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As Rdio files for bankruptcy, Pandora picks it up for $75 million
Pandora, already one of the biggest players in the music streaming space, has just announced it is acquiring "key assets" from fellow streaming service Rdio for $75 million. However, this isn't just a standard case of one company buying another -- Pandora's press release says the deal is contingent upon Rdio "seeking protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California." It sounds as if Rdio has finally run out of cash while trying to compete with giants like Spotify and Apple Music, and Pandora will be stepping in to use its technology to enhance its platform. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.
We pushed the in-flight WiFi of the future to its limit
It shouldn't have worked, but I streamed an episode of Last Week Tonight, a Twitch broadcast of Fallout 4, the premiere episode of Aziz Ansari's Master of None and Meow the Jewels all at once, all on airplane WiFi. In-flight WiFi giant Gogo demoed its next-gen version of mile-high connectivity, 2Ku, above the overcast November skies of Gary, Indiana, bragging 98 percent coverage around the world (the poles don't play nicely with airborne internet) at peak speeds of 70 Mbps. The reality is transfers much slower than that on a plane with roughly 25 journalists, business folks and Gogo staff all doing the same as me: trying to break the internet for about an hour.
iHeartRadio crafts a radio station just for you
When it comes to streaming music, it's all about personalization these days -- so it was only a matter of time until iHeartRadio went down that road. With the service's new "My Favorites Radio" station, which is launching today, you'll have a single station built up from all of the tunes you've favorited over the years. Much like Spotify's Discover playlist and Apple Music's Beats-powered personalization, the new iHeartRadio feature should make it easier to just sit back and enjoy music you already like, as well as explore new musical territory. You'll be able to fine-tune what the station plays by removing individual tracks, and you can also share it with your friends pretty easily.
Ebro Darden: the DJ who curates the sound of New York on Beats 1
"Beats 1 worldwide. Always on," Ebro Darden's voice booms on the radio. A little over three months ago, Darden became the voice of New York on Apple Music. When the service was announced, Apple was already late to the music-streaming battle. But it hoped to gain some ground, and listeners, with a human edge. In addition to streaming music on demand and personalized playlists, Apple threw Beats 1 into the mix. The radio station would offer "human curation" in the form of three distinctly different DJs in music capitals of the world. But it also promised a star-studded lineup of hosts who would share their own playlists. Ever since, Drake's OVO Sound Radio has dropped exclusives; St. Vincent's quirky mixtapes have struck a note with fans sending in personal snippets; and Elton John's Rocket Hour has often taken listeners back to a pre-streaming era.
Chromecast Audio review: Give your old speakers a new brain
It's been a little over two years since Google introduced the first Chromecast, a cheap and easy way to turn any TV in your house into a smart TV. The tiny little dongle has taken the market by storm, racking up sales of over 20 million since launch. Now, the company has replaced it with not one but two streaming devices: a direct successor to the original video-focused Chromecast and a new, audio-only device appropriately called the Chromecast Audio. Just as the original Chromecast made our dumb TVs smart, the Chromecast Audio promises to take your old pair of speakers and bless them with the convenience of streaming music. The value proposition is easy to understand: The Chromecast Audio is only $35, barely takes up any space and is easy to set up, and works with Spotify, the most popular streaming-music service on the planet. As Google tells it, it's a foolproof way to get streaming music onto your speakers. I've been testing the device since its introduction last week to find out if it delivers on that promise.
Rhapsody's new music feature is designed for kids
Over the past few months, Rhapsody has focused on making its mobile apps prettier. But now the music-streaming service is announcing something a little bit different: a feature designed with children in mind. KIDS, which will be available via an update for Rhapsody's iOS and Android apps, is a mode for young ones to experience without parents having to worry about them running into Dr Dre's Compton -- or another album with Parental Advisory. Instead, KIDS consists of three main sections with kids-friendly, parent-approved music, like recently played songs, a tab for bookmarks and another for curated content from Rhapsody's editorial team. The company says it'll offer tracks from Kidz Bop and Disney, among others.
