Spotify, the top music streaming service, today launched in Japan, the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and home to population of 127 million people. The company announced at a press event in Tokyo that the service is currently available to music lovers in Japan on an invite-only basis before opening to all users. The service launched on mobile, tablet, desktop and PlayStation consoles.
Spotify users who add music to their playlists will understand the struggle a new free jailbreak tweak called Tweakify aims to fix.
Rather than adding new songs to the bottom of your song playlists, this tweak adds them to the top so they're easier to find while still preserving the ability to move and re-order your tracks on your own afterwards.
Telstra, Australia's #1 wireless carrier, is following in the footsteps of T-Mobile's Binge On by announcing that customers on its Go Mobile plans can now listen to songs, albums and playlists on Apple Music without using their monthly data allowance, said the company.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story yesterday claiming that Apple was in “exploratory talks” to acquire music service Tidal, which rap mogul Jay-Z bought in March 2015 for a reported $56 million.
Ostensibly, Apple's interest in Tidal revolves around its strong ties to artists: since the Jay-Z deal, Tidal has given 19 famous artists small stakes in the firm.
The Journal article cautioned that the current discussions might not result in a deal and now Ben Sisario, a music reporter at The New York Times, cited “two highly placed sources” as saying that Apple won't be buying Tidal anytime soon.
Apple is in talks to acquire the streaming music service Tidal, reports The Wall Street Journal. Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet says the iPhone-maker is exploring the idea because of the service's strong ties to artists.
Rap mogul Jay-Z bought Tidal in March 2015 for $56 million, and has since given 19 famous artists small stakes in the company. The current talks with Apple may not result in a deal, and it's unknown what terms have been discussed.
Spotify on Monday told The Telegraph that it now has more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide. But of that 100 million, only roughly 30 million or so are paid subscribers—so the ones that dole out ~$10 a month.
For comparison, SVP Eddy Cue announced during last week's WWDC keynote that Apple Music now has 15 million paid subscribers. Now that's just half of Spotify's count, but still very impressive for a service less than 1 year old.
The Shazam app for iOS comes with the ability to link your Spotify account so you can stream the music you tag via Spotify directly from the Shazam app itself. A recent update to the app included a complete rewrite for this feature, so it's now more stable than ever before.
All you have to do is connect your Spotify account to the Shazam app, and the app will take care of the rest for you, allowing you to listen to full tracks in Shazam instead of just 30-second song previews.
In this tutorial, we'll be showing you how to link your Spotify account to the Shazam app in iOS.
For years, Apple has been rumored to be working on high-resolution audio formats for iTunes, but we're yet to see concrete evidence of those efforts. Still, the rumor persists. On Monday, the reliable Japanese blog Macotakara reported that high-resolution streaming is coming to Apple Music in 2016.
Citing industry sources who spoke to the publication at the Portable Audio Festival in Tokyo, where some of Apple's products were exhibited, the report states that Apple will offer better-than-CD quality music.
In addition, high-end audio equipment makers are allegedly planning to add audio cables for Lightning to their lineups.
In response to Apple Music and other competitors, Tidal on Wednesday announced new family plans for its streaming music service. The new plans will allow up to 5 users to enjoy Tidal's Premium and HiFi service tiers at a significant discount from standalone rates.
It works like this: a standalone account for Tidal Premium costs $9.99 per month, and a HiFi account costs $19.99 per month. With family plans, users can add up to 4 additional users to their account at 50% off—$4.99/month for Premium, and $9.99/month for HiFi.
Apple denies claims made by some artists that it's threatening to remove their songs from iTunes if they don't sign up for Apple Music, reports Rolling Stone. A company spokesperson told the outlet that music "will not be taken off" as a result of license negotiations.
The controversy arose earlier this week when Anton Newcombe of psychedelic rock group Brian Jonestown Massacre took to Twitter to complain about Apple and its bullying tactics. "I said what if I say no, and they said we'll take your music off itunes. hard ball?"
Apple was unable to secure the streaming rights for Taylor Swift's '1989' album, BuzzFeed reports. The outlet says both Swift's label and Apple have confirmed the story, meaning the massively popular album won't be available on Apple Music at launch.
Apparently Apple Music will feature Swift's back catalogue, however, which includes 4 other highly sought-after records. But those can already be found on other subscription services such as Rdio and Tidal, so they won't serve as a differentiating feature.
If you ever wondered which artists you would be listening to if you were born in another time, now you can thanks to Rewind, a new feature by Spotify that helps you turn your music back in time.
By doing so, Rewind makes it easy and supposedly fun to know what you'd be listening to in another decade, based on what you listen to today and thanks in no small part to Spotify's rich knowledge graph about its user base.