streamingmusicservice
Latest
Comcast is bringing Amazon Music to Xfinity X1 and Flex
Amazon Music might be coming to a TV near you soon. Comcast is bringing the music streaming service to Xfinity X1 over the next few weeks. It says it's the first time you'll be able to access Amazon Music on a TV via a pay-TV provider. You can say "Amazon Music" into the remote to access the service's library and playlists, or find it in the Apps section of the system.
Kanye West settles lawsuit over 'The Life of Pablo' Tidal exclusivity
Kanye West has settled a lawsuit with fan Justin Baker-Rhett, who sued the artist over claims that West's album The Life of Pablo would be available exclusively through Tidal. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed but all charges filed in the case have been dismissed, including a potential class-action lawsuit that will no longer move forward.
Have a favorite music streaming service? Sound off, people of Engadget
Wrapping your head around all the various options for streaming music can be overwhelming. How do you choose between Spotify, Rdio, Beats Music, Rhapsody, Google Play Music All Access or any of the other services out there? Engadget Forums member daninbusiness is here to help, and he's done a great job breaking down the pros and cons of each music provider that he's used. But one man's opinion does not a consensus make, y'all. What's your go-to choice for music? How would you persuade your friends that the benefits of Spotify far exceed those of Rdio? Sound off in the forums, folks, your wisdom is needed.
Now all Last.fm tracks are playable through Spotify
Spotify may not have the massive marketing muscle behind it like that of new entrant Beats Music, but the small streaming service is looking to expand its reach in other ways. Today, the company announced a partnership that'll see the entirety of its music catalog made available for playback on Last.fm. Now, when Last.fm users click play on a track, Spotify will be launched in the background, with a convenient bar for playback controls appearing at the bottom of the screen. Additionally, any grouping of tracks on a particular Last.fm page will appear as a playlist within Spotify. The integration is pretty straightforward to get set up, as all you'll need to connect your Last.fm and Spotify accounts, whether free or premium, is to click on a track and initiate playback. There's not much else to it beyond that. Just don't expect this Spotify and Last.fm integration to work on your smartphone or tablet, as it's not currently supported on mobile browsers. There are also a few known bugs for the service to work out, like unavailable tracks showing play buttons and only the first 70 displayed tracks on a page being made available for playback. Oh, and it should go without saying that if you're in a territory where Spotify's not yet available, well, you'll have to sit this one out.
Grooveshark circles back again, swaps app for HTML5
It's hard to keep up with whether Grooveshark is in the Google Play store, or out again, but now it doesn't matter. The music streaming service has decided to ditch its yo-yoing app, and instead opt for a flashy new HTML5 website for all devices. It's gone live in the US with an international launch "in the coming months", although this London-based editor didn't have any trouble using it. If you've been missing your favorites list, then jump over to Grooveshark.com and get listening -- after all, you might see it disappear again soon if a fresh lawsuit from EMI has any impact.
Voice control comes to MOG's music streaming service with Ford SYNC AppLink
Good news for those who like music on-the-go, Ford had just added a new heavy hitter to its AppLink platform, and this time it comes from none other than MOG. The streaming service boasts a catalog of 15 million tracks, which is available to mobile devices for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99. With the Ford SYNC integration, users may access this vast library either through voice commands or in-dash controls, and as another nice touch, one's music queue will automatically resume from wherever they left off. Voice commands include "artist only" and "similar artists," along with "downloads" for situations when you aren't able to stream and "shuffle favorites." Finally, users may also create presets based on what's currently playing, simply by pressing and holding one of the in-dash preset buttons. This availability is solely for iOS users, but if you'd like to learn more, check the full PR after the break. %Gallery-157259%
Rdio grows its European presence, hits France and the UK starting at £4.99 per month
The hottest tech news of the day in Europe will undoubtedly be the next Galaxy phone, launching tonight in London. Music fans on that side of the pond woke up to another surprise, however, with the launch of Rdio's online streaming service in France and the UK. Pricing starts at £4.99 (about $8) per month for unlimited web streaming, jumping to £9.99 (roughly $16) when you add mobile support. Ready to rock? Hit up the source link below for a six-day free mobile trial, without any need to hand over those precious credit card deets.
