music videos
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Spotify trials a TikTok-like vertical feed for discovering new music
Spotify is testing a new feature called Discover that lets users scroll through vertical videos and skip or like them, much like you do on TikTok.
Triller faces new questions about how many users it has
Triller is again facing questions about how many users it actually has after its CEO said "there is no legal definition of MAU/DAU."
Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers can now watch music videos
If you want to watch the occasional video while listening to tunes on Amazon Music Unlimited, now you can.
YouTube Music works better on your TV with new updates
As Google prepares to finally shut down Google Play Music in favor of YouTube Music, the company is making a lot of last-minute updates to make sure the latter service is ready to go. YouTube Music already available on a wide variety of devices, and today Google is tackling the smart TV experience. Google first added a YouTube Music tab to the main YouTube app back in July, which is similar to the home page you see when using the app on a phone or the web.
Facebook adds official music videos to News Feed and Watch
Beginning today, Facebook users in the US can watch official music videos on Facebook.
Facebook Watch could soon play music videos
Facebook may soon bring music videos to Watch. The company is reportedly negotiating new licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group. According to Bloomberg, it's asking each label for rights to music videos.
YouTube Music adds seamless switching between audio and videos
If you're a YouTube Premium or Music Premium subscriber, switching between a song and its music video should be smoother as of today. You can hop back and forth between the two, and playback will continue from the same point with no pauses or interruptions, YouTube says.
PhonTunes stores your favorite YouTube music in one place
PhonTunes Free is a clever app for iOS that organizes all the music and music videos on YouTube in one neat and tidy location for you to browse and enjoy. It has sections for popular videos, genres and even your own personal video library to store all of your favorites. The app requires iOS 7.0 or later. PhonTunes Pro is also available in the App Store or US$1.99 and removes the advertisements. Everybody likes a good music video to accompany an equally good song. YouTube, thanks largely to music video service Vevo, houses almost any music video you search. However, since YouTube is home to virtually every other type of online video that exists, finding and filtering down to just your favorite songs and music videos can sometimes be a hassle. PhonTunes makes a solid effort to fix this. Open PhonTunes and you're greeted by a "Discover" page. Here you find the "Popular" tab, which lists all of the most popular music videos along with their thumbnails, as well as the "Genre" tab, which lets you browse music videos all over YouTube by genre. Those of you with an eclectic taste should be pleased as there's a bountiful selection of genres from rap to country to avant-garde. A search function is available as well where you can type in a specific artist or song to find results on YouTube. Unfortunately, this searches all of YouTube rather than narrowing down to just music. For instance, upon searching for Taylor Swift's new music video "Shake It Off" I received a result for Grace Helbig merely stating her thoughts on the song in a review. Another quick search for "Ice Bucket Challenge" in this app quickly revealed that music is far from the only form of content this app surfaces. Tapping the plus icon next to any video listing adds it your own collection of favorite videos, accessible through "My Videos" at the bottom of the app. Additionally, using the batch management feature in My Videos allows you to select multiple videos for deletion or to add to a custom playlist. As for the videos themselves, the player does them justice. They play in HD (when on a good connection) as one might expect and I actually think I like the player in this app better than Apple's default in iOS 7. It's simple, easy to understand and doesn't have that blurred translucency which I never cared for as part of the video player UI. For some reason though you have to tap an icon to expand to full-sized landscape mode. It seems easier to just use the iPhone and iPad's built-in accelerometers. All in all, PhonTunes is a convenient solution for collecting and watching music videos on your phone. There are more popular competing apps like Vevo with similar functionality, but Vevo is limited to its own library while PhonTunes can play anything on YouTube, Vevo included. Other than the fact that you'll occasionally run into YouTube videos completely unrelated to music, PhonTunes Free is worth a download.
