The Tech News Blog
Report: iRadio Closer to Reality With Apple, Sony Deal
Apple and Sony Music have reportedly inked a deal, moving Cupertino's anticipated iRadio service another step forward.
According to All Things Digital — which cited a person familiar with the companies' negotiations — this means Apple now has the support of all three major music labels, including Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.
Don't expect to start tuning into iRadio just yet, though. Cupertino still needs to snag the support of Sony/ATV, Sony's music publishing department, ATD said.
Neither Apple nor Sony Music Entertainment immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment.
Excited iFanatics may want to keep an eye on next week's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, where details about the aptly named iRadio service could surface. ATD described the service as "an enhanced version of Pandora" with more control over songs, but not as full-featured as something like Spotify.
Apple Unveils 16GB iPod Touch for $229, Drops Rear Camera
Although the iPhone is still the one of the most coveted Apple gadgets, the device generally comes with a contract, making it difficult to give to someone as a gift. As a result, the iPod touch is often a good alternative, and Apple has now quietly introduced an update to its popular device.
The new iPod touch offers 16GB for $229, a 4-inch Retina display, and is only offered in black with a grey backing. What's new? The device does not come with the standard iSight camera, a design decision that not only explains the lower price, but also indicates that this model of the iPod touch may be specifically geared toward music lovers and gamers. Not to worry - there is still a 1.2-megapixel front-facing cam for selfies and video chats.
Also missing, however, is the iPod touch loop, a hardware design feature that allowed users to connect a carrying strap to the device.
The full-featured iPod touches with Retina display sell for $299 (32GB) or $399 (64GB).
Google Launches All Access Music Service in Play Store
SAN FRANCISCO—Google on Wednesday launched a new music service called Google Play All Access here at the Google I/O developer conference.
For $9.99 a month, users of All Access will be able to listen to "millions of tracks" in the Google Play Store in addition to their own personal music libraries, said Google engineering director Chris Yerga.
"We set out to build a music service that doesn't just give you access to great music, but guides you to the music you want to hear. Google Play All Access is a uniquely Google approach to a subscription music service," he said.
All Access features expert-curated playlists that subscribers can access and add to their own libraries or create "radio stations" within Google Play's music service. The idea behind the service was to add a better discovery process for music lovers seeking to find new tracks, Yerga said.
"Anything you see, you can play. You can turn All Access into a radio station and this is radio without rules. It's as lean back as you want or as interactive as you want it to be," he said.
Google made the new service available in the U.S. immediately with All Access set to roll out in other countries in the "coming months," he said. U.S. subscribers will get a 30-day free trial—if you sign up for the free trial before July 30, the monthly subscription price drops to $7.99, Yerga said.
Apple’s ‘iRadio’ Streaming Service Reportedly Stalls with Sony Music
Waiting on iRadio, Apple's rumored streaming service that's likely to make executives at Pandora and Spotify, among others, a wee bit nervous?
Keep waiting.
The latest rumors surrounding Apple's to-be-announced service are a mix of good and bad. Unfortunately, it's the latter that's allegedly keeping the service stalled at the moment, with Apple and music industry representatives still working out the contentious issue of licensing fees.
According to Apple Insider, Apple initially offered the record labels all of 6.5 cents for every one hundred tracks streamed on Apple's service. The labels balked, as that figure is just a tad over half of what Pandora allegedly pays for the right to stream its songs. Apple eventually ended up boosting its offer to 12.5 cents per 100 songs — matching Pandora's alleged rate — which helped the company convince Universal Music to enter into a licensing agreement.
While that's a feather in Apple's cap, given that Universal Music is the world's largest record company, it still leaves Sony Music and Warner Music Group to convince. Apple Insider also reports that Apple's apparently close to getting Warner to sign on board. However, Sony continues to balk at Apple's terms in the hopes that company will sweeten the deal.
A Decade Later, iTunes Still Dominates Music Downloads
Nearly 10 years after it first launched, Apple's iTunes Store continues to dominate the market for digital music downloads, according to a new report from the NPD Group.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, iTunes grabbed 63 percent share of the paid music download market, followed by Amazon MP3 with 22 percent. Moreover, eight out of 10 digital music buyers downloaded their tracks and albums from iTunes during that period.
Overall, some 44 million Americans bought at least one track or album download last year. That figure has remained "relatively stable" over the past three years, even with the rise of music streaming options like Pandora and Spotify.
"Since the launch of Apple's iTunes store, digital music downloads have become the dominant revenue source for the recorded music industry and iTunes continues to be the dominant retailer," Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said in a statement. "There's a belief that consumers don't need to buy music because of streaming options, when in fact streamers are much more likely than the average consumer to buy music downloads."
