music

I was a huge Talking Heads fan and saw the band many times at shows in New York. That was a long time ago. Byrne is still a vital creative force, recording new music, performing, and writing books. He's worked with various media including film, photography, opera, and non-fiction. He's still searching for new creative challenges, which is more than you can say about most aging rock musicians. Byrne's new book, "How Music Works" reads more like an autobiography than a how-to make it in the music business tome.

Byrne is hyper-aware of how technology … Read more

Samsung today kicked off the launch of the Galaxy Music smartphone, an Android 4.0 device with special audio and music features.

The new phone comes with dual stereo speakers in the front along with built-in FM radio and such features as Sound Alive and SRS. Sound Alive pumps up the bass, tone, and clarify of the sound and automatically adjusts the quality based on the type of music. SRS (Sound Retrieval System) adds certain effects to music and tries to reproduce 5.1 surround sound with just two speakers.

The Galaxy Music also offers a dedicated Music key so … Read more

I've always said that if there is ever a time to talk about video games, it's at a college football game. Of course, I'm almost always wrong about these kinds of things. But not this time! I've finally been validated in the form of a halftime show marching band. Check it out.

If you missed it, make sure to watch the running horse at 6:01 -- simply incredible! The sweet tribute to gaming was posted by YouTube user handmrow gobucks, who writes: … Read more

While most classical concert halls deliver the best of Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach, the Boston-based Video Game Orchestra plays tunes from the annals of beloved franchises such as Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and others.

The eclectic musical group -- which weaves a Mannheim Steamroller-esque synthesis of classical music and a rock -- played to a packed house yesterday at the Boston Symphony Hall and completed a major milestone on Kickstarter by generating $40,000 in donations to launch an album recorded from the performance. … Read more

Cricket Wireless's music subscription service, Muve Music, has added another device under its umbrella: the ZTE Engage.

In addition to offering users numerous albums and songs to stream, this midlevel handset is 3G enabled and sports a 4.3-inch WVGA display with a 800x480-pixel resolution.

It also runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 1.4GHz processor.

Furthermore, the Engage sports an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a VGA front-facing camera, and Bluetooth capabilities.

Apple has applied for a patent on wireless listening.

Dubbed "Detachable Wireless Listening Device," the patent application, which popped up on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site today, describes methods by which users of portable media players would be able to listen to tracks through earbuds connected to or disconnected from the device. In the event the earbuds were disconnected from the device, users would still be able to listen by way of a wireless data transmission, such as Bluetooth.… Read more

Looking to help jump-start a new era in annotating Web text, leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz today said that it's investing $15 million in RapGenius, a startup that enables such annotations.

RapGenius was founded on the idea that rap lyrics needed explanation. And given that Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz is a well-known rap devotee, there's an obvious hook that would attract the VC firm to help fund the startup.

"Given that RapGenius is a Web site where people explain rap lyrics, and given that my partner Ben is a noted rap fanatic, your first reaction … Read more

Microsoft is going to be pretty busy on October 26.

Along with the release of its latest Windows operating system, the software giant is also planning to launch its new game console music service, Xbox Music, that day, according to the Verge.

The site reports that Xbox Music will include a subscription offering and a free streaming service supported by ads. It will be available on Windows-powered phones, tablets, PCs, and the Xbox 360.

Microsoft announced the service in June, revamping its Zune Music service to better compete against Apple's iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify. The company, like rival Sony, … Read more