Music

New report sheds light on Apple’s ambitious music plans

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Apple doesn't just want to compete in the music business, it wants to be the music business, according to a new report from Billboard. Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, the outlet has shed some light on the company's ambitious plans for the record industry.

Beats co-founder and Apple executive Jimmy Iovine has apparently been holding secret meetings with senior executives from many record labels in recent weeks. The discussions are of course protected by non-disclosure agreements, but details are beginning to trickle out.

Shazam brings tighter Spotify/Rdio integration, streamlined charts and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2015

Shazam, a media identification service, on Monday released an update to its iOS application in the App Store.

The enhancements include deeper integration with Spotify and Rdio with the ability to listen to full tracks and rate them with the player, more reliable saving of your Shazams to a dedicated playlist in Spotify or Rdio, consolidated charts and other goodies.

Both the free Shazam 8.3 app for the iPhone and iPad and the $7 Shazam Encore have received these new features in their respective updates.

Poll: where do you get your music from?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

The future of digital music is anything but certain, even less so given that fewer and fewer people nowadays choose to buy MP3s and physical CDs amid the proliferation of streaming services spearheaded by Spotify, the popular music-streaming service hailing from Sweden.

Of course, Spotify is but one in the sea of local and global music sources vying for your attention.

On top of Spotify and the likes of Pandora and Rdio are incumbents such as Apple, Amazon and Google that offer both à la carte song downloads and all-you-can-eat subscriptions. We're interested to learn about our readership's favorite music sources and are kindly inviting you to jump past the fold and cast your vote.

New Apple video shows how artists can make music with iPad in radical new ways

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Apple published a new video to its website and YouTube channel Sunday, highlighting how some artists use iPad to make music. Featuring recording artist Elliphant, the one minute long video discretely showcases a few apps used by the musician to create music in a radical new way.

ControlAir: control your Mac media apps with simple gestures

Sébastien Page ∙ February 5, 2015

Gone are the days when we had to painfully reach for the mouse, drag the cursor around the screen, and click to pause, play, or skip a song in iTunes. All sarcasm aside, there are times when it's just not that practical to either reach for the keyboard or the mouse to control the music playing on your Mac, and this is an experience ControlAir is trying to improve.

ControlAir is a new Mac app that gives users touch-free control over their media and entertainment apps. Using ControlAir, users can just lean back and control music and video applications using air gestures, without ever having to touch the keyboard or the mouse.

Beats Music revamp details: deep iOS integration, Android app and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 4, 2015

Back in September, Re/code learned that Apple was looking to unveil a reworked, re-branded Beats Music service in early February of this year, possibly even in time for the Grammy Awards.

Now 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman casts new light on Apple's plans for Beats Music, revealing in his Wednesday morning report that a yet-to-be-named music service will be paid for, entirely Apple-designed and based on Beats’ technologies and music content.

HTC rap anthem takes ad wars to the next level, disses Apple and Samsung

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 3, 2015

Somebody thought a rap music video about HTC would be a nice excuse to blast Samsung and Apple. In what could quite possibly mark the worst Apple ad attack ever, the cringeworthy hip hop anthem titled “Hold the Crown” sings praise to the HTC M8 handset while dissing competition.

“Your phone was all glass, why you changed your tune now?,” hip hop artists Greg Carr aka “Doc G” of the musical group P.M. Dawn raps in the video.

“Your chip is slower, but you'll never touch our BoomSound,” the lyrics continue. Accusing “more than a few clowns” who stole “what we originated”, the music video goes on to proclaim HTC as the master of the universe and paint “your Galaxy” as “overrated”.

Sign of the times: Apple stops reporting iPod sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

The original iPod music player debuted on October 23, 2001, about eight and a half months after iTunes for OS X was released. The inaugural model was the size of a standard deck of cards, measuring 2.4 inches wide, four inches tall and 0.78 inches thick.

The music player had a tiny hard drive with only five gigabytes of storage, a monochromatic LCD screen, a mechanical click wheel interface for going through your music and a price tag of $399.

It took some time, but the iPod and the iTunes Music Store eventually went on to change the entire music industry and rebrand Apple as a music company. And now, after thirteen years, 400 million units sold and $65 billion in cumulative revenue, the iPod has quietly disappeared from Apple’s public reports.

SoundCloud for iPad finally gets its facelift, but drops the audio recording feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 29, 2015

SoundCloud, an online audio distribution platform hailing from Berlin, Germany, has finally refreshed its user interface on iPads, following a major revamp on the iPhone and iPod touch side last summer.

And just like the iPhone revamp, the more visual iPad experience with an emphasis on album art in the new SoundCloud 3.7.1 comes with a major disappointment as the audio recording feature has now been killed.

Spotify arriving to PlayStation as Sony axes its ill-fated Music Unlimited service

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Sony has finally pulled the plug on its unsuccessful music-streaming service, Music Unlimited.

Destined to be shut down on March 29, 2015, it'll be succeeded by a new Sony service called PlayStation Music and based entirely on the Spotify service and its backend.

From the get-go, the new service will have full access to over 30 million songs and 1.5 billion playlists on Spotify.

PlayStation Music will be debuting this Spring in 41 markets and be available on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles, as well as on the Xperia smartphones and tablets. Support for other mobile and desktop devices will be added at a later stage.

TodayRemote is a widget with iTunes playback controls

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

With Apple’s Remote app, you can access your computer’s iTunes playback controls so you don’t have to get off the couch to switch songs. But, unlocking your iPhone, opening the app, and selecting your device is still just way too much work.

TodayRemote lets you control playback of iTunes right from the Lock screen of your iPhone. You’ll never have to work for your music again.

Pandora’s iOS revamp launches with Thumb History, new mini player and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2015

The iPhone edition of Pandora Radio, a music streaming service with more than 75 million listeners each month, has just received a visual makeover. The company previewed it almost two months ago, though the iPad edition hasn't been refreshed today.

Version 5.7 of Pandora Radio sports a cleaned-up appearance with fancy new transitions and animations. In addition to the facelift, the iPhone app also includes enhanced station personalization capabilities, improved artist discovery, greater use of thumbing and much more.