beats Music. However, an unofficial tool called Beats Importer is a temporary solution that seems to work well for adding iTunes and Rdio Playlists to your Beats Music library. We’ve compiled a tutorial for importing your iTunes Playlists to Beats Music, below:

New app Audibly lets you share your music wirelessly to nearby iOS devices

Mike Beasley Jun 11 2014 - 8:05 pm PT

4 Comments

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rLITnBzvk]

A brand new app created by three 2013 WWDC student scholarship winners— Nick Frey, Chris Galzerano, and Veeral Patel—launched on the App Store earlier this month. The app is called Audibly, and it allows users to stream music from one device to any others nearby. The music plays in sync across all devices, allowing everyone to listen in on the same playlist.

The app is fairly straightfoward. You simply pick a playlist to share, pair with a few nearby iOS devices, and hit play. The connection is made over Wi-Fi when there’s a network available, or through a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection if the devices aren’t connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Head over to NPR for the full story.

iPads allow kids with challenges to play in high school’s band

Seth Weintraub Jun 11 2014 - 7:37 am PT

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The story at NPR reads like an Apple ad, but it’s completely genuine:

Just what is it about a tablet, or the iPad in particular, that works so well with some students with disabilities and children on the autism spectrum? Educators believe there’s something about the combination of the big, bright, clear visual cues of some of the music apps, and the touchscreen that’s easy to use without creating a sensory or visual overload. Beyond that, many teachers and parents aren’t really sure. It’s still a bit of a mystery. “We have some really, really low-functioning students who I could never really involve in the music activities,” Goldberg says. “But the iPad has pretty much taken care of that. I can’t say I have 100 percent involvement. But it’s pretty close.” And educators say there’s another way the tablets are proving to be game changers for special ed. They’ve begun to make obsolete those large and costly learning devices, allowing a student with disabilities to look like every other student. “It has changed the way people look at people with disabilities,” says Karen Gorman, the director of Assistive Technology for New York City’s Public schools. For years, she said, many kids with severe autism, cerebral palsy or other serious challenges needed these large, clunky and expensive assistive-speaking devices. Some looked like small accordions, worn around students’ necks. Gorman says they looked a little odd, and screamed “disabled kid.” Now the iPad and other tablets, she says, have helped level the playing field socially. “Parents thought for the first time my child with disabilities is using something that looks very cool, and modern and current. And other kids will come over to them now and interact with them.” Once, Gorman says, other students tended to see only the disability: “Kid in a wheelchair, kid in a wheelchair,” she explains. “Kid in a wheelchair with an iPad? How interesting.”

Rdio music streaming service adds push notifications to iOS app

Jordan Kahn May 29 2014 - 2:54 pm PT