Google acquired music streaming service Songza in June of last year, and Songza’s unique recommended playlist feature was integrated early on into Play Music. Today, the Songza team has announced (via The Verge) that the rest of the service will be shut down on January 31st, and that Google Play Music’s free tier will soon be coming to Canada…
R.I.P., Beats Music. With Apple Music – Apple’s new streaming service that takes its recently acquired Beats Music and mashes it with the company’s home-grown iTunes – having officially launched today, the Android app has received an update that kills off the ability to start a free trial. Above are pictures before and after the update. The first image is of Beats Music 1.2.5, released on April 21st, and the second is of Beats Music 1.2.6, released today.
In a first for Apple, and alongside a recently released application that makes it easy to switch from Android to iOS (ugh, I know), the company will be pushing out an Android version of Apple Music, expected sometime in the fall. And Apple Music for iOS includes a migration assistant that makes it super easy to transfer playlists and saved music from Beats Music over to the new service, so we expect that to be in the Android version, too. If you, however, aren’t a huge fan of Apple, maybe now is the time to give Google Play Music All Access a try?
I don’t own a Sonos speaker – I used to, and an update today to the Sonos Controller really makes me wish I still did: Spotify users now get access to a ton a great discovery features that were previously missing.
Spotify users, rejoice. Starting with a gradual rollout next month, the popular music streaming app will be available on Android Wear watches.
According to the company’s blog post, you’ll be able to navigate through and select something to play from all the music you’ve saved to Your Music as well as find new stuff in Browse. We don’t have much information on the Wear app yet as it hasn’t been released and the image above is the only one Spotify provided, but we’ll post more as soon as we get it.
As a big Spotify fan and power user I’m curious to see what the Browse section will look like on such a small screen, as Browse on smartphones contains sections for mood-based playlists, new releases, top charts, and more. Are you excited to get Spotify on your Wear watch?
Last week, we found out that YouTube’s new music streaming service dubbed YouTube Music Key would be accessible to Google Play Music subscribers, however the company didn’t provide an exact date. Today, via Google Play’s official Twitter account, the search giant announced that the service is now available to Music customers at no additional charge.
Earlier this month, Spotify updated its iOS app with a totally new, darker-themed interface. This, of course, left Android users in the dark and stuck with an older design. Today, however, Spotify has announced that its Android app has been updated with the redesigned interface.
The new interface features a darker theme with refreshed typography and rounded pictures and album art. The design is nearly identical to that found on iOS and the Spotify desktop app.
Adding to the catalog of Chromecast-supported content, Rdio and Crackle are both adding the ability to play more content from your smartphone, tablet, or browser to your TV today.
Crackle has refreshed its Android and iOS apps with support for Chromecast streaming. The Sony-backed content provider serves up a number of movies and TV shows for free including comedian Jerry Seinfield’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” original.
Video streaming service Vudu has also added Chromecast support in the latest versions of its Android and iOS apps. The Walmart-owned service includes HD movies and TV shows with no subscription.
Rdio announcement includes support for music streaming from its Rdio app to your TV for Google Chromecast users. That means users can control music from the Android or iOS app as it plays through the TV with the Chrome HDMI streaming stick. Rdio users can also stream to Chromecast-connected TVs with Google’s Chrome web browser.
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The day after Google Music was announced at an event in LA, Google has unveiled a new Music app for Google TV. The new app streams music directly from your music locker, getting rid of the need to download music or stream it from your computer. The app is as simple as signing in with your Google account and even works in the background as you use other apps.
As long as you have Android 3.1 installed on your Google TV, the Music app is available on the Android Market. Besides streaming music you can also purchase it directly from your TV.
A new web service called Rokker.fm uses YouTube’s vast music library to stream music to users for free. The service is very sleek (still in beta), and reminds us of Spotify and Grooveshark. Since it uses YouTube, Rokker also displays the video in a tiny spot in the bottom right of the page.
If you’re interested in buying the song you’re listening to, you can purchase it through an Amazon link on the website. Rokker also gives you the ability to signup for an account and manage playlists. Here’s to Google not blocking it!
Rokker.fm also plans to release both a Mac and iOS app to Apple’s App Store. Check out screenshots of the apps after the break:
Spotify, a popular music streaming service from Sweden, arrived in the United States mid-July on an invite-only basis. Today, Spotify goes live for everyone nationwide, no invitation required. Users can now sign up for an account at Spotify.com and use a mobile app for Android or iPhone to stream music over wireless and cellular networks to their phones, tag songs for offline viewing, favorite tracks, share them with friends and more. What’s best, you needn’t sign up for a paid Spotify account. Thanks to a new partnership with Facebook that Mark Zuckerberg announced at the yesterday’s developer conference (more in the clip below), anyone signing up with their Facebook account gets six months of unlimited listening. What happens when the six-month free period expires?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAr5nGzjV8]
Popular music startup from Sweden called Spotify today kicked off its long-expected US operation. “We’re massively excited to be here”, the company wrote in a blog post. Spotify has been a huge hit in the UK and several other European territories such as Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden, with a total number of subscribers in Europe topping 10 million people. The company is planning a major push to get the word out, lining up exclusive launch partners such as Coca-Cola and Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok and Sonos. “These brands will be launching innovative campaigns in partnership with Spotify in the coming weeks and months”, Spotify says.
Spotify lets you stream songs free of charge, with adverts, to your computer or pay a single-digit monthly fee for unlimited, ad-free streams in high fidelity (384Kbps). A Premium account is required to stream music via the Spotify app on smartphones. Music streams on demand via wireless hotspots or 3G cellular networks so you don’t have to have gigabytes of free storage to keep the files on your device.
The company celebrated launch in the United States with the release of the free Spotify for iOS app. While Spotify for Android is not yet live in the US Android Market, we expect it anytime soon so stay tuned. Why you’ll love Spotify? Because for just ten bucks a month you can play songs from their catalog of more than fifteen million tracks to your phone or computer. That’s a sizable collection even by iTunes’ standards.
And for half the price you get a Spotify Unlimited account which removes ads, but lacks other features and encodes audio in standard quality. Premium accounts can mark entire songs, playlists or albums for offline listening when there is no network coverage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvYX_P_c__8]
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Sony is joining the streaming music craze with today’s release of Music Unlimited, a brand new Android app that lets you stream from Sony’s catalog of 7+ million songs, with monthly fees starting at just four bucks for the Basic streaming plan (a pricier Premium plan is also available). From release notes:
With the Basic plan, you can access personalized channels that adapt to your music tastes and your mood and enjoy the songs in your personal library that have been previously synched from your PC. The Premium plan offers all the features of the Basic Plan, plus full access to our entire catalogue and premium streaming channels.
The Music Unlimited service is also available via the PlayStation3, Internet-connected Sony television sets and Blu-ray players. What’s best, they let you sign up for the Premium plan with a free of charge 30-day trial period. So ho ahead, grab the free download from Android Market now. Bear in mind that the app is currently available only in the United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Also – good luck with that PlayStation Network streaming!