Mark Cuban music fest designed for schmoozing while grooving

The serial entrepreneur is promoting Recess, a music festival, pitch competition, and student job fair rolled into one. The "Shark Tank" star tells CNET why he's backing it.

View the Original article

Spotify now offers US college students half-price music streaming (updated)

Don't think you can afford a paid streaming music service as a cost-sensitive student? Think again -- the price may finally be within your reach. Spotify has launched a US student program that lets you pay just $5 per month for Premium access (half of the usual price) as long as you're attending a post-secondary school that qualifies for federal aid, whether it's a college or a vocational outlet. Be sure to time your registration well, though. Much like an equivalent offer in the UK, you'll only get the discount for a year. Still, the $60 you spend may be worthwhile if it gives you enough studying music to get through a couple of tough semesters.

Update: Helpful reader will noticed that the discount merely lasts for a year at a time -- you can renew it three more times before you're paying full price. In other words, it should cover your entire degree.

0 Comments Share

Via: San Francisco Chronicle, Rich DeMuro (Twitter)

Source: Spotify

Tags: discount, education, internet, music, spotify, streaming, student, students Next: Augmented reality concept uses Google Glass to make reading the newspaper more like... reading a website .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article

Five music apps off the beaten path for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, plus apps to discover more music

"http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/article/53924-image/Five-music-apps-off-the-beaten-path-for-iOS-Android-and-Windows-Phone-plus-apps-to-discover-more-music.jpg" alt

View the Original article

HTC suggests that its All New One has a place in the history of mobile music

HTC today tweeted the image embedded above. As you can see, this presents "A History of Mobile Music" in HTC’s vision: from the Transistor Radio of 1954 to Personal Compact Disc Players (1984), generic smartphones (2007), and, finally, to the 2014 HTC One.

What should make the All New One a great mobile music player is the BoomSound technology used for its speakers. As you may have heard, HTC already confirmed that the upcoming smartphone would have BoomSound speakers. These will be similar to those found inside the 2013 One, but improved at the same time. 

The All New HTC One (known as the HTC M8 since last year) will be officially announced on March 25. It will probably be released shortly after that, and we’re hearing that it may reach 110 countries. In the US, all major carriers are expected to launch the handset.

Meanwhile you could let us know what you think: is BoomSound enough to make history when it comes to mobile music?

source: HTC (Twitter) Share: Discuss29 Tweet

View the Original article

DreamPad pillow plays music only you can hear

The DreamPad wants to be your new bedtime buddy.

(Credit:Integrated Listening)

Falling asleep to the sound of music or podcasts can be such an individual thing. Your partner might not want to listen to Yanni or Dan Patrick. Wearing earphones while you sleep can be very uncomfortable, or require you to try to sleep on your back, whether you want to or not. There is a new way to get your music and your zzzs without bugging anyone else. It's the DreamPad, a pillow that whispers sweet music for your ears only.

The DreamPad hooks up to your smartphone or MP3 player via a cable. It uses conductive technology to pass the sound into your head. It's a similar approach to headphones that use bone conduction.

The DreamPad is said to work no matter what position you sleep in, or even if you tuck your hand under your face while you're snoozing. The whole idea is to transfer the sound via vibrations, which lets you cut the headphone cord.

Related storiesSnore-activated pillow gives loud snoozers a nudgeOstrich Pillow Light only slightly less weird than originalSquishy Forts: Magnetic pillow forts for adultsRest your weary head in a Mega Man helmet and pillow

Five soothing music programs come with your $179 pillow purchase. An example called "Tranquil Landscapes" features synths and tinkling bells. "Seaside Strings" has synths and the sound of waves. "Moonrise" has synths and an acoustic guitar. You get the picture.

If for some reason you don't have a music-playing device already, you can also add on a Sony Walkman MP3 player pre-loaded with the chill-out tracks for $70.

The pillow is purposefully thin, so you can lay it on top of your existing pillow or slide it into your pillowcase. Sleep problems are a plague, and anything that works to get you into a solid slumber is bound to find its market niche. The DreamPad isn't cheap as far as pillows go, but it represents a creative solution to a problem a lot of people have.

