spotify

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

In the late 1990s, one of the original portable music file formats -- the MP3 -- was causing quite a bit of bother. It had earned itself a reputation as a pirate format, and this was mainly due to the sharing site Napster, which was at the height of its notoriety. While MP3 inevitably prevailed, there is a much better choice for high-quality music, and it's gaining in popularity.

FLAC is a musical file format that offers bit-perfect copies of CDs at half the size, and is compatible with many phones (including the iPhone -- with an app), MP3 … Read more

While we all patiently wait for Justin Yu's airline troubles to dissipate, CNET editors David Carnoy and Ty Pendlebury join Jeff on the show to chat about the world of self-publishing, the best places to find FLAC music, Microsoft Surface, Xbox Music, and the places you're most likely to break your iPhone.

Topics from today's show:

- Check out David's new book "The Big Exit." Or, for a chance to win a digital or hardcover copy, send an e-mail with "The Big Exit" in the subject line to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com.

- Microsoft Surface dates and prices

- Don't worry, the iPad Mini will come in just 24 easy-to-understand versions.

- Xbox Music is coming. Don't call it Zune!

- Ty's FLAC music-finding guide

- Where you're most likely to break your iPhone. … Read more

Microsoft plans to use the full force of its dominant Windows operating system to challenge iTunes and Spotify in the digital music business.

The software giant has baked its new 30-million-track Xbox Music service into Windows 8, making it the default way for users to listen to songs. The service, which CNET first reported in February and the company announced in June, will let users stream music for free, creating custom playlists, as long as they're willing to hear occasional ads. They can also subscribe to an ad-free version for $9.99 a month. And users can buy and … Read more

Owners of Samsung's astonishingly thin 2012 smart TVs will soon have another app to play with: Spotify. A deal has just been inked that will give Spotify Premium subscribers in Europe access to millions of streamed tracks and their playlists directly through the set. That means you'll need to pay a small monthly charge to Spotify get it to work -- in the U.K. that's 10 pounds ($16) per month.

The app has a different interface to the one you may be used to from the desktop application, and has been designed to work with a TV remote. It's very similar to the one I use at home on my Virgin TiVo box -- take a look at the gallery above to see what it looks like.

… Read more

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

Spotify's financial performance in 2011 was abysmal.

As revenue increased 151 percent from 2010, the on-demand streaming music service saw losses widen 60 percent for the same period, according to documents posted today by PrivCo, a company that sells data on non-publicly traded companies.

A Spotify spokeswoman told CNET that the numbers posted to PrivCo.'s site were accurate. But it turns out that the figures aren't exactly new. They were first reported in August by The Wall Street Journal, which tucked them into a story titled "Spotify to launch in Canada" and the revelation failed … Read more

One of the creators of Skype has announced a new addition to his digital music service Rdio.

Janus Friis says the Rdio Artist Program is designed to give musicians a better alternative to iTunes Match or Spotify, where some complain that commission rates based on the number of times a song is streamed leaves an artist with almost nothing.

With Rdio, uploaders earn $10 for every new subscriber they lure to the service. The platform pays artists to share both music and recommendations on social-networking sites including Facebook and Twitter -- promoting the company as well as themselves.

San Francisco-based … Read more

Any entrepreneur taking a crack at a digital music startup must either be super determined, completely crazy, or a both. The chances of legal run-ins with the labels are high. And even when you play by the rules, the rights payments are so steep that making a profitable business is all but impossible.

Yet this isn't deterring Jeff Yasuda, a 40-year-old venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who's been doggedly running music startups since 2006. His latest, Fuzz (the same name as his first startup), comes out of stealth mode today after a year of building a team -- one … Read more