pandora

Windows Phone 8 users can access 46 of top 50 apps

Windows Phone 8 is getting a big app boost, with the platform now featuring 46 out of the 50 most heavily used mobile apps.

"That's huge progress for us," Joe Belfiore, manager of Microsoft's Windows Phone program, said during a presentation today.

There are now 120,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace. That's pretty good for Microsoft, but it still falls well short of Android and iOS. Apple last month said its store had 700,000 applications, while Google said its Play store offered 675,000.

Microsoft has been working closely with app developers … Read more

Is Spotify unfair to musicians?

Is $10, or the price of a few Starbucks lattes, really too much to pay for an album? Is $10 really too much to support musicians well enough they'll want to record more music? I still play LPs I bought when I was a teenager, and I can't think of anything else I still use from that part of my life. Those records are, if anything, more valuable to me now then they were then. I'm old enough to remember when record companies were freaking out about kids making cassette copies of albums, but producer and engineer … Read more

Pandora, music labels gird for Web-radio battle

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Pandora and the major record labels were busy this week drawing up battle plans and forming alliances in preparation for a coming Capitol Hill fight over the royalty rates Webcasters are required to pay for music.

CNET has learned that representatives from the three largest music-recording companies, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, plan to meet early next week with some of the industry's top artist managers in New York to discuss strategy about how to block passage of the Internet Radio Fairness Act.

The legislation seeks to reduce the rates … Read more

Get Spotify Premium free for 60 days

A couple quick housekeeping notes before we dive into today's deal...

First, I've heard one too many complaints from readers about 1SaleADay's slow shipping and poor customer service. I've asked the company to comment on these issues, but have yet to receive a response. Until I do, I won't be sharing any more of its deals. I'm not saying you shouldn't patronize the company, only that you should expect slow shipping and little-to-no information about your shipment.

Second, I get a quite a lot of reader mail, and I apologize that I can'… Read more

Apple's proposed Web radio service is no certainty

Apple is working hard to convince the major record companies to buy into its plan for a Web radio service, but some at the labels don't like what they're hearing.

Bloomberg reported this afternoon that Apple's negotiations with the three top labels have "intensified" over an ad-support Web radio service that Apple hopes to launch early next year. But music industry executives who spoke with CNET said that some decision makers at the big record companies want Apple to sweeten the offer.

The negotiations are ongoing so the terms could change, but the sources said … Read more

Find it and recover it with Pandora Recovery Wizard

Pandora Recovery Wizard is a free tool that helps you locate and recover lost or deleted files from your system. You can browse for files in the main window's tree view, but the easiest way to recover files is with Pandora's wizard, which holds users' hands at every step of the critical process. It can recover deleted files, provided they haven't been severely damaged or securely overwritten.

Pandora Recovery Wizard opened with both its main interface and the program's recovery wizard, which we could set to open each time by clicking a check box. The wizard … Read more

Pandora offers song and dance about music sales

Pandora's represents a golden opportunity for artists to cash in on Internet radio, co-founder Tim Westergren wrote today.

To prove his case, Westergren rolled out some heady numbers. He noted that three little-known artists are on track to make $100,000 in performance fees from Pandora. Westergren says that the Web's top radio service will pay over $10,000 each to 2,000 individual artists over the next 12 months.

Some 800 artists will receive payments of $50,000 or more. Artists such as Coldplay, Adele Wiz Khalifa, Jason Aldean will receive $1 million or more and Drake … Read more

Pandora defeats privacy suit over Facebook integration

When Pandora was sued for alleged privacy missteps following Facebook integration, it was headline news, with one report saying the Internet radio company had stumbled "into the minefield of privacy lawsuits that are blowing up all over the tech industry." Even the Federal Trade Commission was dragged in.

But that minefield was a dud: A federal court has now tossed out the lawsuit, ruling that no "actual injury" was caused by the April 2010 partnership between Facebook and Pandora that allowed users to tie their accounts together.

The suit claimed violations of an obscure pre-Internet era … Read more

Music publisher blocked iPhone 5 music service, report says

A Pandora-like streaming service could have debuted with last week's iPhone 5 launch if negotiations between Apple and Sony/ATV had not failed, according to a published report.

Sony/ATV, which is owned by Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson, wanted Apple to pay a higher fee for each song played than Apple was willing to shell out, according to the New York Post.

News broke earlier this month that Apple was considering the idea of creating a streaming-music service similar to that of Pandora, the online-radio service. Typically, a music distributor will just pay the statutory rate … Read more