The firm estimated that spending on music downloads increased 6 percent year over year, largely due to an increase in purchasing by teens. Data in the report comes from two separate surveys of 5,400 and 7,600 consumers.
Report: Twitter Music Launching This Weekend
Having already tackled video with its Vine app, Twitter will reportedly jump into music with a new app that serves up music recommendations based on your activity on the micro-blogging site.
Twitter Music is expected to launch this weekend, just as many music heavyweights descend on the Coachella music festival in California.
As reported by All Things D, Twitter Music will be available as a separate app and offer up songs based on Twitter settings, like who you follow. You can preview songs from iTunes and SoundCloud and watch videos from Vevo, ATD said.
Twitter has apparently called in some high-profile beta testers. Ryan Seacrest tweeted last night that he has been "playing with @twitter's new music app (yes it's real!)...there's a serious dance party happening at idol right now."
"Lovin the app...shows what artists are trending, also has up and coming artists... spinning u now @frankturner," Seacrest said in a follow-up tweet.
Report: Apple Nearing Deals for Streaming Music Service
Reports about an iTunes-based subscription music service have been making the rounds for years, but a new report suggests that Apple might finally be on the verge of signing the deals it needs to make iTunes streaming a reality.
As reported by CNET, Cupertino is close to striking a deal with Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group — perhaps in the next week.
Citing two sources familiar with negotiations, CNET said the Apple service would embrace the Internet radio model like Pandora, rather than the on-demand listening available via Spotify and Rdio. Apple is hoping to secure a cheaper per-stream rate than what Pandora currently pays via revenue stream options like links for people to buy the music they hear and audio ads.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on rumors and speculation; Warner and Universal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
CNET was quick to point out that nothing has been signed, so don't hold your breath.
Teens Picking Pandora Over AM/FM Radio
While traditional AM/FM radio is still quite popular, Pandora and other free subscription-based Internet radio services are quickly gaining steam, especially among younger listeners, according to new data from the NPD Group.
During the fourth quarter of 2012, Internet radio services accounted for 23 percent of the average weekly music listening time among users between the ages of 13 and 35, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year. Moreover, six out of 10 teens and young adults said they are more often turning to streaming music services now than in the past.
But as the popularity of Internet-radio grew among this age group, traditional radio began falling out of favor. AM/FM radio accounted for 24 percent of music listening time during Q4, a decline of 2 percentage points since last year.
"Driven by mobility and connectivity, music-streaming services are rapidly growing their share of the music listening experience for teens and young adults, at the expense of traditional music listening methods," Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said in a statement.
However, traditional radio is still much more popular among older adults. In the 36 and older group, AM/FM radio accounted for 41 percent of music listening, compared to just 13 percent for Internet radio.
Report: Twitter Preparing to Launch Music App
For years, Twitter has resisted blockbuster acquisition offers, opting to stay the course and build what it believes can be a broad communications platform that will stand the test of time. Now the company is reportedly laying out the next phase of that plan with a new application focused on music.
The first rumblings of this new music app came yesterday via a report from CNET that said Twitter had acquired music discovery service We Are Hunted. According to a source, the acquisition is part of a plan to use the technology from We Are Hunted to launch an official Twitter Music app that would allow iOS users to discover new music based on the people a user follows on Twitter.
Twitter has not confirmed the reported acquisition, but in a follow-up report, AllThingsD claimed that the new Twitter Music app will not only rely on SoundCloud for its music streaming functionality (as the original report claimed), but it will also include other, unnamed music-streaming companies as well. But the real revelation from this follow-up report is that the Twitter Music will supposedly include music videos, made possible with support from music video service Vevo.
This latest move mirrors Twitter's acquisition of Vine as a means to launch its own video-sharing app. By all appearances, the Vine integration into Twitter was a success, particularly because the app, which only allows six-second video clips, matched Twitter's popular abbreviated information-sharing aesthetic.
Report: Apple, Beats Electronics Talked Streaming Music
Late last year we learned that the team behind Beats Electronics, led by music mogul Jimmy Iovine, was hard at work developing a new kind of streaming music service, code-named Project Daisy. Now a new report claims that that team recently held a high-level meeting with none other than Apple regarding the future of the new venture.
According to an unnamed source in direct contact with Reuters, Iovine met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and iTunes chief Eddy Cue sometime in late February to discuss a possible streaming music partnership between the two companies. The source claims the meeting was primarily an information exchange between Cook and the team from Beats and that no deal was secured.
In January the Project Daisy team announced the addition of Ian Rogers as CEO of the venture. Although Rogers, formerly of Topspin and Yahoo Music, has maintained a relatively low profile for most of his career, insiders know that he is perhaps one of the best choices for the role due to his deep experience in music and technology. "This is the opportunity I've been working toward my entire career," Rogers said at the time. Project Daisy is underpinned by MOG, now owned by Beats.