music apps
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iPhone users will soon be able to change their default music app with Siri
After years of being forced to use Apple services on the iPhone by default, those restrictions are finally easing up a bit. As noticed by MacRumors earlier today, the iOS 14.5 beta appears to let you set third-party music services as default with Siri. This means you can ask Siri to play a particular song or album and it’ll go straight to Spotify or YouTube Music.
Sir Paul McCartney re-releases five albums as $7.99 iPad apps
With streaming options like YouTube and Spotify making new music something that is more often rented than purchased, catalog sales are more important than ever. Classic titles are still strong sellers, but there are always new ways to ramp up sales. So Paul McCartney is joining the ranks of Bjork, Radiohead, and DeadMau5 by releasing iPad apps to promote his music. The rock legend and former Beatle has released five of his albums for sale as advanced multimedia iPad apps, featuring the complete records and bonus content. Each album includes remastered tracks, interviews, rare photos, alongside live videos and documentary footage. Each title represents the height of McCartney's post-Beatles career: Band on the Run with Wings, Ram with Linda McCartney, Wings over America with Wings, McCartney, and McCartney II. Best of all for budget minded McCartney fans, the iPad apps are actually cheaper than buying the records on iTunes at the moment. Each app will set you back $7.99, while buying the albums off iTunes usually costs $12.99. Each of the albums is currently available for download in the App Store.
Thefuture.fm launches iPhone app for discovering DJ mixtapes, hopes to steal Spotify's thunder
Internet radio purveyors from Spotify to Rdio keep upping the ante with more playlist features and design overhauls, and the competition for your ears' attention is only getting fiercer. One of the newest players is Thefuture.fm (formerly known as Dubset), which launched last month with a focus on DJ-curated mixtapes. Today the service outed its iPhone app, which includes a "smart search" feature for finding mixes by song or artist and lets users sync their web accounts with saved playlists for listening on the go. Looking for a new online-listening destination? Head past the break for a look at the press.
Spotify US premium service hands-on
Like The Beach Boys' Smile and Duke Nukem Forever before it, the US version of Spotify has been elevated to a sort of mythological status by collective anticipation. Music nerds and tech geeks all over this fine nation of ours have waited with bated breath for the service to work out all of its licensing kinks and finally make its way to our shores. In an interview earlier this week, a Spotify higher-up promised us that the service will be pretty much the same as the one that Europe has already come to love -- the question, then, is whether or not disappointment is inevitable after so much waiting. Spotify gave us the opportunity to take the premium desktop and mobile versions of the service for a spin. Check out the result below.%Gallery-128415% %Gallery-128418%
Billboard nominates music app awards
Billboard has announced that it will be giving awards out for iOS music apps (of all things). At the Music App Summit on October 5th, Billboard will choose winning iOS apps in six different categories, from Best Artist App and Best Music Creation App to Best Branded Music App. You can find the full list of nominees after the break, and there are some recognizable names on there, including a Phish touring app, TUAW favorite I am T-Pain, and the now Disney-owned Tap Tap Revenge. Winners will be announced at the summit, and they will be selected by a panel of judges that includes (not kidding about this) MC Hammer and a bunch of CEOs and marketing folks. It seems silly (and let's face it... it is), but Billboard is a big deal in the music industry, and this means that the dinosaur-like recording giants are at least starting to notice the effect that apps have on artist profiles. Plus, it's good to see LaDiDa get a little more attention -- I liked that one.
iPod Touch/iPhone Music Round-Up
Peter Kirn over at Create Digital Music has posted a great round-up of all the tools people have put together to make music with the iPod Touch and iPhone.The post touches on some of the more technical aspects of music app development on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and there's a great list of links to cool apps you can download and mess around with.Music apps are still in their infancy on the iPhone, but hopefully, as the SDK gets out there to more developers, we'll begin to see more robust and feature-heavy apps.Me? I want to see Ableton Live on the iPhone.
