Sylvain Grande, who led the development teams behind the Here mapping and location-based services platform, will start in a new role at SoundCloud next week. He won’t have a direct replacement. Read more »
Content creators no longer need to brandish a Flattr button in order to receive micropayments through the service. All that’s needed is for a Flattr user to ‘like’ their video, tune or tweet. Read more »
It can’t be cheap running the web’s de facto user-generated audio platform, so it’s promising to see SoundCloud simplify its paid-for tier structure and introduce new possibilities for deep-pocketed content partners. Read more »
Five finalists have been chosen in 20 different categories for the 2012 Crunchies awards, and we’re proud to release the worthy nominees today. Voting for the winners starts today, and the winners will be announced January 31st. Read more »
The ‘YouTube of audio’ now reaches 180 million people, but it remains unclear how the service’s stellar growth is translating into premium subscription uptake. Read more »
Sound is one of the main ways we interact with our surroundings and so SoundCloud wants to find as many different ways as possible to incorporate it into how we interact with the internet too, co-founder Alex Ljung told attendees at RoadMap on Monday. Read more »
The YouTube of sound is a clear success, but its big monetization play – beyond pro-account subscriptions – still remains a mystery. Read more »
Announcing our initial speaker lineup for our 2nd RoadMap conference! Our focus this year: design in the age of connectedness. It is scheduled for Nov. 5th in SF. Some of our speakers include Kevin Systrom, Evan Williams, David Karp, Tony Fadell, Yves Behar and more. Read more »
It’s easy to embed a wide variety of music players on your website, but hard to get them singing from the same hymnsheet. Musicplayr’s trying to fix that with a newly-revamped player it calls ‘eye-candy for the ears’ Read more »
Image-sharing site Pinterest will now automatically attribute content pinned from 500px, Kickstarter, SlideShare and SoundCloud. Read more »
Gidsy CEO Edial Dekker says the experience marketplace is working on a relaunch that will make the service more social and take it to new places — but he warns that whatever happens, he doesn’t want to suffer from Europe’s ‘ego problem.’ Read more »
Twitter’s deal with SoundCloud to embed audio in tweets isn’t just a deal that gives the Berlin music startup a ton of exposure: it’s a signal that while Twitter may carry a threat for media companies, it could be a serious alternative to Facebook. Read more »
Eric Wahlforss, the co-founder of sound-sharing platform SoundCloud tells GigaOM where the company is going — including a new mobile-friendly version and the potential for TV integration — and explains what it’s like being an impromptu ambassador for the Berlin startup scene. Read more »
SoundCloud used a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday to launch the next version of its web app in private beta. The relaunch is based on a complete rewrite of the web app’s code base, and puts a bigger emphasis on sharing and discovery. Read more »
Has Pinterest created an entirely new way for users to share content? A survey conducted on GigaOM asked just that question, and a new GIgaOM Pro report delves into the various implications for the social network. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The audio file is no longer the product when it comes to digital music. Instead, the experiences built around it are, and services like Spotify, Facebook, Topspin and others are leading the way into this new era of dynamic, interactive and social music. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Marc Maron’s popular WTF podcast is more than an entertaining listen; it shows how the artist-entrepreneur can harness the power of Internet distribution and community. In this audio interview, Maron talks about the lessons he has learned and where he fits into the media landscape. Read more »
SoundCloud, a web audio startup, has raised $50 million in new funding from investors led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. GGV Capital also participated. Previous investors in the company include Union Square Ventures, Index Ventures and Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. Read more »
I visited Berlin in December 2011 to better understand the German capital’s blossoming startup scene. In these two videos SoundCloud co-founder and CEO Alex Ljung shared his impressions of Berlin and its sudden rise as a startup hub, along with his company’s plans. Read more »
Brightcove VP Rags Gupta explains why music start-ups should test the waters across the pond before coming to the U.S.: “According to conventional wisdom, consumer start-ups should move to San Francisco for access to capital, talent, and ideas. But if you’re launching an online music company, consider London or Berlin.” Read more »
Soundcloud’s decision to make soundwaves central to its offering seemed like it a gamble — but it’s paid off. So is the company now leading a movement of web services who choose to wear their data on the outside? Read more »
