The clear and present shift from computers to phones-that-act-sort-of-like-computers passed a major milestone last quarter, according to a recent report. The electronics industry shipped more smartphones in the U.S. than they did personal computers for the first time says a prominent consultant, echoing an early IDC report posted by Forbes that said the same. “For…
Laptops get stolen. Desktops are regularly damaged by every conceivable household assailant, from the inconsiderate roommate to the out-of-control pet. Meanwhile, laptops malfunction if you like to carry them around without shutting them down — an easy mistake to make, because they’re designed to be carried around. So what’s an iPhone owner to do when they need…
It’s notoriously difficult to convince people to pay a buck for an MP3. But what about the same song delivered as an interactive remix and recording app? MusicShake, a Korean company that made a name for itself with an impressive little web remix app back in ’07, hopes people will pay $3 for an interactive iOS…
Love them, hate them, or simply don’t care, but just don’t deny that the tastemakers at Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound hold massive sway over the music scene. In an era when many music blogs are content simply to throw up an MP3 and a blurb, their reviewers stubbornly post relatively long-form music reviews, although…
One might imagine that Bain and Company, a global consulting firm with thousands of employees in offices all over the world, could produce a chart accurately depicting music sales over the past few decades. Sadly, that did not appear to be the case. Evolver.fm was duped by a phoney-baloney chart from Bain’s January 2011 “Publishing in…
Industry insiders and digital music fans alike have been abuzz ever since Apple boldly announced that it would claim 30 percent of revenue on an ongoing basis from apps that sell subscriptions to content within the iTunes — everything from magazines and newspapers, to, apparently, digital music, movies, and other forms of content. Unless Apple…
Microsoft’s reputation may no longer be seen as a stodgy, business-oriented company, thanks to the success of its XBox platform, but it’s still not cool enough to convince gamers to pay for music. At Digital Music Forum East on Thursday morning, perennial moderator Ted Cohen pressed Microsoft on how its music subscription is doing —…
The real Steve Jobs and the real Dr. Dre share a penchant for creating music technology, Jobs with iPod/iTunes and Dre with his Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones and speakers. Both have fictional alter egos: Fake Steve Jobs, and the version of Dr. Dre put forth by drdrestartedburningman.tumblr.com, which claims that Dre invested in…
We don’t do much reporting about executives’ comings and goings here, but this one is just too juicy to pass up. None other than Queen Latifah has joined the board of Indaba Music, a web recording app that lets amateur, semi-pro, and pro musicians collaborate on recordings together, either using a Flash-based online recording studio…
The oracle of Cupertino has spoken once again, revealing more about Apple’s plan to charge certain developers of subscription apps 30 percent of revenue for selling subscription apps within the iTunes App Store. However, the future for music subscription services like MOG, Rhapsody, Napster, Rdio, and Spotify remains hazy. Here’s what Jobs wrote in an…
Sure, you could labor painstakingly on photo slideshows of your friends, interlace their snapshots with images of their interests, all set to a song by Rick Astley, Vanilla Ice, or any other number of artists that instantly make a mockery of whatever their music is synched to, upload them somewhere, and send out the link to…
The art of DJ-ing a club or even choosing a playlist for a local restaurant or bar is not just about making yourself happy — it’s mainly about factoring in the predilections of the clientele. After all, nobody wants to choose a track that clears the dancefloor or has a venue’s customers reaching for their coats. Youzakk…
As anti-government protests rage in Bahrain, the mood of its citizens is “triumphant” and “warlike,” if the music they are listening to is any indication. The most popular song in Bahrain within the past hour or so according to Last.fm is Fates Warning’s “The Ivory Gate of Dreams pt. 3,” a heavy metal song that…
“Social media” has become such an overused buzzword that one can easily forget that the term refers to a real phenomenon experienced by actual people, rather than a way in which marketers sell deoderant. JSONloops, originally presented at Music Hack Day New York, takes the very real social listening concept recently manifested in Listening Room,…
Digital music is already a remarkably easy thing to consume, as far as entertainment goes — or anything else for that matter. It’s pretty much everywhere you look, so long as you only look at things that have screens. But when it comes to providing a “lean back” experience, meaning that the consumer is left…
