spotify

Ever since Spotify launched its API for mobile developers last August, engineers have been hard at work designing apps that integrate the music service into iOS.

Now there's one that could spell trouble for Pandora--SpotON Radio.

This app by Swedish Application Development was released January 8 and is free (for now); SpotON Radio allows iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users stream music directly on their devices--much like Pandora Radio. Features include access to more than 15 million tracks from Spotify and the ability to create personal radio stations, like and dislike songs, and share music with friends.

However, … Read more

Music retailers sound ready to uncork the champagne on the news that overall sales for the music industry rose for the first time in seven years.

Overall sales were up just a modest 3 percent in 2011, Nielsen Soundscan reported yesterday, but from the music industry's point of view, any increase is manna from heaven. It was common during the 7-year slump to see double-digit declines.

Jim Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, the trade group representing music retailers, called the yearly sales figures "significantly positive."

According to Nielsen, digital album sales came in … Read more

Rhapsody has capped off a big year by going bald.

The streaming-music company announced today that it now has over 1 million paid subscribers. Its growth has pushed the average number of songs played per day to 10 million, the company added.

To celebrate the achievement, Rhapsody President Jon Irwin shaved his head to make good on his promise to employees if the company hit 1 million paid subscribers.

"We've accomplished quite a bit over the past decade, so it's no small statement to say that 2011 was probably our biggest year yet," Irwin said in … Read more

Are you ready for change? Facebook has once again redesigned your favorite social network, changing privacy options, adding new features (like the ticker), and killing off profiles in favor of Timelines.

Although we can't help you accept change (it's always tough), there's a great selection of tutorials, tips, and tricks that we put together to help you through the transition.

Find out everything you need to know about the redesign, including how to configure your Timeline, adjust hidden privacy options, and tweak Facebook's features.

To get Facebook Timeline right now, go here and click &… Read more

Who are the people making decisions at the big labels? Do they bear any resemblance, in appearance or attitude, to the people listening to the songs they sell?

Or do they look like those men in the photograph of Ray Charles, the one taken in 1965 when he was negotiating a new contract with ABC Records? There's Ray, laughing and laid back, the image of cool. But down the long conference-room table is a group that is almost comically uncool: graying, balding, sober men all wearing dark suits.

But that was a long time ago, and that's not … Read more

PARIS--Music-streaming service Spotify has followed in the footsteps of rival Pandora with radio stations, a way to let people listen to songs the service selects.

"We've built a radio app on top of our platform," said Spotify co-founder and Chief Executive Daniel Ek, announcing the app today at the LeWeb show here. And he lost no time baiting his rival: "It's kind of like Pandora, but with unlimited skipping and unlimited stations."

Spotify until now has been about playing specific songs or albums that a subscriber chooses. With stations, the subscriber chooses a category, … Read more

NEW YORK--Maybe because we're so used to the app platforms from iTunes, Android, and Facebook that Spotify's announcement today that it too is building such a platform doesn't inspire much awe.

Or maybe it's because the new apps that the company demonstrated today at a press event here don't do much that's new. It also didn't help that Daniel Ek, the streaming-music service's CEO and co-founder, didn't have much else to announce other than the new app platform. Not only did we not get any download store or video offering, which … Read more

Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek held a press conference in New York today to announce the Spotify Platform, which allows developers to create apps that link into the streaming music service's vast library of songs.

Early partners developing apps for the new platform include Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, and Fuse.

We used Cover It Live to live-blog the press conference, so if you missed it, you can either read an edited transcript below, or replay it in the embedded component at the end of this post. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with … Read more

Spotify said today that it was opening its server up to developers who can create apps that link into the streaming music service's vast library of songs.

Essentially, the company plans to turn its service into a platform for developers, who can build HTML 5-based apps that CEO Daniel Ek says are "seamlessly integrated, both visually and functionally."

"We're opening up the platform in way that really makes Spotify yours," Ek said during a press conference today.

The Swedish company is hoping to emulate the success seen by Apple and Facebook, which have created … Read more