Berlin is fast becoming the destination of choice for entrepreneurs, thanks to the emergence of hot startups such as SoundCloud, Amen, EyeEm, Phonedeck, Txtr and Wunderlist. And thanks to this burgeoning startup scene, Amazon Web Services is looking to establish its operations in Berlin. Read more »
We’re big believers in a connected world enabled by ubiquitous broadband here at GigaOM, which is why when Ericsson asked if we wanted to see a new video about the future of a connected society, we said yes. We figured you guys would enjoy it too. Read more »
SoundCloud has launched a brand new iPad app, and it looks spectacular. The Berlin-based company started by Swedish entrepreneur Alexander Ljung now has 8 million creators. That is some rapid growth for the service, which had about a million users last year. Read more »
Europe’s web scene is now thriving, and we’ve compiled a list featuring some of the best and brightest European web startups — what we’re dubbing the GigaOM Euro 20. Depending on how closely you watch Europe’s online scene, some of these companies may be familiar to you. Others you may not have heard of. But all of them are worth watching closely. In this report, we profile the 20 startups that we feel best represent Europe’s current tech scene. We have organized our list around perception, and as lists go, it is intended to be a guideline rather than a rule book. It’s not exhaustive, and clearly, with such a diverse and vibrant continent as our playing field, it never could be. Companies mentioned in this report include GetJar, Huddle, Made.com and Songkick. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
There are hundreds of promising European startups that lie just below the surface of success waiting to break out. For our second installment of GigaOM’s Euro 20, we chose five of these. Here are the ones to watch. Read more »
For years, Europe’s startup community has been painted as the undernourished younger cousin of Silicon Valley. In reality, Europe’s web scene is now thriving. and we’ve compiled a list featuring some of the best and brightest European web startups — what we’re dubbing the GigaOM Euro 20. Read more »
The second quarter of 2011 was a fast-paced one for the connected consumer segment, with every sector of the digital media landscape — music, e-books, online video and gaming — experiencing significant events and changes. Media consumption, purchase and management continued its shift towards the cloud, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
For once, the biggest news in social media and real-time technologies didn’t come from Facebook. Rather, it was Google that, at the end of the second quarter, introduced an innovative collection of technologies, under the Google+ label. Another big headline was the return of digital music: Pandora filed a successful IPO, and Google and Apple unrolled cloud-based music offerings. Meanwhile, other social networks generated valuable lessons about technology and business strategies. LinkedIn went public, while Myspace was sold. And Apple essentially appointed Twitter its mobile social network infrastructure supplier. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Skype, Groupon, Turntable.fm and Amazon. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As Turntable.fm has shown, a new era of social music may be upon us, one that is less about scaling wide, but more about going deep. The third era of social music is about immersion as sites add more immediacy and intimacy to the experience. Read more »
The success of Pandora’s public offering underscores the popularity of online music, and the thousands of ways you can listen to tracks online. But how many can claim to be as fun as new virtual turntable setup Wheels of Steel? Read more »
The web may have revolutionized video and audio, but the humble still image hasn’t altered much over the years. That could change thanks to Finland’s Thinglink, which has unveiled the latest part of its plan to turn photographs into a true multimedia platform. Read more »
More exciting than examining the previous quarter is looking forward into the next 12 months and using the trends of 2010 to predict the realities that will surface in 2011. Throughout this past December, GigaOM Pro’s curators did just that, making trend predictions, pointing out companies to watch and even telling us what not to expect. Connected Consumer curator Michael Wolf’s thoughts, analyses and predictions are compiled here in a single report. Companies mentioned in this report include Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Apple and Boxee. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Some of the biggest technology tail winds driving the consumer space in 2011 will include connected entertainment devices, over-the-top video, real-time communication and continued integration of social software into entertainment platforms. Combine all this with rising consumer confidence, and we can expect an action-packed year. Read more »
Looking for some sound effects to use in a presentation or project? Check out the Freesound Project, a large collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings and bleeps. You can search for sounds by tag, description, username or filename. Read more »
