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Spotify redesign makes it easier to play, favorite and download music
Today, Spotify is rolling out three new icons in its iOS app. The icons are meant to make it easier to add albums to your playlists, download albums to listen offline and quickly shuffle songs.
YouTube’s personalized music playlists are available to all users
YouTube Music's new personalized playlists are now available to users worldwide. Today, YouTube introduced its Discover Mix, New Release Mix and Your Mix. The playlists will curate your favorite songs, new releases and unheard tracks by your favorite artists, plus others you might like.
Spotify lets you add 15-second song clips to Facebook Stories
Beginning today, Spotify will let users share 15-second clips of Spotify songs on their Facebook Stories. If followers tap on the preview, they'll be transferred to Spotify, where they can listen to the rest of the track. The change is geared toward musicians, and Spotify calls it "a more powerful way to connect with fans." But anyone will be able to use the new feature.
Scan Spotify Codes to play songs instantly (updated)
Sharing songs with your buddies while on the go has typically been a hassle, with weird Shazam-style workarounds to get a song from one phone to another. It looks like Spotify knows this, too, as it's rolling out a new feature to use Snapchat-style codes that will let you grab a photo of your friend's screen to grab the song they want to share with you. We've confirmed the new feature in the Spotify app, though there's been no official word yet.
I used Spotify's 'Found Them First' before it was cool
If you think back, you can probably name one artist or album you feel you knew about before everyone else. Now Spotify wants to help you prove it. With "Found Them First," the streaming company can go back through your track history and identify whether you listened to an artist or band before they made it big.
Dutch trains get lasers to zap track debris
You might not see leaves as hazards, but train operators would beg to differ -- foliage on the tracks not only makes it harder for trains to stop, but also messes with anti-collision signals. The greenery might not be much of a danger for much longer, however. Dutch Railways is testing a laser system that zaps leaves (and other organic material) before it reaches the wheels, keeping the tracks clean. You can already use water jets and sand gels to do this, but they have limited supplies and sometimes damage the rails. The lasers run so long as the train has power, and they actually help the metal by drying it and preventing leaves from sticking.
Driveclub update adds photo mode, three new tracks
Evolution Studios updated Driveclub yesterday, adding a photo mode option as well as three new tracks. Players can now press the right side of the DualShock 4 controller's touch pad to enable photo mode, then use the system's sharing features to send their pretty car screenshots across the web. Driveclub's three new tracks, which include reversed variants, are located at Yedapalli in India, Los Pelambres in Chile and Wester Ross in Scotland. The developer posted the patch notes to Driveclub's official Facebook page. The update also added support for two upcoming expansions, the Ignition Expansion Pack and Photo-Finish Tour Pack. Both pieces of DLC will launch on November 25 in North America. Driveclub's latest update featured changes to corner and collision penalties as well as corner cutting "for balancing purposes." In addition to new menu and club functionality, the update also introduced "a number of minor bug fixes, performance improvements and usability tweaks." Driveclub has been plagued with server connectivity and performance issues since its October launch. [Image: SCEA]
Third Trials Fusion DLC plunges into the Abyss on October 7
The third piece of downloadable content for Trials Fusion will launch on October 7, Ubisoft announed today. Invitingly called "Welcome to the Abyss," the pack adds 10 tracks and 24 challenges to the motorcycle-flipping game, as well as five new achievements. The pack is part of Trials Fusion's season pass, though players can pick it up alone for $4.99. Welcome to the Abyss is set in "mysterious underground ruins" with ancient machines "powered by strange relics." The DLC includes over 100 new objects for use in the game's track editor as well. Trials Fusion launched in April for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC, reaching one million copies sold in July. Ubisoft expects every piece of DLC for the game to be available by May 2015. [Image: Ubisoft]
Jukebox Heroes: Guild Wars Eye of the North's soundtrack
The final Guild Wars soundtrack not only took the first game out in style but instantly became one of the best of the series to date. I'm not willing to put it above Prophecies, but it's not too far behind, either. As a whole, it's a wonderful symphonic journey through new lands and new themes, and just about every track is quite listenable. You can't deny that this is Guild Wars to its very core, as composer Jeremy Soule only adds on to the franchise's legacy rather than supplants it with a different direction. Even so, it represents a mastery that wasn't quite there in past albums. If I listened to this soundtrack without knowing its source, I would have pegged it as a major motion picture release rather than a video game with angry bears. It was definitely a difficult score to pick a mere six examples from; I'd recommend that soundtrack enthusiasts listen through its entirety. For a Guild Wars 2 player, it's really interesting to go back and hear the early versions of tracks that Soule would later reprise for the sequel.
