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Spotify

607 'Spotify' stories December 2010 - March 2012
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Spotify Podcasts on iPad

Spotify is a music streaming service that debuted in late 2008. It’s the most popular music streaming service in the world with over 200 million users (as of January 2019).

The free version allows users to stream songs for free with ads (mobile version only allows for shuffling). Paid users can have full access to the entire library for listening. Pricing is $9.99 per month for individual users and $14.99 per month for families (up to six people). There are additional plans for students that include bundled with Hulu. Apps are available for iPhone, iPad, macOS, and the web.

In early 2019, it purchased Gimlet Media and Anchor as a transition to becoming an “audio company” vs a music-only company.

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Flutter: Control your Mac with gestures and iSight

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Mar 12 2012 - 8:08 am PT
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=098wGRRCnOU]

Love this idea for controlling your Mac – especially for applications which don’t require you to be near your computer.  Apple has lots of patents on 3D gestures so it wouldn’t be absurd to see some of this at the OS level in the not-so-distant future.

Download here
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AT&T to implement data throttling in early October, just in time for iPhone 5

Avatar for Cleve Nettles Jul 28 2011 - 10:08 am PT
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Update: AT&T has officially verified this information.

A new change for AT&T Wireless’ Unlimited Data subscribers will soon be taking place. Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we’ve heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network’s top data hogs.  As Verizon (PDF) and Virgin have recently done, AT&T will be adopting a similar plan to try to curb the problem of data congestion and overall network issues that have hurt its 3G network’s performance since the onset of the iPhone.

AT&T will also be releasing its first LTE devices later this year.

We’ve heard that AT&T will rejigger its insurance structure that week as well, which makes us think a certain high profile device may be launching on or around that time.

The throttling plan will work like the others’. The heaviest users will see significant speed decreases for one billing cycle once they go over a threshold of data (we’re guessing 2-4GB?).  These heavy users will still be able to access the network, but at a much slower speed.  At the start of the next billing cycle, their speeds will return to normal.  We don’t have numbers for AT&T’s throttle speeds but Virgin takes you down to 256Kb/s once you’ve reached their 2.5GB limit (not too bad actually – sometimes we’re happy to get 256kbs).  Interestingly, Virgin’s throttle also will also be implemented in the first week of October which may indicate that they’ll be carrying a certain high profile mobile device as well.

Frankly, throttling isn’t so bad if done fairly.  It is a good way to penalize heavy users but without them having to worry about overage charges.  For high end users, however, it wold make sense for AT&T to add the ability to buy more regular speed data like they do now…
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Spotify to launch tomorrow in US

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jul 13 2011 - 3:48 pm PT
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We just got word that Spotify will launch tomorrow in the US (as reported last week).  Perhaps something nice to put on your new Mac?

New York, July 13, 2011 – Spotfy, the award-winning digital music service loved by millions of Europeans, will become available tomorrow morning in the United States by invitation and subscription. Spotify is a new way to listen to and manage your music, discover new tracks and share songs and playlists with friends – music whenever you want it, wherever you are.

Be one of the first people in the U.S. to experience Spotify by signing up at www.spotify.com.

Spotify will announce more details at 8:00 AM EST.

You’ll want to hit this link at some point in the morning.
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iTunes dominates US music retail, Amazon fails to dent share

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 17 2010 - 3:35 am PT
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The figures are in and they confirm that iTunes remains the biggest US digital music retailer, with Amazon failing to grab too much of Apple’s digital music heartland.

NPD tells us AAPL’s iTunes took 66.2% of the digital music market in the third quarter of this year – that’s up from 63.2% in Q3 2009.  Easy still beats free.
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Spotify upgrade, faster, auto-play, retina display, more

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 16 2010 - 3:51 am PT
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Good morning, while I apologize to our US readers as Spotify isn’t available in your area yet, for European 9to5Mac visitors news that Spotify has updated its applications for OS X, iPhone (and Windows) could be interesting.

The new version introduces the customary bug fixes, but also adds support for Mac media keys without interfering with iTunes. The new version also supports auto-play for all track links when clicked on from Twitter, Facebook, feed, etc. Existing users will see their install automatically updated in the coming days.

The big news is for iPhone users,
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Google's internal politics complicate its music plans

Avatar for 9to5 Staff Dec 15 2010 - 9:10 am PT
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Google is about to change the music economy, preparing to hand over huge amounts of cash to win rights to offer the music locker service it has been trying to build for Google Music.  However, confused internal politics and music licensing complexity mean Google, just like Spotify and Apple, isn’t set to launch its service before the end of the year.
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