Topics: Home, Lifestyle, Geek culture Tags: pillow

View the Original article

New ad-free streaming music app launched by Samsung for specific Galaxy models

Samsung has introduced a new ad-free streaming music app for its high-end Galaxy models. Called Milk Music, the app can be found in the Google Play Store, but is exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S5 (starting in April, of course), Samsung GALAXY Note II, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung Galaxy Mega and the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini.

Milk Music, which is powered by Slacker, offers 200 customizable channels. Exclusive tunes from new and emerging artists will soon be heard from the app. And Samsung made this extremely easy to use with no registration or set-up required. You can even make one station that is comprised of all of the stations that you like to listen to.

"Milk introduces a fresh approach to music that reflects our innovation leadership and our focus on creating best-in-class consumer experiencess. We’re offering consumers amazing, rich music experiences built around what matters most to them and their lifestyle."-Gregory Lee, president and CEO, Samsung Telecommunications America and Samsung Electronics North America Headquarters
It seems that a little birdie (it was actually an asterisk) told us that if you use the service, you better enjoy the no-ads feature for now, because the lack of advertising is for a limited time only. Still, Samsung has produced a hassle-free streaming music app for many of its customers to enjoy, and it can be downloaded and installed now.



View the Original article

Samsung's Milk Music internet radio service is only for Galaxy devices (video)

Do we need yet another online music service? Samsung certainly thinks so, as it's just introduced its very own internet radio service called, weirdly enough, Milk Music. So named for its supposed "fresh" take on music (Get it? Because milk is fresh? Yeah, we're not sure about that either), it's free to download from Google Play starting today. In fact, you can start streaming tunes immediately as soon as you launch it, no sign-up required. Best of all, the service is completely ad-free (for now at least -- we'll explain more about this later). The caveat, of course, is that it's exclusive to Samsung phones. Milk Music is a completely separate entity from Samsung's existing Music Hub subscription service, as the former is focused more as a free radio service that you can use without having to set up an account.

At launch, Milk Music will only work on the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy S4, the Note 2, the Note 3 and GS4 variants like the Active and the Mini. It'll also be compatible with the upcoming Galaxy S5. Here's another interesting tidbit: all of Milk Music's 200 genre stations and catalog of nearly 13 million songs is powered by Slacker. Yep, that Slacker. That's why Samsung didn't have to do any licensing deals with content partners to release Milk Music -- all of that was left up to Slacker to handle.

However, everything else about Milk Music -- the logo, the interface, the menus -- is all Samsung. And it's the design of Milk that really makes it stand out from other internet radio apps we've seen. The first distinct difference is apparent the second you launch the app -- you'll be presented with a large round dial populated with nine different genre stations along with Spotlight and My Stations. Spotlight is a set of "what's trending" stations curated by Samsung and Slacker that changes on a weekly basis. According to Samsung, Spotlight is also an opportunity to deliver Milk Music exclusives and "first-listens" from collaborators like Jay-Z. My Stations, as the name suggests, are stations you create yourself based on a particular artist or song. So for example, you can set up a Lorde station that'll play songs from her as well as related artists. You can also create a station based on all the songs that you've marked as favorites. Milk Music screenshots

View the Original article

This music service wants to be the first on Samsung's smartwatches

7digital really wants to put its music store on Samsung's new Gear smartwatches. Really badly. Need proof? The company has announced plans to release a hybrid shopping and streaming app for Tizen devices in the second quarter of the year, and it's eagerly highlighting the app's support for wearables -- at last check, Samsung is the only major firm producing wearable Tizen gadgets. The music provider isn't being subtle about its intentions, then, even though it's not making any official connection between its software and the Gear line. If nothing else, 7digital would be a logical fit for the hardware. The company has a history of being the first to offer music services on young platforms, and it was the backbone for Samsung's Music Hub. Don't be surprised if you can buy a hot new song from the Gear 2 on your wrist this spring.

