I’ll admit it: I tend to listen to the same music in my collection, and I suspect others do the same. It’s too easy to focus on certain artists and albums at the expense of other favorites. We’ve probably all had that surprise moment where random shuffle reminds us of a great song that had…
In the olden days, most of the music on music fans’ hard drives came from P2P networks and ripped CDs. If Apple’s vision of the music cloud proves dominant, the future will resemble that past, perhaps with MP3s downloaded from music blogs replacing CD ripping. Steve Jobs didn’t believe people wanted to rent music, which…
Back in June, Google was said to be launching a music store possibly by this fall. Now that it’s fall, Google has reportedly been telling labels that its music store, and possibly subscription service (not to be confused with Google Music Beta locker), will launch by the end of 2011. This would constitute the third in a string of music announcements…
With new personal cloud music services cropping up like mushrooms in a cow pie, no one should be left out of the game. That includes the Linux-heads, you rebels. It’s only fair — after all, a Linux server most likely babysits your music on other services anyway; Google’s Music Beta, iTunes, and even Apple’s iCloud…
Most music blogs operate on a shoestring budget. Not so Google Magnifier, unveiled by the search advertising giant on Wednesday afternoon to help music fans discover music, learn more about the bands they like, and add free tracks to their Music Beta by Google lockers. Yes, Google has entered the content business. While it has collaborated…
Google’s new to the party, and Apple hasn’t even shown up yet, but mSpot has been helping people build their own cloud music services since 2007 — first by letting them stream songs from their PCs to their smartphones, and now, by hosting it in the cloud so you can play it on your computer,…
Music lockers are a big story this year, in part because big players like Apple and Google are getting involved. But smaller companies, such as tunesBag, have offered music lockers for years, allowing music fans to build their own cloud music services. Our fresh look at tunesBag found that while it has lots of options…
You have to hand it to Apple… or do you? The company’s demand that companies offering subscriptions to everything from magazines to music services through iOS hand over 30 percent of resulting revenue to the company could be backfiring already. Apple’s projected revenue from other companies’ sale of iTunes apps is a big reason its stock price is…
Mixcloud has complemented its popular web app with an iPhone app bringing a world of carefully-programmed music — DJ sets, talk and music podcasts (remember those?), and radio segments — to Apple’s smartphone. If DJs are your rockstars, Mixcloud for Apple iOS is right up your alley. But wait, what’s a “cloudcast”? “Cloudcast is a…
Waiting for Spotify to launch in the United States is the new waiting for the Beatles to appear in iTunes. I tweeted that back in February, and still, we’re waiting for Spotify, which has been available in Europe for two and a half years now, to launch in the States. Why are Americans still locked out of…
As some of the biggest tech companies in the world, Amazon, Apple and Google, attempt to solve the cloud music riddle, mSpot — which has offered a cloud music locker since last year — has a new answer. On Thursday, the company unveiled a one-of-a-kind music service called mSpot Radio Spotter, which streams customized streaming…
For over a decade now, you’ve been able to store your music on a server in the cloud and stream it to yourself on computers and even mobile devices – but until now, that was mostly the domain of geeks and folks like me whose job it was to test the stuff. Oh, how times have…
Google announced a cloud-based music service at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. The free service, Music Beta by Google, now open to the public by invitation only, duplicates already-widely-available functionality by allowing users to upload up to 20,000 music files to a central server and stream it to computers and Android devices —…
Spotify, which most Americans still can’t use, broke one million paying subscribers in Europe last month on the strength of its cloud-based music service, which lets free subscribers stream music effortlessly to any computer, and paid subscribers to mobile devices as well. As perhaps another sign that the company is preparing (still) a U.S. version…
Amazon’s cloud music locker is already live, and Apple and Google are working on lockers of their own, but veteran Orb Networks has two big advantages, as the concept of storing music in the cloud and accessing it on multiple devices hits the mainstream. It’s been doing this since 2004, and lets users build their own…