These are the courses of Mario Kart 8
With the launch of Mario Kart 8 just one month away, Nintendo has few details it has yet to share about the game, which will receive its own Wii U bundle next month. Of the details the publisher now offers on the game's site is a listing of the 32 race tracks players will tackle in late May, half of which are new courses, the rest being reimagined circuits from other games in the series. We got our hands on the eight retro courses in the shell and banana cups during our video preview of the game. The other eight familiar tracks are as follows: Wario Stadium (DS), Sherbet Land (GCN), Melody Motorway (3DS) and Yoshi Valley (N64) in the Leaf Cup as well as Tick-Tock Clock (DS), Piranha Plant Pipeway (3DS), Grumble Volcano (Wii) and Rainbow Road (N64) in the Lightning Cup. Head past the break for the full list of the 32 race tracks and eight battle courses in the game. Mario Kart 8 launches May 30 on Wii U, and those that register their copy of the game on Club Nintendo by July 31 will receive one free Wii U game on the eShop.
iRacing is the real driving simulator
I've never been to northern California's legendary Laguna Seca road course. In meatspace, at any rate. But thanks to dozens of realistic racing game recreations, I know the track's serpentine layout and its infamous corkscrew corner like the back of my hand. I've barreled through it hundreds if not thousands of times since 1999's Gran Turismo 2, so it darn well ought to be familiar by now, right? And it was, right up until I loaded onto iRacing's version of it.
Pandora adds Blizzard soundtracks to its library
Whether or not you're currently a fan of World of Warcraft, odds are good you've played it and can still recognize some of the music. Blizzard Entertainment has always paired its games with some impressive soundtracks, after all. So whether or not you're in the game, you may be happy to know that you can listen to this music on Pandora, as the popular music service has added tracks from all three of Blizzard's major franchises to its rotation. The tracks are all available on the Video Game Music station, which can be streamed in a browser or via one of the many mobile Pandora clients. It's also mixed in with several other tracks from games, and Pandora allows the creation of custom lineups and stations for user preference. Whether you're in love with the game right now or just want a dose of nostalgia from the main theme of The Burning Crusade, you can listen right now for free.
Guild Wars 2 releases Bazaar of the Four Winds music
Guild Wars 2's soundtrack might be best known for its core Jeremy Soule composition, but fans of the game are quite aware that ArenaNet has been adding in new tracks on a regular basis with its updates. This week's Bazaar of the Four Winds event included two brand-new pieces of music, and now the studio has released them on its SoundCloud page. The two tracks are Labyrinthine Cliffs and Sanctum Sprint. Give them a listen and let us know what you think!
Grid 2's 'Live Routes' alter tracks and turns
This latest trailer from Grid 2 shows off the game's "Live Routes" system, which pitches different forks in the road every time you play it.
WildStar composer releases several new music tracks
If you're bummed because you haven't gotten one of the golden tickets to WildStar's beta yet, at least you can get an earful of what testers are experiencing. Composer Jeff Kurtenacker has posted 12 tunes from the upcoming MMO on SoundCloud for everyone to enjoy. While some of the tracks have already been heard, quite a few are new. Among these are the Dominion theme, a couple of combat loops, and the Deradune zone theme. Give the tracks a listen and let us know how you like the sound of WildStar is shaping up! While you're at it, check out Massively's interview with Kurtenacker regarding the creation and recording of this score.