0 Comments Share

Via: The Next Web

Source: 7digital

Tags: 7digital, music, samsung, smartphone, smartwatch, tizen, wearable Next: Dell's Precision M2800 workstation is for prosumers who need performance on the cheap
View the Original article

Chevrolet adds Beats Music streaming to its in-car system as Beats opens its API to developers

Beats Music is already integrated with Apple's CarPlay system, which means you'll be able to stream music from Beats' catalog in any vehicle that happens to have Apple's setup installed. Now, new API support could mean we'll be able to pump out the jams from even more cars. The streaming music service made its API public today, a move that gives third-party developers access to its vast music collection. In particular, developers get access to the company's library of tunes, album art and track metadata (Beats previously shared its API privately with a few big names like Sonos and Bop.fm). So far, Chevrolet has announced it's adding Beats to its AppShop system -- and we're sure it won't be the last company to do so.

0 Comments Share

Via: CNET

Source: Beats Music

Tags: Beats, Beats Music, mobilepostcross, music, streaming music, streaming music service Next: Greetings, from Joystiq .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article

Daily Roundup: Samsung's Milk Music, a stun gun-equipped drone and more!

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

View the Original article

Modders Get Samsung’s Exclusive Music Service Running On Non-Samsung Devices Within Hours Of Launch

Got a tip? Let us know.MenuSearchNewsChannelsStartupsMobileGadgetsEnterpriseSocialEuropeAsiaCrunchGovCrunchUTrendingYahooAppleFacebookTwitterGoogleMicrosoftNSATCTVShowsTCTV NewsAsk A VCCrunchWeekFly Or DieFoundationFounder StoriesTechCrunch GadgetsGillmor GangKeen OnTC CribsTechCrunch MakersAll ShowsAll VideosEventsTechCrunch EventsDisruptCrunchiesMeetupsInternational City EventsHackathonHardware BattlefieldNews AboutSXSWCESE3All EventsSearch TechCrunchSearch TechCrunchSearchCrunchBaseFollow UsFacebookTwitterGoogle

View the Original article

Janus Friis’ Next Act Is A Hardware Startup Called Aether, And A “Thinking” Music Player Called Cone

Janus Friis made his name founding a series of disruptive software startups such as Skype, Rdio, Joost and (much earlier) KaZaA — some more successful than others.
Now the Swedish entrepreneur is moving into new territory: a hardware startup called Aether (formerly known by its in-stealth working title, The Morse Project) which today is debuting its first product, a 6.3-inch high, megaphone-esque music player called Cone.

Cone draws on music from streaming music platforms, along with Internet radio stations and potentially other sources, and the aim is to be as inclusive as possible. For this launch, Friis’ previous venture Rdio will be among the early integrations, “but we are in talks with several others,” Aether co-founder and chief product officer Duncan Lamb (who worked with Friis at Skype and also spent years at Nokia) tells me.

For an entrepreneur who has had many hits in the world of software, why the shift to hardware — a notoriously difficult and capital-intensive space? And why music, where we have plenty of huge consumer electronics companies and smaller upstarts like Sonos already playing? Lamb says the move was borne out of frustration with what is on the market today:

“We looked at all the innovations in AI, with things like IBM’s Watson playing Jeapordy, but at the same time when it comes to consumers, we still have to tell our computers what we want them to do. And a lot of the “smart” electronics out there today still require a lot of effort to get them to work,” he said. “It’s a digital orphanage. We could clearly see the direction that things should go. So we basically set out to solve these kinds of problems by founding a company to make thinking things.”

The idea here is to present “physical objects which live in our everyday lives around but have the ability to think and process the data that is freely available and make decisions and to make this choice and selection in a human way.”

The team of designers and hardware specialists working at Aether — who come from Apple, SGI, Google, NASA, Twitter, Nokia, Motorola, Ideo, Skype, Logitech, Intel, Motorola, Frog and more are starting with a music player, but the intention is to take this to other areas, too, Lamb says.

