Streaming

T-Mobile announces new ‘Music Freedom’ and ‘Unradio’ initiatives

Cody Lee ∙ June 18, 2014

During T-Mobile's event in Seattle tonight, the carrier announced a handful of new 'uncarrier' initiatives. There's Test Drive, which we've already talked about here, and two new programs for music lovers: 'Unradio' and 'Music Freedom.'

Unradio is an interesting new streaming music service from T-Mobile and Rhapsody that addresses "major pain points" of other services, and Music Freedom allows users to stream music without it hitting their monthly data allowance.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of both programs...

How to watch the World Cup live on iPhone and iPad

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

The entire world is experiencing what I like to call World Cup fever, a phenomenon that comes along only once every four years. With the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicking off today with a match between the host country Brazil and Croatia, we think it is fitting to share how to watch the World Cup games live on iPhone and iPad. We've included a couple apps for streaming the World Cup in the United States and abroad after the break…

Amazon launches ad-free Prime Music service

Cody Lee ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

As rumored, Amazon has launched a new streaming music service today, and it's [unsurprisingly] calling it 'Prime Music.' The service features over a million songs and hundreds of pre-made playlists, and it's free for paying subscribers of Amazon Prime.

Prime members have unlimited access to the service, and will be able to either play music from one of the aforementioned playlists, or create their own. It's completely ad-free, and comes with standard affair like mobile clients and offline playback support...

Amazon said to be launching ‘Prime’ streaming music service this week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

The New York Post is reporting today that Amazon is ready to launch its new streaming music service this week. The outlet says the e-commerce giant has 2 of 3 major record labels on board, and we could see the service as early as tomorrow.

It's being described as a 'truncated' version of Spotify, allowing users to access a limited catalogue of songs that will not include recent hits. And, as previously report, it sounds like it's going to only be available to subscribers of Amazon Prime...

ESPN Radio talk shows and local NPR stations now airing on iTunes Radio

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Right on cue, Apple's free iTunes Radio service has now started delivering the World Cup 2014 audio stream and other national and global news content from ESPN, as well as over forty new National Public Radio (NPR) stations bringing live programming for news, talk shows and more.

And in addition to the World Cup stream, iTunes Radio now offers original ESPN programs, including such national sports talk shows as SportsCenter All Night, SVP and Russillo, Mike & Mike, The Dan LeBatard Show and The Herd.

As for NPR, a total of 42 NPR stations have made their way to iTunes Radio, including New York Public Radio, San Francisco’s KQED, Washington, D.C.'s WAMU and more, plus a number of popular programs like All Things Considered. Additional iTunes Radio stations are already being planned...

How to use Home Sharing between Mac, iPad, and iPhone

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated September 1, 2025

Learn how to stream music, videos, and movies from your Mac to your iPhone, iPad, or another Mac using Apple’s built-in Home Sharing feature.

iTunes Radio set to stream a bunch of ESPN and NPR stations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple sure seems adamant to bolster up its music ambitions. Shortly after confirming that it's purchasing Beats Electronics and Beats Music in a transaction valued at $3 billion - by far the largest acquisition in company history since the 1997 NeXT deal, we're now hearing some encouraging news concerning iTunes Radio, its Internet radio service.

Specifically, iTunes Radio has now started streaming content from ESPN, including the World Cup stream. Moreover, Apple will be adding a bunch of local NPR stations to the service soon...

Chart of the day: why Apple must buy Beats or build own subscription music product

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty released an interesting chart highlighting the need for an Apple-branded on-demand music streaming product. Currently, the company only sells individual songs or whole albums on iTunes.

The analyst worryingly writes in a note to clients issued Wednesday that iTunes sales are down 24 percent year-on-year. Moreover, Apple's 800 million iTunes users are spending an average of $3.29 on iTunes.

For the sake of clarity, the figure represents combined per-user purchases of music, movies, iOS and Mac apps and more. That being said, Apple is clearly taking a heat due to its refusal to introduce a subscription music service because iTunes users seem to spending more on apps and less on music nowadays...

You can now create mixes from Spotify tracks in Algoriddim’s djay for iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

Germany-based Algoriddim - which develops the popular djay software for the iPhone [$1.99], iPad [$9.99] and Mac [$19.99] - today announced a major partnership with Swedish startup Spotify, which operates the world's leading streaming-music service.

Spotify Premium subscribers and DJ wannabes can now mix any of the more than twenty million Spotify tracks, right inside djay for the iPhone and iPad. This seamless integration extends to such advanced features as Automix Radio, Spotify Match, desktop-class audio effects and pro-grade DJ hardware integration, to name a few.

The newly introduced capabilities are available via a major update to djay for the iPhone and iPad. Based on my brief hands-on time with djay for iPad, I can safely say that Spotify integration has just become a major selling point for these kinds of apps, here's why...

Spotify announces it now has 10 million paying subscribers, 40 million active users

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Spotify has announced that it's surpassed two new major milestones in recent weeks. The streaming service says that it now has more than 10 million paying subscribers and over 40 million active users, in 56 markets around the globe.

For context, Pandora said last month that its active user count for March was 75.3 million. It didn't say how many of those were paid accounts, but looking at its numbers from last year (2.5 million) Spotify may be close to passing it...

WSJ: Apple playing ‘catch up’ with Beats acquisition

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

The disruptor has become the disrupted. Apple, the company that turned the music industry upside down with the launch of the iTunes Store in 2003, saw digital download sales drop for the first time ever last year. Why? Streaming music services.

The folks out in Cupertino failed to see the rise of the Rdios and the Spotifys, and thus have been forced to play catch-up. And according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, that's exactly what this rumored Apple-Beats acquisition is all about...

Cable-cutters, rejoice: HBO shows arriving to Fire TV and Amazon Prime on May 21

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

No one can touch Amazon when it comes to the breadth and size of its content library and today's announcement just reinforces the notion. The online retail giant has cut a landmark and unheard-of deal with Home Box Office Inc. (HBO), an American premium cable and satellite television network that in my opinion has the best original TV shows anywhere.

Under the terms of the exclusive multi-year agreement, both Amazon Prime members and owners of the recently introduced $99 Fire TV set-top box will soon be able to stream HBO's old shows three years after they've aired and at no additional charge. Catch 22: HBO is reserving new shows for existing subscribers and you'll need to subscribe to Amazon's $99 per year Prime Instant Video service.

Still, this is huge. Firstly, you won't need an HBO cable TV subscription at all to stream the shows. And secondly, online-only subscriptions to HBO were previously non-existent. Now, Apple TV owners are able to access HBO content via the HBO GO app on their Home screen, but this requires a subscription with a cable or satellite provider and therefore doesn't appeal to cable-cutters...