radio

RadioShack tries out new concept store

RadioShack, the electronics retailer particularly popular with hobbyists, is testing out a new design for its stores.

The new look is intended to help the company buck the trend that has decimated Circuit City (RIP, at least as a physical entity) and has pained Best Buy.

In the Shack's own words: "The store aims to attract tech-hungry shoppers who will find a new level of products, service and excitement in a store that makes the buying experience fun."

How, you ask? With displays that highlight "in-demand brands" like Apple, HTC and Samsung, with arrangements that … Read more

Apple envisions an iTunes Radio with more advanced features

A future version of Apple's iTunes Radio could let you reveal why you liked or disliked a certain song in your playlist.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent application called "Playlist Configuration and Preview," describes some handy ways to customize and manage your playlist of streaming songs.

Most streaming music services let you vote thumb's up or thumb's down on a certain song to gauge your musical tastes. But they don't give you the ability to explain why you voted the way you did.

The service described … Read more

Apple said to be enticing indie labels for iTunes Radio

While Apple has sealed the deal with the three major music recording labels for its upcoming iTunes Radio service, the company is now looking to lure independent labels.

The tech giant has reportedly been talking to various indie music labels, letting them know how the royalty pay scale will work on the new service, according to the Wall Street Journal. Labels will be paid on how many listens each song gets, along with ads that Apple sells.

According to the Wall Street Journal, labels will get 0.13 cent every time a song is played and 15 percent of ad … Read more

Pink Floyd to Pandora: Shut up, you crazy cubic zirconium

The wrangling between those who'd like to be paid for creating music and those who would like to pay them a shoelace and a Mars bar may never end.

In the latest edition of "Oh, No You Don't," Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd have buried the hatchet, then together picked it up and embedded it into Pandora's (Voice) Box.

They are royally miffed at what they see is Pandora's attempt to hoodwink artists into supporting a reduction on their royalties of 85 percent.

So in a USA Today editorial aimed squarely at Pandora, … Read more

Review: Fit Radio provides numerous thematic radio stations for your workout

Fit Radio takes one of the more popular features of other radio curation services and builds an entire app around it. The result is a stripped-down music discovery and radio app that works perfectly for those who are heading to the gym and don't already have their own playlists.

The purpose of Fit Radio is to create and curate playlists of songs that are perfect for anyone going to the gym or working out at home. It combines a number of features in terms of DJ-supported playlists and custom songs to give you a choice among dozens of possible … Read more

Yes, iTunes Radio could crush Pandora. But that's just for starters

iTunes chief Eddy Cue unveiled Apple's iTunes Radio at the company's big developer conference in San Francisco this week, and it didn't take long before a chorus of rivals and pundits dismissed the product as, well, no big deal, especially considering that so many streaming-music services already exist.

The current king of Internet radio, Pandora, made sure the press was aware of how large it was, with 200 million registered users, 70 million of whom are regular listeners, and 5 billion stations created. Even Nokia -- that's right, Nokia -- trotted out a VP who suggested … Read more

Justin Timberlake's Myspace releases iPhone app -- with GIFs

Five months after launching the new Myspace to the public, Justin Timberlake and friends are making their social service for creatives, artists, and their fans available on the iPhone, perhaps where it was meant to be all along.

In 2011, Specific Media co-founders Chris and Tim Vanderhook and their music-mogul pal Justin Timberlake acquired what was left of the forgotten social network for $35 million. Since then, a Los Angeles team has set about rebuilding Myspace into a destination people actually want to visit -- not for traditional social networking per se, but for streaming music and connecting to everything … Read more

Social media users like the sound of iTunes Radio

Apple finally unveiled its music streaming service, iTunes Radio, and the social Web approves.

Social media analytics company NetBase found that 94 percent of social media users had positive comments about iTunes Radio following the product's release during Apple's WWDC developers conference on Monday, which means only 6 percent had negative comments.

The streaming service, which is tied into Apple's popular ecosystem, was highly discussed in the media in recent weeks as a competitor to services like Pandora and Spotify.

NetBase said iTunes Radio received the most positive comments among all of Apple's products announced on … Read more

iTunes Radio vs. Pandora

Apple may be the top dog when it comes to digital music sales, but does it have what it takes to get a late foothold in the world of Internet radio?

To cut through the hype and get a sense of what Apple's newly announced iTunes Radio service really offers that may be noteworthy, we've stacked it up against the gold standard of personalized Internet radio, Pandora.

iTunes Radio Pandora Free option Yes Yes Premium tier $24.99/year $36/year $3.99/month Platforms iOS, Apple TV, Mac OS, Windows iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Mac OS, … Read more