playlist

Apple's Remote app has taken another step forward, now optimized for the larger screens on iPads, Retina Displays on iPhone 4s, and with added support for shared libraries on iTunes or the new Apple TV.

If you don't already have the Remote app on your iOS device, get it. Remote allows you to control your iTunes and Apple TV libraries from anywhere on your Wi-Fi network. You can even make playlists right from your iPhone or iPad, search your library for songs, and view album artwork for your music.

Remote also supports AirPlay remote speakers, allowing you to … Read more

Round up the usual suspects.

Playlist.com filed for bankruptcy protection and undoubtedly the major record companies will be blamed. In filing for Chapter 11 on August 6, the music service reported that it has $2.2 million in total assets (only $203,000 in cash) and owes the four largest record companies a combined $25 million.

For years, online music stores have claimed consumers just don't spend enough on music anymore to support big licensing fees. Label critics will argue case closed, greedy record executives caused Playlist's downfall. The story, however, is much more nuanced.

While licensing … Read more

Music service Playlist.com, formerly known as Project Playlist, has filed for Chapter 11, the start-up said Friday.

"The company expects to conduct business as usual and emerge from Chapter 11 as quickly as possible," Playlist said in a statement.

In July, CNET reported that the company had run into money trouble and was looking for funding.

Playlist.com enables users to create and share digital music playlists with friends. A couple of years ago, the service had built a reputation as a potential challenger to some of the other ad-supported music services, such as MySpace Music and … Read more

Muzix is a music jukebox application for the iPhone and the iPod Touch that is centered around on-the-go playback queue creation, a feature not offered by the onboard player. The free app offers a reasonable amount of functionality and a fun way to interact with your music, but the interface isn't the most intuitive we've come across. Still, for those who loathe iTunes but love making playlists, Muzix is worth checking out.

Before you get started with Muzix, you should know that the experience is more visually thrilling if all of your music has album art attached. The … Read more

If you're bored with building playlists in iTunes or other music players, a simple free application called Playlost displays all the MP3s in your music library as a randomized hexagonal grid in your Web browser. Then, you can create playlists by connecting adjacent nodes.

The app comes in a ZIP file with two components. First you have to run the Library Scanner, a Java application. It took about 30 seconds to scan my entire library, and found about 400 MP3 files. One word of caution: if you rip your CDs in iTunes, they're probably in the MPEG-4 (.m4a) … Read more

Playlist.com, the music service once known as Project Playlist, is low on funds, multiple music industry sources told CNET on Friday.

Just a year ago, the site could boast 38 million registered users; Owen Van Natta, a highly respected former Facebook exec, as its CEO; and Bob Pittman, the MTV and Time Warner exec, as an investor. Since then, the site has suffered through dwindling user numbers, a management shakeup, and has struggled to raise money, the sources said.

Unless Playlist.com, which enables users to create and share song playlists with friends, attracts a significant amount of investment, … Read more

If you're craving a mix for a specific mood or activity and you want to limit the DJ powers to a certain set of people, SongVote is the service for you. This extremely nifty (and completely free) Web-based app lets users create collaborative playlists based on a simple time-restrained voting system. Using it is ridiculously straightforward: visit the site; create a theme-, event-, or activity-based contest; and then sit back and wait for the votes to roll in. Once the time is up (based on an end-date you specify), SongVote provides a final playlist based upon the results of … Read more

According to a study conducted by Slacker in 2007, about 70 percent of music enthusiasts don't want to spend hours creating the perfect playlists, meaning that unless you're a DJ--or just really hard-core about music arrangement--you'd probably prefer to just listen to your library on shuffle or have someone else do the mixing for you. Internet radio stations such as Pandora and Slacker, and social recommendation sites such as iLike and Last.fm already do a good job providing the latter.

However, if you're craving a mix for a specific mood or activity--or if you want to limit the DJ powers to a specific set of personal acquaintances--Songvote is the service for you. This extremely nifty (and completely free) Web-based app lets users create collaborative playlists based on a simple time-restrained voting system. Using it is ridiculously straightforward: visit the site; create a theme-, event-, or activity-based contest; and then sit back and wait for the votes to roll in. Once the time is up (based on an end date you specify), Songvote provides a final playlist based upon the results of the voting. Each mix also includes direct links to AmazonMP3 and iTunes to spur song purchasing.

… Read more

Two of the largest recording companies have withdrawn a copyright lawsuit against music service Playlist.com, formerly known as Project Playlist.

The fledgling music service has reached a settlement with Universal Music Group, the largest of the four top recording companies, after the sides negotiated a business arrangement. Terms of the agreement were not released. Warner Music Group has also agreed to drop the lawsuit, but whether Warner will allow the service to offer its music is unclear.

"While it was unfortunate that legal action was necessary, we are pleased to have resolved this litigation in an amicable manner,&… Read more