Grandpa’s CD player was an awful piece of technology by many estimations. Purists hated the idea of slicing precious analog sound waves into bits, on philosophical if not auditory grounds. Owners of cassettes and vinyl were justifiably bummed to have to buy everything all over again. And on the label side, that CDs didn’t include the copyright…
We love our music apps, and the smartphones that made it commonplace to carry around advanced, diverse music functionality, rather than relying on a “dumb” iPod or waiting until you get back to your computer to try the cool stuff. However, phones are getting in the way of apps. Case in point: You’re listening to…
These days, many app developers encourage or require you to log in to their apps with Facebook. Not only does this keep their costs down because they don’t have to deal with figuring out who people are and administering the whole password thing, but it often lets them get to your friends, which can be…
Every year, Apple boycotts the Consumer Electronics Show in favor of its own MacWorld, opting instead to hold its own, Apple-only event shortly thereafter — where this year, some of the smart money anticipates an iPad 3 (which would almost certainly be a more exciting announcement than any tablet launched at CES this week). As…
Given that we’ve been entertaining ourselves this week by reliving concerts with OMGig and watching shows on iRocke and Concert Window, I decided that this week’s app round-up would be a good time to explore other apps that deal with concert footage. Here in the northeast we experienced our first snow of the season — a brutal reminder of the…
When you click on a sponsored link on Google, whoever bought that ad pays Google. Advertising generated 96 percent of Google’s revenue last year, even as it crushed the competition on maps, email, and online video, made huge strides with Android, and did everything else it does. From a money point of view, Google is a…
Twitter has been adding special iTunes preview panes to every tweet on Twitter.com for nearly two years. However, when the company first announced that it would be working with Apple’s now-defunct social network iTunes Ping, it didn’t mention that it had joined iTunes’ affiliate program, and has been adding its own iTunes affiliate ID to…
At first blush, you might think the world doesn’t need a new online radio service — not when there are already so many of them, and they’re already so good at what they do. That’s what we thought too, until we delved into Radionomy’s unique offering, which rolls out to United States users for the…
Recently, my editor downloaded a cycling app called Ride the City, which maps urban cycling routes for you based upon road safety. As an early adopter, he was able to get this (reportedly excellent) app for free. When a recent update featuring a slew of new capabilities bumped the price of Ride the City up…
Music Hack Days, hackathons, hack battles, or whatever you want to call them are a real treat, if you’re the type of person who enjoys watching exceedingly clever people build functional music apps and hacks over the course of a single weekend, fueled by a heady mixture of caffeine, beer, and a healthy competitive spirit. They’re…
Nearly three years ago, it was already clear that music apps were going to become a major avenue for all things music, especially for letting artists distribute stuff directly to fans. Some of us even think they could be a major source of music revenue in and of themselves. At the very least, they’re demonstrably…
Smartphones are tricky things. They essentially cram an entire computer into a tiny chassis you can carry around in your pocket, which is pretty convenient. But for music fans, sound quality can suffer as manufacturers cut corners with the audio electronics in the interest of saving space and money. On top of that, the Android…
As noted here on several occasions, Google is way behind Apple (and even Microsoft) when it comes to integrating apps and services with the next hot screen: the television. Apple has AirPlay for sending music and video to televisions. Google has nothing of the sort, but at least now it has a small $300 sphere called…
As a photographer and design lover, I find it hard to exclude an app with a nice-looking interface, so I’ve included an app we overlooked last year in this week’s selection of new music apps. It may not be new, but this recent Apple’s Staff Favorite is really worth a look. This week also brings new…
It’s a good sign that so many people email Evolver.fm with music apps news. We’re not too surprised, given that we’re attracting a growing audience not only here, but on other publications where our articles appear: Wired.com, Gizmodo, CNET, Billboard, Hypebot, midemblog, Huffington Post, and Business Insider, for starters, with more to come. The thing is, we…