Rdio continues its plans for world domination, focusing on Europe
Rdio already has a number of stamps in its passport, Canada, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand amongst them. But, the current focus for the streaming music service is Europe, where it's already launched in Germany, Denmark, Portugal and Spain. While we still don't have any solid dates, Scott Bagby, the company's VP of partnerships and internationalization, told paidContent:UK that a pile of new nations are on deck for the coming months, with hopes of covering the entire continent. With licensing deals already struck in the UK, we're pretty confident England will be part of this next batch of rollouts, but Rdio has no intentions of confining itself to the western world. Bagby said in the interview, "we already have a guy on the ground in Asia," so look for the service to go live in a few more locales across the pacific. No time frame was given for the Asian launches but, if the company is serious about establishing a foothold there, it should do so sooner rather than later. As Bagby points out, Rdio is "a couple of years behind others in terms of expansion."
Deezer goes global, streaming music service coming to over 100 new countries
Many folks here in the good ol' US of A are familiar with streaming music services like Pandora, Rhapsody and Spotify, but may not be aware that Deezer dishes out tunes to those across the pond. Just last month it launched a mobile service on Orange, France's largest carrier, and now the company's looking to gain a far larger geographic footprint. Deezer plans to launch in over 100 more countries in the near future, and is in the process of partnering up with a bunch of other telcos to do it. It's taking an unusual approach to expansion, going for aurally under served areas instead of joining the fray in the biggest music markets in the US and Japan -- Indonesians and Brazilians gotta get down on Friday too, you know. The reason for doing so? Acquiring rights in the US is difficult (and expensive), but global licenses are easier to come by, which lets the Deezer diaspora occur by the dozen. So rejoice music lovers around the world, you'll soon be able to get your Deezer on.
Spotify on forcing Facebook upon users: 'it seemed logical'
Spotify wants to be the next big thing in music, but a change to its service has created quite the uproar online: users can only get their Spotify on if they have a Facebook account. Of course, we knew this was in the works from the time it opened its doors to all Americans, but netizens were sufficiently vocal in their disdain for the change so as to elicit a response from the company. According to Spotify, most of its users are already on the Social Network -- plus the service uses Facebook on the backend for its social features -- so it made sense to integrate the logins. Rest assured, you don't have to connect your account to Facebook unless you want to, and users still control what they share and don't share in their Timelines. We understand why the move doesn't thrill everyone out there, but we're okay having one less username and password to remember. Change can be a good thing, ya know.
Spotify to lay down beats for Ford (update: it's a hack)
It's only been two months since Spotify made its stateside debut, and it's already getting in bed with an American staple. No, it hasn't struck a deal with Beyonce or Britney, but the fine folks at Autoblog are reporting that the streaming music service will make its way into vehicles sporting the Ford SYNC AppLink system "in the near future." Details are otherwise vague, but we'd be interested to hear how the outfit's "exclusive automotive advertising partner" feels about the deal. Update: Turns out this partnership isn't of the official kind. The folks at Spotify were actually on hand at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hack-a-Thon to show off "how easy it is for developers to create voice-enabled smartphone apps using the SYNC API." Looks like Chevy's got nothing to be jealous about after all.
MOG brings its music streaming magic to Boxee
Do you own a Boxee Box and have an account with a little streaming music service called MOG? Well, soon enough you'll be able to pick and choose from the company's 11.5 million song strong library right on your TV. That's 320kbps audio and album art in 1080p that you can peruse using your double-sided Boxee remote and a welcome expansion of the media box's music repertoire -- which currently includes Last.FM and Pandora. You can try MOG for 14-days for free, but after that you'll have to sign up for either a $4.99-a-month basic account or a $9.99-per-month Primo account if you want to keep enjoying its streaming audio selection. Check out the PR after the break. Update: We just got word that MOG should be live on Boxee around 6 a.m. on Tuesday, so get ready to crank those speakers and wake up the neighbors.
MOG subscription music service comes to LG Smart TV Blu-ray players, HTIBs
If you need an alternative to Pandora, Last.fm, Rhapsody, Napster or any of the other music services already dipping a toe into the living room via connected TV platforms, you may want to consider MOG which is expanding from being on Roku players to the LG Smart TV platform. According to the press release it is now available on the Blu-ray players, HTIB systems and Smart TV Upgrader and should be available on HDTVs later. Potential subscribers can check out a 14-day free trial before opting for either a $5 a month plan that gives access only through the website or LG's TV hardware, or a $10 a month primo package that expands access to iPhone and Android clients. All the details and model numbers of supported hardware are in the press release after the break and yes, it will scrobble to Last.fm.
