Music - SlashGear

‘Music’ Stories

Spotify introduces Music Platform

Chris Burns, Nov 30th 2011 Discuss [4]

This week Spotify stepped out from the streaming music business into the greater world of the music industry as a platform – third party developers streaming in to work with Spotify to continue to change the world from one where piracy is king to one where people’s options to get to that music easily reigns supreme. Daniel Ek, CEO and founder of Spotify stepped to the stage with a plan to outline Spotify’s backround and mission, their move into social, and their big announcement for the day. What his and Spotify’s mission was and is, Ek said, was to find the best solution outside of piracy for getting music to people’s ears in as “good for everybody” a way as possible.

Read The Full Story

Beats by Dre Colors headphones available for a limited time

Shane McGlaun, Nov 30th 2011 Discuss [3]

There are a lot of people out there that are fans of the Beats by Dre headphone line that is on the market today. For a limited time shoppers can get the high end Beats The Studio headphones in several colors that will brighten up the headphones from the normal white or black shades offered. The headphones that come in colors are the popular The Studio offerings that have been around for a while. Read The Full Story

Spotify may open up to third-party developers and become authentication service

Chris Burns, Nov 29th 2011 Discuss [0]

When it comes to the world's single biggest music subscription service Spotify, changes such as opening up to the USA after 2 years of preparation don't come easy - but what they'll reveal this Wednesday may well change their whole outlook by opening up to 3rd party developers. Spotify recently sent out a message that they'd be having a press conference this week, and as All Things D's Peter Kafka notes, the change they'll be revealing more than likely has more to do with how their music is delivered to you, the consumer, than it does with what music and services they'll be providing. It does make sense that they'd be connecting with more services, as their recent deal with Facebook has proven to be more than lucrative for them already. What does this mean for you, the Spotify free service user? Not a whole lot. How about you the Spotify Premium user? Perhaps a new collection of options for places of access! Read The Full Story

Urbanears Plattan black quilted edition revealed

Chris Burns, Nov 28th 2011 Discuss [1]

There's a pair of headphones in your future, one made by Urbanears and called Plattan, the start of a line of earpieces made with both comfort and fashionability in mind. This isn't the first time Urbanears have made a set of earpieces with both of those features in mind, but what you'll get is certainly something unique, what with the undeniably cool quilted material that'll make your head say "ahhh." You get 40mm handmade drivers for fantastic sound, a fold-down design to keep the phones transportable, and almost as a bonus, a "Zound Plug" that allows you to daisy chain the sound to all your friends! Read The Full Story

Reviews

KORG Monotron Review

Chris Burns, Nov 26th 2011 Discuss [3]

There is a little keyboard-looking device out there, ladies and gentlemen, that goes by the name of Monotron, is made by KORG, and will either drive your parents absolutely up the wall or will play the part in your ultra-professional mobile electronic band like no product you’ve ever used before. The KORG Monotron is what’s called an analogue ribbon synthesizer and has just enough knobs, output ports, and volume to make you a musical masterpiece sit comfortably in your pocket. Watch as your humble narrator stumbles through the original electronic beat Popcorn and judge for yourself whether or not you want the cutest magic music machine in the world for yourself.

Read The Full Story

Spotify closes 2.5 million paying subscribers

Paul Fang, Nov 23rd 2011 Discuss [1]

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Spotify has closed 2.5 million paying subscribers for its online music streaming service. While there weren't details released by the company about its subscribers' geographical locations, how long it took, or how many free users there were, it’s nonetheless an impressive feat, especially in this era where music can be easily attainable for little to no cost, well, pretty much, free. Spotify has done a good job persuading customers to actually pay for it. And they do so by providing a seriously killer music service. Read The Full Story

Roland SPD-SX Percussion Sampling Pad shipping this week

Chris Burns, Nov 23rd 2011 Discuss [2]

When it comes to sampling percussion instrumentation for your hot beats, you've got more than a few options - Roland just made your decision easy for you with the brand new SPD-SX, a sampling pad which appears to not be holding back when it comes to versatility. What you've got here is 2 GB of onboard sampling memory, three effects engines, and a set of controls which make this unit a real replacement to the popular SPD-S, what Roland up until now called their "industry-leading" sampling pad. Inside you'll find top of the line pad-sensing technology, assignable click output and a wholly portable chassis. Is this your next thumptastic solution for the rhythm in your life? Read The Full Story

France to tax the internet to fund music and culture

Shane McGlaun, Nov 21st 2011 Discuss [3]

France has imposed a new tax that is going to charge ISPs a tax on the internet. The money raised with that tax will then be used to fund the CNM or Centre National de la Musique. This is a French organization that provides opportunities for funding music and cultural events. France is big on taxing things to pay for public access and already taxes TV for public access channels. Read The Full Story

Featured

Google Music Artist Hub hands on Part 1: getting started

Chris Burns, Nov 16th 2011 Discuss [10]

This week Google announced their new Google Music Artist Hub, a part of the Android Market’s new music sales initiative and part of Google Music’s now public cloud service – it’s here that any artist, signed or not, can create a name for themselves in the very real and very live marketplace. What we’re going to do here is go through the very basic process an artist will go through themselves to create an Artist Page from whens their music (and music videos) will be sold. I’ll be using the pseudo name I use on many projects, A Tiny City, for future reference – don’t expect any magical musical break throughs from me, but see how simple this process can be.

Read The Full Story

Google Music Artist Hub gives no-label indy bands full control

Chris Burns, Nov 16th 2011 Discuss [4]

Google has announced this week a whole new Google Music which will, as they explain, allow music artists to sell their own music at a 70/30 cut, that's 70% of the profit sent to the artist or band, plus a one-time fee. Artists are able to create their own profile for a one-time $25 fee, and will be able to sell their music directly to fans through this page. Individual tracks and albums will be able to be posted and sold, and all purchases will be able to be shared in the Google+ social network, through Android, and more. You'll be able to share tracks for free, preview tracks as little or as much for free as you like, and cash in without any label in between. Read The Full Story

Featured

Google Music works with Major Labels, Indy Labels, and shares galore

Chris Burns, Nov 16th 2011 Discuss [0]

This week we’re hearing all there is to know about the Google Music ecosystem as it exists both in the cloud and in the Android Market, not to mention inside the Google+ social network. What we’re to understand thus far is that Google Music Beta, launched this summer on a limited scale, will now be open and available for everyone (in the USA thus far) for people to keep their music in the cloud completely for free. This ties in with the Google Music part of the Android Market, also open today, where users can purchase tracks and instantly have them both on their device and in the cloud where they can pin them to any device in the future. Announced with this big set of tidbits were three of the top four labels in the USA, EMI, Universal, and Sony Music.

Read The Full Story

Google Media Holiday Party announced

Chris Burns, Nov 16th 2011 Discuss [0]

The fine folks at Google have sent out invites to their annual Media Holiday Party that'll be taking place in December, complete with a couple of lovely snowflakes for accent. This event is set to be a fun night of eats and drinks for friends and members of the media in what's known as an "off the record" event. Whether or not that means there will be devices and services and chatter there that will be newsworthy, we can't be sure! What we do expect is some gingerbread cookies and a whole load of ice cream sandwiches aside some well-mixed drinks, that's for sure. Read The Full Story