Apple may not have answer for Google’s music service at WWDC
Reports indicate Apple is still working out the licensing details with music publishers for its “iRadio” service. Read more »
A potential clue about Apple’s streaming music service surfaces
9to5Mac say they found unused “buy” icons in the iPad’s Music app that appear to be linked to streaming radio, a service Apple has been said to be working on. Read more »
Why Apple would want to move into music streaming
With the popularity of Spotify, Pandora and others, Apple probably wants to find a way to keep its customers from wandering outside its ecosystem just because it has no cloud-based music streaming service. Attitudes are changing about owning media, which Apple must recognize. Read more »
Spotify plays its most requested tune: an iPad app
While Spotify has been churning out news, one question kept popping up: when are we going to get an iPad app? Well, Spotify is finally obliging, giving premium users a polished iPad version that it hopes can rule the living room. Read more »
Spotify partners with Coke to expand international reach
Spotify is partnering with Coca Cola in a deal that it says will expand its international reach, giving it a boost similar to the way Facebook integration has supercharged usage. Coke will use Spotify to power its music outreach and will help promote the service internationally. Read more »
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Monetizing music in the post-scarcity age
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 »
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10 ways big data changes everything
The emergence of the big data phenomenon is fundamentally changing everything from the way companies operate to the way people interact to how the world deals with outbreaks of infectious diseases. Here we highlight 10 case studies illustrating how big data is changing the world. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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Forecast: the future of the digital music industry
New entrants are pushing alternative business models in the music industry. Though this evolution will take time, the overall industry should return to growth within the five-year forecast horizon, as digital music spending, driven by subscriptions, will average double-digit yearly growth to total $4.1 billion in 2015. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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Amazon’s DynamoDB: rattling the cloud market
DynamoDB, AWS’ latest effort to rock the technology establishment, has many implications for other players in the big data and cloud computing markets. A new GigaOM Pro research note examines just who is affected, and how. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
The fourth quarter may have lacked a dominating big-event product announcement like Q3’s Facebook platform extension or Q2’s unveiling of Google+, but the NewNet world continued to buzz along. In the battle for mind share, everyone wanted to be a platform. Meanwhile, consumer and social technologies continued to gain momentum, and new vehicles for content and service discovery presented both challenges and opportunities for NewNet companies. And it is hard to ignore the overcrowded but growing world of daily deals. This quarterly report analyzes these trends and others, and it also provides a near-term outlook of trends, technologies and companies to watch in 2012. Companies mentioned in the report include Amazon, Facebook and Socialcast. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Spotify turns up the volume with new app platform
Spotify is opening up its service to developers to create free applications inside its desktop app. The company is now enabling much more robust integration of apps inside its desktop client, allowing developers to tap into Spotify’s 15 million songs and fast growing user base. Read more »
Indie labels stage another Spotify walkout
A consortium of more than 200 small electronic music labels have become the latest to quit Spotify — and other streaming services — in a protest at the amount of money they earn. But can compensation ever match consumption? Read more »
TuneIn Radio rises to the top among streaming music apps
Pandora went public,bit.ly/vI6vQC and Spotify successfully launched in the U.S. So which streaming music service tops them on smartphones? Try TuneIn Radio. Onavo, a mobile data management and compression service, has done some work to figure which are the most popular mobile music apps. Read more »
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Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook teams up with Spotify, Turntable.fm to let users share music
Facebook has partnered with Spotify and more than a dozen other music startups to bring music sharing to its site. Facebook users can now share which songs they’re playing and offer their contacts a chance to join in on the fun in real time. Read more »
Turntable.fm for iPhone review: Lots of potential, lots of bugs
For fans of streamed music, another choice has arrived on the iPhone. Turntable.fm’s official, free iPhone app hit the App Store today. It requires nothing more than your Facebook credentials to get started, and looks to bring the success of the desktop version to Apple devices. Read more »
Pound for pound, Pandora ads now worth more than radio
Internet radio company Pandora reported the financial results of its first three months as a public company Thursday. The company confirmed that while it still has a long way to go before it reaches the listener levels of traditional radio, its ads are now just as valuable. Read more »
How to stream Spotify to Apple TV and iOS devices
One thing that iTunes has over Spotify’s online music service is its wireless connectivity to the Apple TV. But it is actually possible to get the same kind of connectivity with Spotify, and use it from any room in your house. Here’s how. Read more »
Made in America: The state of U.S.-based music services
Spotify’s journey to the US has been highly anticipated almost since the on-demand music streaming service first launched in its native Europe in October 2008. But with all the Spotify buzz, let’s not forget about the great music services that were born here in the US. Read more »
Hands on with Spotify for mobile devices
Spotify, one of the most popular music streaming services in Europe and other regions, today launched in the U.S., as expected. But mobile users will have to pay for the Premium plan, a $9.99 monthly subscription. What features do you get and is it worth it? Read more »
Confirmed: Spotify US will launch Thursday
UPDATED. Spotify U.S. is now in T-minus territory. A spokesperson for Spotify has confirmed that the popular European on-demand music streaming service will be available stateside on Thursday morning. GigaOM reported last month that Spotify’s U.S. launch would occur in mid-July. Read more »
Revealed: Spotify’s US launch dates, price plans
UPDATED: The buzz around European music streaming service Spotify’s United States launch just keeps getting louder. Our sources reveal that Spotify’s US launch will happen in mid-July and feature a tiered pricing plan. Spotify US may initially be invite-only, an anonymous report said. Read more »
Say hello to the alive web!