View the Original article

Beats Music Acquires Music Marketing And Monetization Company Topspin Media

Beats Music, the streaming music service recently launched by the similarly-named headphone company, just announced that it has acquired Topspin Media.

The companies were already connected — as Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers notes in a blog post, he was CEO of Topspin before leaving to run Beats Music last year.

They also announced a partnership in February, where Topspin’s ArtistLink platform allows musicians to sell merchandise and tickets to Beats Music subscribers.

“The acquisition brings a team of talented people who have spent years working on building and fine-tuning the artist-to-fan connection into the Beats Music experience,” Rogers writes. “Topspin

View the Original article

SoundHound's music search app turns its focus to the Grammys with real-time updates and more

Awards nights tend to give rise to slews of app tie-ins, and for this year's Grammys, SoundHound's tossing its hat in the ring. In addition to being able to recognize songs by "listening" to them, the refreshed app comes with a dedicated page for the event that currently lists performers and nominees. Anyone who clicks SoundHound's orange button during the live broadcast on Sunday night, though, will see real-time info, the list of winners and relevant Twitter posts instead. Chances are, music lovers don't exactly need SoundHound to identify "Just Give Me A Reason" and other nominated songs. Those who find these special features useful, however, can download the app from the source links below.

0 Comments Share

Source: Google Play, iTunes, BlackBerry World, Windows Phone Marketplace

Tags: android, app, BlackBerry, grammys, hdpostcross, IOS, mobilepostcross, music, soundhound, WindowsPhone Next: Easter egg-filled panorama of Seattle is Microsoft's latest Photosynth art project
View the Original article

Google is mapping the history of modern music

It's no surprise that Google has been tracking music uploads, but what's unexpected is exactly what the search giant is doing with all of that info. Interactive maps of music's ongoing journey are charted through Play Music's users' libraries, found over on Google's Research Blog. You could, for example, trace the ebb and flow of a genre era by era (rock remains one of the biggies while electronica's presence is relatively new), or even identify which release from a band is the most prominent. Looking at the Deftones, their biggest album is 2000's White Pony, and they're near the top of the alt-metal heap overall. Music nerds could lose a few days poring over the various ins and outs of the soundtrack to their lives, so be careful who you share this with. Perhaps best of all, Google says this likely won't be the last collaboration we see between the research and music teams.

0 Comments Share

Source: Google Research (1), (2)

Tags: bigdata, google, GooglePlayMusic, GoogleResearch, googleresearchblog, graphs, music, StreamingMusic Next: Amazon is thinking about shipping you packages you haven't ordered yet .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article

Kim Dotcom previews new music streaming site with his own europop album

Kim Dotcom has done it again. Two years after he rented a bunch of musicians (including Will.i.am) to promote his doomed Megaupload service, he's turned to a group of presumably more affordable artists to support his next project, Baboom. The music streaming site launched in preview mode today, with a design that looks like a cross between Rdio and the new MySpace, and with just a single album in its library: a sort of europop medley made by Dotcom himself with contributions from Printz Board (one of Will.i.am's buddies), Mona Dotcom (Kim's wife) and some others we've never heard of.

Although this teaser album is free, Baboom will ultimately let you pay to download music in addition to streaming it, and the site appears to offer a degree of support for high-definition audio too (including FLAC and MP3 320Kbps). The big selling point, however, will be a reward scheme that gives you free music in exchange for installing an advertising plugin into your browser -- but that's likely still a few months off. In the meantime, Dotcom's talent for self-publicity (if not singing) seems to be working: Baboom is reporting 80,000 plays in its first hour online.

View the Original article

Billboard: Digital music sales decrease for the first time ever, vinyl continues to grow

It was inevitable: After years of highs and then a plateau, digital music sales saw their first decrease in 2013. Last year, digital song purchases dropped almost six percent according to a Billboard report, while digital album sales dropped 0.1 percent. Compact discs continued their downward spiral as well, and took a 14.5 percent loss. On the flip side, pure analog music (read: vinyl) showed an increase of 31.9 percent -- representing a full two percent of music sales. Until Nielsen's SoundScan report for streaming hits, however, we won't know how much of an impact the likes of Spotify or Rdio are having on purchases. We have a hunch it'll be rather telling.