The Bernhoft Islander app could be the future for iOS music releases
Jarle Bernhoft, a Norwegian singer and composer with a following in the U.S. and Europe, has released a rather groundbreaking "album" as an iOS app titled Bernhoft Islander. It's US$20.00, similar in price to a high resolution audio-only download. Billed as the "world's first HD audio visual album app", there is a boatload of content as well as a high resolution copy of the Islander album. The app has an integrated player to support the HD audio, which is 48K 24-bit. Along with the album tracks, the app features an interactive mixing console, where you can re-mix the album on your own, giving you access to all the recorded tracks. You can also manually add percussion by tapping on-screen controls. There is a very unique 360 degree video, that lets you move in a circle and watch the band play from any angle. There are also videos, song lyrics, photo galleries and bios of the players. With the adoption of MP3 files and mobile music, we have lost both audio quality and the in-depth notes that we used to get on phono albums and CDs. This app goes way beyond the legacy packaging, letting you explore the artist and even make your own creative decisions about how the music will be heard. Bernhoft is not a household name, but it would be amazing to see music companies release this kind of package for well-known popular artists. I applaud the people who put this app together for their creativity and vision. The $20.00 price is too high in my view, but this was a lot of work and the package, taken as a whole, is a worthwhile exploration. Bernhoft Islander is a universal app, and it is a big one -- almost 1.5 GB to download. The built-in player can play back the high resolution files, but note that iDevices headphone jacks don't support anything more than 16-bit audio. Even so, the music sounds great on headphones. The app requires iOS 6 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. It's hard to convey how impressive this app is in presentation and operation. It might be a glimpse into the future of mobile music.
Vevo's website redesign simplifies the video watch page, adds artist pages
Chances are you've enjoyed Vevo's music video catalogue in one form or another, and purists who prefer .com access are being rewarded today with a fresh website design. The "video watch page" was previously littered with related clips, a playlist and other distractions, which have now been dispatched for greater focus on the tune at hand. Much of this has been moved to "artist pages", a new pop-up hub (pictured above) which is full of extra info on your chosen act. Head over to Vevo to see the enhancements for yourself, and with impending OUYA support, you might want to consider it your primary dispensary for that daily dose of Biebzilla.
Xbox 360 YouTube app update rolls out with 5x speed improvement, access to 'official' music videos
The PlayStation 3 snagged a new native YouTube app recently and now the Xbox 360 version has been updated, although with a different set of features. The team behind it says the new version rolling out on Xbox Live is as much as five times faster than the old one, and also has access to channels with official music videos. It should update automatically the next time (Xbox Live Gold) users log in and want to watch Gangnam Style on the big screen, or they can find the new version in the Xbox Live Marketplace -- check below for a couple of more screenshots from the new app.
OUYA wrapping up funding with limited brown metal console, Vevo deal
To put it mildly, the OUYA console has had a better than expected funding run -- the project is now past the $6 million mark, or six times what it originally needed. The team still wants a little something to end the last week of fundraising with a bang. It just unveiled a limited edition brown, brushed metal version of the console with a controller to match; all it takes is a $140 pledge during the final push to August 9th and you've got the Yves Behar-chosen color for yourself. The special run should arrive as part of the wider March 2013 launch. If the original silver hue will do just nicely, thank you very much, OUYA has struck another content deal and will launch Vevo's music video hub side-by-side with the console. Click past the break for a peek at the controller, and consider a pledge on Kickstarter if you just can't stand the thought of having the same console as everyone else.
YouTube ordered to filter video uploads by German court, could face hefty fines
A Hamburg court decision has ruled that YouTube is responsible for what its users upload to the site. This therefore could make the site liable for any copyright infringement associated with that. Furthermore, the court has asked the video sharing giant to put filters in place that detect clips that are protected by the German royalties agency Gema at the point of upload. Worst of all, this could saddle the website with a hefty tab. Although this particular case only pertains to 12 videos (and the ruling to seven of those,) future fines could be as much as €250,000 ($330,000) per case. YouTube maintained that it has no responsibility over what users upload, but that it did take action when notified about protected content. [Thanks, Guy]
Vevo app brings ad-supported music videos streaming to the Xbox 360
The video services Microsoft announced would be coming to Xbox 360 continue to trickle out and the latest is from Vevo. What it brings free of charge (with the exception of the req'd Xbox Live Gold subscription, of course) is a library of music videos that's big enough (45,000 deep) for you to remember when the M in MTV stood for something. An additional bonus is that many of the videos are actually in high definition, unlike the ones broadcast on MTV and Fuse's high definition channels, and when we talked to the company ahead of the launch we were told the audio and video have been reencoded specifically for TV viewing.There's the requisite Kinect integration for voice and gesture control, and users can create a queue of videos and skip through them without pausing the action, and of course share what they're playing with other users on Xbox 360 and services like Facebook. Best of all, it's not a pay-per-view setup like iTunes or the standard Xbox music videos. There are a few quirks however, like needing to create a Vevo account to get access and the number of clicks it takes to add videos to a playlist. Still, whether you want to autoplay all of your favorite artist's videos or pick one at a time it all works pretty well -- the only problem now is finding something worth listening to. Check the Xbox 360 app marketplace to download it or give the video demo (embedded after the break) a peek.