We now have seamless connectivity via mobile devices; people can always be connected. This connectivity offers an opportunity to create a different kind of Internet experience that’s more immersive and interactive. That persistent connection is what allows us to create and experience the Alive Web. Read more »
Report: Apple’s Cloud Music Service Will Mirror and Augment Your Library
Apple’s hard work winning over record labels may well be rewarded. A new report says that Apple’s upcoming cloud music service will offer the ability to scan your hard drive, and then mirror your music collection on its own servers with better versions of some tracks. Read more »
Apple Reportedly Closer to Cloud Music Label Partnerships
Apple users eager to see what the company has in store for cloud music may not have to wait long to find out, as Cupertino is said to have closed a cloud music licensing deal with EMI, according to Cnet, with other labels nearly on board. Read more »
Apple Could Win the Cloud Music Game Thanks to Google and Amazon
Google announced its new cloud music service Wednesday, and Amazon revealed its own Cloud Player in late March. At this point, Apple is really the last major player to make its move. But judging by the offerings so far, that might work to Apple’s advantage. Read more »
Does Apple Even Have a Cloud Strategy?
Despite building a massive data center and the expected launch of cloud-based music storage, the troubled history of Apple’s online services suggests the company has yet to come up with a plan for the cloud. How can Apple provide the kind of experience its customers expect? Read more »
Would You Pay for Apple’s Cloud Music Service?
Apple might charge for its rumored cloud-music storage service, according to a new report from CNET. The tech site says that “music industry insiders” are saying cloud-storage for iTunes libraries won’t be free, at least not after an initial trial period. But would you pay? Read more »
Spotify Runs Up Against Apple in U.S. Expansion Attempts
Setting up a streaming music service in the U.S. isn’t easy, thanks to the company holding the music industry’s purse strings. That company is Apple, and according to Spotify’s head of business development Faisal Galaria, it’s a force that may be impossible to reckon with. Read more »
Will Streaming Content Drive Scale-out Storage?
Gluster today announced streaming music pioneer Pandora as a customer, which is telling in a couple ways. It helps validate the billions that large vendors and investors have poured into scale-out storage providers, and it suggests a possible target market for these providers going forward. Read more »
Orb’s Streaming Music Puck Shoots, But Will it Score?
Orb’s Music Puck, a $69 device that streams digital over a home network is launching just two months before Apple’s similar AirPlay functionality arrives in iOS devices. Music on Orb is controlled with a free smartphone app. Can Orb’s new hardware compete against Apple’s music juggernaut? Read more »
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Will Apple’s Spectrum Bet Pay Off?
Apple has gone all-in for streaming as the primary means of getting content onto its devices. That has distinct strategic advantages for Apple, but it’s not without risks, especially for ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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Cloud in the Forecast For Apple
Why shut down Lala if there’s no chance of launching an iTunes.com? Because cloud-based media storage and retrieval is central to Apple’s long-term strategy, and Lala is central to implementing that ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
5 Reasons I’m Still Not Paying for a Music Subscription Service
Music is moving into the cloud. Access is replacing ownership of albums and song files, online streams are replacing desktop playback and mobile access is renewing interest in on-demand music subscriptions. So how come I’m still not ready to pay for any of it? Read more »
Confidence in Free Streaming Models Is Fading — Fast
Warner Music Group president Edgar Bronfman articulated yesterday what we’ve known for awhile: Major record labels have lost confidence in the free streaming model for music consumption. But while WMG may not be ready to pull content from Spotify, it can stall its stateside growth. Read more »
Spotify CEO Outlines His Grand Ambitions
In music industry parlance, a “360 deal” is a record contract in which a label takes a cut of ticket and merchandise sales as well as recorded music revenues. Streaming music provider Spotify wants to become a 360-degree channel for downloads, ticketing, merchandise and direct-to-fan marketing. Read more »
How MOG Eventually Found Its Mojo
A year or two ago, MOG didn’t seem like a potentially disruptive force in the music subscription arena. But what started as a music-blogging network has become a full-fledged on-demand streaming service whose transformation came about when a major-label project failed to get off the ground. Read more »
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Facebook, Apple Building New Data Centers, But Why?
Talk of data centers can be equal parts fascinating and mind-numbing; speculating about what new data centers signify, however, is nothing short of riotous. And, this week, Apple and Facebook gave us plenty to talk about. Facebook emerged as the mystery Company X building a large ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Play.me Jumps on the Freemium Bandwagon, But Will the Model Stick?
Play.me, a new music service launched by Dada Entertainment, launched this week, offering both free and paid plans to consumers. But as labels’ enthusiasm for free streaming services appears to be on the wane, can Play.me convince users to pay for a premium version? Read more »
How Apple's New Music Strategy Reflects a Paradigm Shift
Apple’s updated digital music strategy will reverse commitments to desktop software and ownership of music files. Here are five ways its acquisition and integration of Lala reflect a paradigm shift in the way mainstream consumers will listen to music in the coming decade. Read more »