Tidal's music-streaming service reaches 1 million subscribers
Remember when Jay Z said Tidal, the streaming music service he acquired earlier this year, was doing just fine? Well, as it turns out, things are still on a respectable course. The musician/entrepreneur took to Twitter to reveal a significant milestone for Tidal: 1 million subscribers. "'Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists,'" Jay Z tweeted. "Tidal is platinum." To celebrate, Tidal announced it will be hosting a charity concert in Brooklyn's Barclays Center on October 20th, featuring high-caliber artists such as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Prince and, of course, Jay Z himself. And don't worry if you can't attend, the service says it plans to stream it to everyone (including non-subscribers) on its website.
Why Sonos thinks you're ready for a $500 speaker in your home
Sonos faces a unique challenge on the eve of launching the most important products it has developed in years. The company's mission statement is simple to sum up: It wants to make it easy to listen to high-quality music anywhere in your home. And it believes its new products, the flagship Play:5 speaker and new software called Trueplay, move that goal forward. But there's one part of that mission -- "in the home" -- that speaks to perhaps the toughest problem facing the company: How do you convince people who've grown up listening to music with their iconic iPod headphones to spend hundreds of dollars on an expensive home audio setup?
MusicCast is Yamaha's answer to Apple Airplay and Google Cast
There's no shortage of WiFi-networked speakers for consumers, but Yamaha wants to bring its own solution and products to the market. Enter MusicCast, the audio manufacturer's version of Google Cast or Apple Airplay, which lets you use an app to wirelessly play music across multiple devices in a home (or office) -- so long as they're all connected to the same WiFi network. Of course, this isn't only designed to be a competitor to Google or Apple's technology, with Sonos being another main player in the space. But Yamaha hopes to stand out by offering MusicCast on more than just speakers. According to the company, its High-Fidelity-ready tech will also work with streaming services, internet radio apps and Bluetooth devices, as well as external sources like set-top boxes, sound bars and Blu-ray players.
Apple refutes survey that says Apple Music users are jumping ship
Apple Music's panoply of bugs, cluttered user interface and overall instability has given the service a bit of a bad reputation in its first few months, but that doesn't appear to be driving away users. In a statement given to The Verge, Apple says that 78 percent of users who signed up for Apple Music are still using the service. This statement was meant to refute a study from research firm MusicWatch. According to the company's survey of 5,000 US consumers, 48 percent of those that tried Apple Music had stopped using it, despite the fact that it's free through at least September.
New UK mobile provider bundles music streaming service as standard
New mobile providers seem to be springing up left, right and centre these days. Already this year, we've seen BT and Carphone Warehouse join the MVNO club, not to mention Sky's after its own membership and FreedomPop's due to unleash its completely free mobile plans on the UK sometime this summer. And today, we welcome another new kid on the block going by the name ROK Mobile. Launched last year in the US and going live in the UK today, ROK Mobile is aimed specifically at music lovers. The new MVNO, which piggybacks on Three's network, offers just one SIM-only tariff on a rolling one-month contract. For £25 per month, you get unlimited calls and texts, 4GB of 4G data, and -- here's the hook -- free access to 7digital's music streaming catalogue through the ROK Mobile Android/iOS app. Available only to paying customers, the app lets you stream over 20 million tracks, build playlists and download music for offline consumption.
Almost a fifth of online Brits are enjoying content illegally
The UK government is increasing its efforts to clamp down on online piracy, and now we know the reason why: illegal downloads and streaming are on the rise. Research commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) shows that the number of people accessing content illegally has risen from 17 to 18 percent since 2013. (That equates to roughly 7.8 million Brits pirating at least one item over a three-month period.) Nine percent of internet users aged 12 and above admitted to downloading or streaming music illegally at least once between March and May 2015. Six percent confessed to pirating a movie and seven percent revealed they had watched TV shows illegally. These figures are mostly consistent with the last batch of research conducted by Kantar Media two years ago -- only TV programming has shown change, rising by one percentage point.
Tidal is the latest streaming service to offer a family plan
Following in the footsteps of Spotify, Rdio and, most recently, Apple Music, Tidal has announced a family plan of its own. With this new pricing scheme, Jay Z's music-streaming service will allow a primary account holder to have multiple people, up to four, under one roof. Tidal's discount is fairly simple: you get 50 percent off for each person added to your main subscription, including both the Premium and HiFi options -- which are $10 and $20 per month, respectively. A few weeks ago, Tidal also introduced student pricing, in an effort to match what competitors are offering. The real value to listeners, however, may ultimately come down to Tidal's exclusive content, as evidenced by the recent news from Prince and Weezy F. Baby.