VidZone to expand to new territories
With over a million videos downloaded, Europe's VidZone service has been an unprecedented success, something that even caught the service provider by surprise. "It was difficult to assess how well it would do," Louisa Jackson, director of marketing for VidZone, told GI.biz. "By both gaming and music industry standards it's been a phenomenal success."The service has been rapidly expanding, grabbing exclusives before other television and online venues, such as MTV and Yahoo. Most recently, the service announced it will be debuting new videos from Placebo.To expand upon its success, VidZone is planning to expand to other territories beyond Australia and a small handful of European countries. Jackson didn't reveal specifics, but did reiterate the company's support behind the platform. A free update in September will add many user-requested features like 16x9 support and improved search functionality.
Why aren't MTV HD's music videos in high definition?
Our friends at TV Squad are asking the same question we've had many times, what's up with MTV's treatment of HD? Specifically, why doesn't the MTV or VH1 HD simulcast channel air music videos in high definition? While it was news to us that MTV even aired music videos anymore, it's sad to see how poorly its handling the simulcast channel, though we don't have reception at this branch of the EHD HQ yet, word is they couldn't even keep simple things like the Real World HD broadcast straight last season. That's no surprise for a network that treats its simulcast like a redheaded stepchild (try finding a mention of it on MTV.com or Viacom's website) and staunchly refuses to loose any details of precisely which shows will be broadcast in high definition no matter how many times we ask, and we'll not even get into the endless loop of repeated programming that has become Palladia. Considering one can view any music video on YouTube in "HD" with little trouble, it's even more disturbing that MTV is so far behind the times.
HDFEST schedule revealed, indie films hit Dolby Labs in December
It's been a while since we checked in with HDFEST, but the all-HD independent film festival, now in it's 9th year, is still going strong. Due to kick off at Dolby Laboratories in Burbank on December 7, highlights this year include a focus on animation and several innovative stop motion projects, a HD music video showcase and seven full length feature films. Hit up the website for more information and a schedule of the $10/per screenings, hopefully some of these flicks find away home to the rest of us on any of the number of distribution routes now available.
Panic! At the XBL: Warner Music Group videos hitting Live Marketplace
"Panic! At the Disco" would actually make a neat title for an indie developed XBLA game, but, as our lengthy research has concluded, is already taken by a popular musical act. The band and several more will see their music videos on the Xbox Live Marketplace thanks to a newly announced deal between Microsoft and the Warner Music Group.Videos from Death Cab for Cutie, Cute is What We Aim For, Flo Rida, Matchbox Twenty, Panic! At the Disco, T.I., and other WMG-signed artists will begin appearing on the XBLM Video Store starting Monday. MS and WMG promise that this is just the beginning of a long assault on our eyes, ears, and wallets to come.
"I am Murloc" free download for Guitar Hero III
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/World_of_Warcraft_meets_Guitar_Hero_III'; All your dreams have just come true, my friend. Now you can be a murloc AND a rockstar. Thanks, I assume, to the Activision merger with Blizzard, the companies are doing a cross-promotion for their two most popular games. Starting tomorrow, June 26, you can snag a free download of I am Murloc, for Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock. You may remember this delightful little metal ditty from the video below, an ode to our favorite aggro-licous gurglers. The song is performed by Blizzard's in-house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain. You can get the download from either Xbox LIVE® Marketplace or PLAYSTATION®Store as a free promotion supporting the Worldwide Invitational. If you don't know anything about Guitar Hero and have been living in a box for the last few years, you can find out more on their website or on our sister site, Joystiq.And now, for your easy-listening pleasure, I present I am Murloc. Thank you and good-night!
