Digital music

I admit it. I enjoy a good firmware upgrade.

There's nothing like a software fix to make you feel better about your device, especially if it adds new features while eliminating bugs. But not every firmware upgrade is good. Sometimes things go horribly wrong. Which is what happened recently when I updated Jawbone's little Jambox Bluetooth speaker to version 2.0.

The update gave me something called LiveAudio, a "technological breakthrough" that would let me experience my music, games, video "like never before"--as if I was, "on stage, in the action, hearing it live." Furthermore, this immersive, three-dimensional listening experience brought "incredible depth, detail, and unprecedented spatial realism to everything from mp3s to special binaural recordings."

Based on the promo material, I expected a lot; I wanted in on the 2.0 LiveAudio action. Wanted it bad. … Read more

Spotify is a great way to listen to full songs and albums online, but many people neglect to take advantage of all the unique music-sharing features that are baked into the program.

Fortunately, it just takes a minute to get up to speed on the many different ways Spotify allows you to share your musical discoveries with the world (or just your closest friends). After checking out the video and slideshow, check out more great Spotify tutorials on CNET's How To blog.

You know something is good when it feels illegal. Such is the case with Spotify, the on-demand music-streaming service that seems too good to be true--or, certainly, too good to be free. Yet, here it is, the "celestial jukebox" we've been dreaming of since the days of illegal gorging on the original Napster. It's called Spotify, it's finally available in the U.S., and music fans have reason to cheer.

What it does What Spotify does is so simple and seemingly harmless, it's actually a sad comment on humanity that it counts as a … Read more

Forget the tools and ties for dear old Dad this Father's Day. What he really wants is the Beastie Boys' new tunes on vinyl--or so the message goes from a new video uploaded to YouTube by the band on June 15.

Because of an Internet leak of the Beastie Boys' "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two" album, the band was forced to stream the entire thing (the explicit version), on its Web site before the actual June release date. By the end of April, the CDs and digital downloads of the album were (and are) made available on iTunes, Amazon, and Best Buy.

The focus for this new video, however, is on the sale of the vinyl format, which Mike D. says "...will be slightly different than the other formats. But please know that our corps of engineers and experts have been on this, making sure the wait is worth it and that I can personally tell you that in my humble opinion, the test pressing of the vinyl sounded banging on my home hi fi." … Read more

At WWDC 2011, Apple finally revealed its plans for taking the pain out of using its bloated iTunes desktop software. Apple's solution: let it rot.

Maybe that's an indelicate way to phrase it, but in essence, Apple is carving out multiple ways users can sync their precious iTunes content (photos, music, apps) across all their iOS devices without physically connecting hardware to a computer and dealing with any of the old headaches of the iTunes desktop software.

To make this happen, Apple is adding wireless Wi-Fi syncing to all iOS devices with iOS 5, along with a new suite of features under the umbrella of iCloud that will push your music purchases, photos, calendars, contacts, and other content across all your iOS devices. Best of all, these new cable-emancipating capabilities come free of charge.

You'll need to wait for the fall release of iOS 5 to enjoy Wi-Fi syncing and the instant push of iCloud media, but there is one new feature you can start enjoying right now. In the current version of iOS (4.3.3), users can now activate a Store setting that enables automatic downloading of purchased music to registered iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). Switching this on makes it so any iTunes music purchases made on your computer or any other iOS device will be automatically downloaded and saved on your device over Wi-Fi or 3G. Song downloads are still high-quality 256kbps AAC files, and there is a limit of up to 10 registered devices.

If you don't feel like downloading all of your previous music purchases, a new tab within the iTunes Store app will allow you to selectively download any previously purchased songs or albums. … Read more

Google's long-awaited cloud music service has arrived. It's called Music Beta; it's free (for now, and currently invite-only); and after giving it a test-drive, I'm happy to report that the whole system is fairly smooth.

From the perspective of the end-user, the payoff of Music Beta is to have your entire music collection in the cloud, available to stream instantly from any browser or Android-based device (phone, tablet, Google TV). Out of the box, a new Android smartphone or tablet can tap into your music collection within minutes, with no computer syncing required. That's pretty … Read more

It always seems like the best concerts are the ones you hear about too late. But who has time to scour the show listings in the local paper or habitually check a band's Web site for tour dates?

There's a better way. In fact, there are so many sites out there promising personalized concert recommendations, I figured a roundup was in order. So here you are, five sites that will put you in tune with the best live music in your area, using data from your favorite music sites and services:

… Read more

This afternoon, an e-mail popped into my inbox that--at first glance--looked ripe for immediate deletion. The word "Wal-Mart" in the subject was what set me off. But in that split second before my finger went down to send the message into oblivion, something else caught my eye. And, well, I'll let the e-mail do the talking:

Coming upon this note today--in January 2011--made me chuckle, sigh, and shake my head all in the span of about 30 seconds. Really, it's quite depressing to be reminded that there are still people out there who are stuck dealing … Read more

It can be a challenge to maintain a pristine music collection once you've migrated to a digital library. With all the moving, copying, downloading, ripping, and transferring files that sometimes goes on, many of us are bound to end up with some duplicate tracks scattered around our hard drives. If you want to get things all nice and tidy again--not to mention clear up some space on your computer--Similarity is here to help. This fairly basic utility scans your system for music files and helps you locate and delete dupes.

Check out Similarity on Download.com to continue reading … Read more