NYT: AC/DC's dirty deeds coming to Apple Music, Rdio and Spotify
Seeing as how it's impossible to write a three-chord intro with words, this sentence is just going have to do for now: AC/DC is coming to Spotify and Apple Music. The Australian rock group's catalog will go on the aforementioned streaming services in addition to others like Rdio and Deezer starting today, according to The New York Times. In case you've sworn off classic rock radio, Brian Johnson and Angus Young's tunes should help fill in the gaps between Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd in your playlists. Just think, there's a very real chance that you'll be able to shake it off all night long.
Tidal delivers desktop app, refreshed UI and student pricing
Jay Z's music-streaming service, Tidal, relies heavily on bringing exclusive content to subscribers. But it knows more features are needed to complement that. Today, in an effort to make the overall experience better for its users, Tidal is launching desktop apps for both Mac and Windows -- albeit in beta form. There's also an updated user interface on mobile and the web, along with the new applications, which comes with extra personalization options, a simplified menu and improved search results. Ticketmaster support has been added too, letting people view artists' tour dates and purchase concert tickets directly from the music service's website or apps; Spotify does something similar through Songkick.
MixRadio's music-streaming app heads to iOS and Android
After a long exclusive spell on Windows Phone, MixRadio is finally expanding outside of Redmond's mobile platform. The music-streaming service, which Microsoft sold to messaging company Line last year, announced today that its app will be available on iOS and Android starting today. MixRadio's main feature is serving up personalized playlists to listeners for free, across hundreds of genre- and artist-based channels, slightly similar to what Pandora does. Interestingly enough, the service has also revealed a partnership with HTC; what this means is you'll start seeing MixRadio curate stories for BlinkFeed, the smartphone maker's customizable news stream.
Starbucks picks Spotify for radio, and baristas are the DJs
Starbucks and Spotify are teaming up to to build a music ecosystem across retail stores. By joining forces with the popular streaming service, the giant coffee chain hopes to create an experience that will benefit loyal customers, particularly those who are part of the My Starbucks Rewards program. If you're one of them, you'll have the chance to earn Stars as Currency points for subscribing to Spotify Premium, which offers access to millions of songs that can be played offline, ad-free and without any skip limitations. In addition to this, Starbucks will be curating a set of playlists for all Spotify users to enjoy, featuring tunes that have been popular at its coffeehouses in the past 20 years. The new partnership is set to kick off in the US later this fall, with Canada and the United Kingdom expected to follow suit soon thereafter.
Judge rules Pandora has to increase royalty payouts to BMI
Pandora's propensity for litigation is pretty storied by this point, but it seems like the internet-radio outfit's luck has run out. A New York judge has ruled that Pandora must raise its payout rates to Taylor Swift's music publishing house BMI, from 1.75 percent of its revenue to 2.5 percent, according to The New York Times. The full ruling is still being kept under wraps at the moment, but naturally, Pandora says it's going to appeal the decision. Given that an appeals judge recently ruled in the outfit's favor to keep royalty payout rates from rising, it isn't clear what could happen in this instance. For artists' sakes, let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself here. [Image credit: Getty Images for TS]
Rdio Select is a $4 monthly music streaming service (with limitations)
When the competition from Spotify, Apple and new contenders doesn't let up, it's time to try something different. That's what Rdio is doing, with a new $3.99 subscription service, Select, which will let users stream from radio stations (sans ads) with unlimited skips as well as daily (offline) access to a maximum of 25 songs. According to Rdio CEO Anthony Bay, this number is "more than most users download in a day, so we feel it's enough" -- but will the offer be enough to attract new users away from the rivals?
Tidal will stream Prince's 'Rally 4 Peace' concert for free
You won't need a ticket to Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore to see Prince perform this Sunday. Heck, you won't even need to be on the Eastern seaboard. Tidal, Jay Z's much maligned streaming music service, announced today that it will broadcast the artist's full 60-minute Rally 4 Peace set completely free of charge. What's more the show will be "pre-paywall," meaning that users won't need a Tidal subscription to access it. Additionally, the streaming service will "match funds" of any donation made through its official website with proceeds going to local youth charities and the Baltimore Justice Fund. Prince is reportedly planning this impromptu concert to bring Baltimore communities together after the death of Freddie Grey in police custody. [Image Credit: Getty]
