spotify

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

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Where are we? Apple Maps makes a mess.

- Apple can replace broken iPhone 5 screens in the store, says report.

- iPhone 5 gets the teardown treatment.

- Apple accused of ripping off famous Swiss clock design.

- Apple about to make owner of Earpods.com very rich.

- ATTN New Yorkers: Register your gadgets with the NYPD.

- Neil Young says piracy is the new radio and the best way to get your music heard.

Bathroom break video: 1989 Radio Shack Cell Phone Commercial… Read more

The newest version of Spotify's mobile app now features a NFC (near-field communication) sharing ability. This new feature allows users to share albums, artists, playlists, profiles, or search results by tapping NFC-enabled Android devices together. However, it's worth noting that to get the best use of this feature, you'll want to be on a Premium Spotify membership so any shared music content can be played.

To get started, you'll first want to make sure that NFC is supported and turned on for both devices. To do this, press the menu button and then Settings. When the … Read more

Well, the iPhone event finally happened, and now we have nothing to talk about.

Just kidding!

We decided that everyone must be sick of talking about the new iPhone, so we did everyone a favor -- including ourselves -- and talked about everything but that. Hallelujah!

On this week's show, we continue to not care about HTC's possible tablets; we talk to TechCrunch's favorite sources and learn that a browser-based version of Spotify might be in the works; and on Thursday we will finally learn Wii U pricing and its release date -- that's almost two … Read more

Spotify is preparing to launch a browser-based version of its popular music service, according to a report.

It's unknown whether the new product will replace the current desktop version, which requires downloading a player, TechCrunch reports, citing unnamed sources. Spotify is currently available by way of the downloadable desktop software or by mobile app.

A browser-based version of Spotify would be available to users on any PC, rather than just the one with the downloaded player.

According to TechCrunch's sources, Spotify is also working to improve the ways users can discover new music. Spotify listeners can already subscribe … Read more

Music-streaming services are big business for labels and even the companies that offer them. But for artists, they're not so great.

Josh Davison, a member of the band Parks and Gardens, yesterday took to Twitter to divulge the exceedingly small amount he and his fellow musicians make from streaming on iTunes Match and Spotify. According to Davison, each time one of his songs streams on iTunes Match, the band makes $0.00330526797710. When that same song plays on Spotify, the band makes $0.00966947678815. In other words, if Davison wants to make just one cent off a song play, … Read more

I occasionally catch a glimpse of what my Spotify-using Facebook friends are listening to when their activity flashes by on Facebook's sidebar, and I can see published playlists on Spotify of the few friends that endeavored to publish such playlists. Other than these two outlets, my Spotify experience thus far has been rather a solitary one. Until I installed Swarm.fm.

Swarm.fm is a Spotify app. It can be found in the App Finder, which you can access in the Apps section in Spotify's left panel. After installing, you'll see a Swarm.fm entry gets added … Read more

If you're one of the 15 to 26 million people who use Spotify to listen to music on the regular, you'd probably appreciate being able to control it remotely from your iPhone, Android, or other device, so you don't have to walk over to your computer, Android, or iPhone in order to skip a song, queue up a new playlist or album, and so on.

Luckily for you, we've found several apps that let you do exactly that, whether you're trying to control Spotify on a Mac, Windows, or even an iOS or Android … Read more