View the Original article

AOL Sells Winamp And Shoutcast Music Services To Online Radio Aggregator Radionomy

Some more detail on the fate of Winamp and Shoutcast, the legacy digital music services that owner AOL (which also owns TechCrunch) originally planned to shut down but then halted pending a sale. They are not being bought by Microsoft, as we had heard when we first reported news of a sale. The properties are instead being acquired by Radionomy — an international aggregator of online radio stations headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The Radionomy connection was first noticed by a couple of people, including one Bryon Stout on the Winamp forums and Carsten Knobloch, who saw that Winamp’s nameservers, but not Shoutcast’s, had been transferred to Radionomy. We have since learned from a reliable source that the deal is for both properties and should be finalised by Friday, if not sooner.

Radionomy has some 6,000 stations in its catalog already, with an emphasis on a do-it-yourself platform that anyone can use to create a channel. Shoutcast’s 50,000-strong catalog of radio stations will be a major boost on that front. Winamp’s media playing software could be used to help program those radio stations and offer additional services.

The acquisition may also see the two products and platforms put to work in more commercial settings. One of Radionomy’s strategic investors is MusicMatic, which develops audio and video experiences for stores and other venues.

View the Original article

Google Play Music All Access customers are next in line for Glass

Google is expanding its pool of Explorers, slowly but surely. First it was people attending I/O; then friends of existing Explorers; now it's subscribers to Play Music All Access. To celebrate the release of Play Music on Glass (albeit a little belatedly), the tech giant is offering subscribers to its streaming service a chance to buy the fledgling wearable. Emails apparently started going out this morning (though, no Engadget editors have received theirs yet) inviting those eligible to request a place in the Explorer program. Of course, entry to the exclusive club still costs $1,500. Though, we're sure you'll been looking for something frivolous to spend your tax return on in a couple of months.

0 Comments Share

Source: Android Central

Tags: allaccess, glass, google, googleglass, googleplay Next: TiVo co-founders joining forces for yet another set-top box
View the Original article

Nine Music Labels Plan To Sue Vkontakte, The Facebook Of Russia, Over 6,000 Illegal Tracks

Vkontakte, a social networking site known as the “Facebook of Russia”, is facing legal action from nine music labels including EMI, Sony and Warner over what they claim is the unlawful distribution of some 6,000 tracks of licensed music on the site from artists like Madonna, Linkin Park, Metallica and Beyonce. The lawsuits are being prepared for filing after the holidays, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Vkontakte, says the site is prepared to negotiate with them, as it has with video rightsholders. “If some music companies wish their content to be deleted from VK, we, as always, are willing to comply with their wish,” he told TechCrunch. “On the other hand, we are also ready to seek mutually beneficial ways to monetize their content. This year we managed to find such a solution for video content and we are optimistic about the audio section of VK as well.

“Of course, if no agreement with large record companies is reached, their content will be deleted and VK music service will rely mostly on independent artists.”

If the suits go ahead, they look like they may be some of the first big moves from music rightsholders to go after a major site in the wake of a new anti-piracy law in the country designed to protect copyright better.

That law originally was aimed to focus more on video content but there are some who hope to extend it to include music. The law enforces improved communication by requiring site owners to provide easy-to-find contact details, including real-world addresses, and forms for rightsholders to file complaints faster. If a site fails to comply with an infringement complaint, it faces a block at the ISP level.

Leonid Agronov, the head of Russia’s National Federation of the Music Industry (Russia’s RIAA), told Izvestia that his organization has long been trying to negotiate with Vkontakte over music distributed through its site. The NFMI claims that Vkontakte does not pay for streamed plays, neither by charging users directly nor by paying the licensing fee directly. But that does not mean that the social network is not profiting.

“

View the Original article