More Dance Central 3 tracks than you can shake a leg at
Ready to stomp out rhythmic crimes across several decades with some stylish dance police? Yes, Dance Central 3's bizarro storyline is ... well, bizarro, but that just makes us all the more interested in it. Several Harmonix devs are happy to explain the game's kooky story in the latest trailer, revealed alongside several tracks for this fall's DC entry (listed after the break).In total, there are nine new songs revealed, but let's not kid ourselves – the one we're concerned with is Daft Punk's "Around the World." The fact that we've had two Dance Central games without it is the real dance crime.
Lian-Li designs a moving train PC case, makes plugging in a challenge (video)
Lian-Li is a fan of odd-looking PC cases, but the boxes have usually had a tendency to remain stationary. The CK-101 takes away that one certainty: the design stuffs a fully functioning PC case with hard drive bays, a slim optical drive and USB 3.0 ports into an on-the-move model of a steam engine train. There's more than a few questions about how it works -- including whether or not it needs a battery to stay rolling, and just what's generating the 'steam' -- but it's already apparent from the video (below) that wired peripherals won't be much fun if you're chasing your computer down the tracks. There's a chance that Lian-Li will be selling a considerably more fixed-in-place version; we'll know more when the CK-101 is shown off at Computex in early June, where there will also be a show-specific, SUV-like Q15 case to sate your appetite for very literal car computers.
Shazam Player is available for the iPad
Shazam updated its player app for the iPhone to version 1.5.1 and released it as a universal app with support for Retina Display on the new iPad. Shazam Player is an alternative to the iOS Music app that makes it easy for you to share and discover new music. The Shazam player scans your music library, matches tracks with LyricPlay and organizes your library by artists, albums, tracks and playlists. It has a lovely UI with a new player box that lets you see the songs playing in your queue and a beautiful full-screen LyricPlay view. LyricPlay is still underwhelming. It only picked up one song in my library of 200 songs, but I have an unusual taste in music. When it works, LyricPlay now supports AirPlay and can be viewed on your Apple TV. When it doesn't, there's an eye-catching visualization. The Shazam Player is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Spotify lifts track limits on free accounts, struggles to stand out in streaming market
Good news for European fans of the streaming music service Spotify: The company has lifted the five-track replay limit per day for users of the free service in Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain. Additionally, US users will get their current six-month free trial extended, but it's not yet clear just how long that trial will last. Presumably, Spotify is seeing a lot of action from free users, both on the desktop and with its mobile app, and now the company's challenge is going to be to keep these free users around. Personally, I am fully on board with music streaming as the way of the future. I honestly can't remember the last time I downloaded an mp3 and before that, can't remember the last time I actually bought a CD. I've been using Spotify, Pandora, and Slacker, all in different places for different reasons. Among those three, there hasn't been any music that I've wanted to listen to but haven't found. But for each of these companies, their goal going forward will have to be to become the standard. Right now, with each of these competing services, there are reasons for and against using them, with the most likely divider being that one of them is just the one you're used to using, or the one you heard about first. Until they come up with a really clear difference (such as, for example, a really great free program that is somehow monetized in a creative way), we'll continue to see these services struggle to reach a dominant spot. [via TNW]
WildStar gives players a taste of the sound of the world
It's hard not to find something familiar in WildStar's fusion of the wild west aesthetic with the exploration of an unfamiliar planet in deep space. That having been said, most people anticipating the game would likely find nothing to fault with that combination in terms of visuals. But what will the game sound like? That's what this week's WildStar Wednesday addresses, with a piece by Jeff Kurtenacker about composing the music you'll hear in-game. As Kurtenacker puts it, the biggest challenge as a composer is to create music that combines the game's diverse thematic points into a unified score, producing the right mixture of wonder, adventure, and a bit of old frontier exploration. But if all the technical discussion of composition is a bit beyond you, the post also includes two sample tracks from the game's soundtrack, a chance for players to get a sense of what to expect from the finished experience. The tracks are brief, but they're certainly the sort of thing that gets you in the mindset of the game -- and that's just what they're there for.
