streaming Stories August 8, 2016
Hulu will no longer offer free TV episodes, moves to subscription-only model
After over 9 years, Hulu is making a major change to its services by shutting down free TV episodes and moving to subscription services only (via Variety). Current subscribers won’t be affected and prices won’t be changing as the same $7.99 and $11.99 plans will be available, however all free content will be moving over to “Yahoo View”.
streaming Stories May 17, 2016
T-Mobile expands Binge On data-free video streaming to NBC, Google Play Music, Spotify, Tidal & more
T-Mobile today announced new services being added to its Binge On program, which allows its wireless subscribers to stream video content from certain apps without dipping into their mobile data caps.
streaming Stories May 12, 2016
While Apple has denied a report that it was planning to stop selling music downloads in either two years or 3-4 years, the denial to Re/code was somewhat vague.
Apple rep Tom Neumayr wouldn’t expand on [the ‘not true’] comment, except to make it clear that he was responding to both timelines proposed in today’s story from Digital Music News.
And really, nobody should be surprised if the broader report is true: that Apple has discussed how and when it might exit the music download business …
Taylor Swift is continuing her partnership with Apple Music, with yet another ad featuring the singer and the streaming service. The new minute-long commercial features Taylor Swift dancing around to ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness.
Swift demonstrates using the Apple Music discovery features (via the ‘Friday Night Rocks!’ playlist) to find the track. The ad ends with the slogan ‘Dance like no one’s watching’. Watch the ad after the jump …
streaming Stories April 25, 2016
Initially billed as an exclusive to Tidal, Beyonce’s new Lemonade album is now available to buy on iTunes. Jay-Z’s streaming music service had been touting itself as an exclusive location to listen to Beyonce’s latest album. While Tidal maintains exclusive streaming rights, the album is now being freely sold for download elsewhere.
Tidal has attempted similar stunts in the past, with Kanye West famously stating his album ‘The Life of Pablo’ would never be on Apple Music and would be exclusive to Tidal. However, a track from the album soon showed up on Apple’s services a few weeks later. There is currently a class action lawsuit forming around the false claims of exclusivity.
streaming Stories April 22, 2016
I love the concept of streaming music around the home. There are a lot of great wireless Bluetooth speakers for wireless music on the move, but it’s still unclear what to choose for a static home environment. Apple’s answer is AirPlay, but it has flaws: no multi-room support from iOS devices, limited adoption by speaker manufacturers, and spotty reliability at best.
I’ve been trying an AirPlay alternative, called Play-Fi, which is a competing industry technology for home Wi-Fi music streaming from DTS. Specifically, I tested the Definitive W7 wireless speaker which integrates Play-Fi. Read on for my review ….
