Google Home's vast collection of device and service connections expands today with Spotify Free. This is the version of Spotify users can take advantage of (for free) with commercials and slightly lower-quality audio than a paid account. This update should be made today to add to the ever-growing list of voice-controlled services and devices shown below.
Many iPhone users that play music in their car via the USB cable experience a common problem: as soon as the device is connected, it starts playing the exact same song automatically — whichever is alphabetically first in the music library. A new solution has emerged, however, in the form of a "song" that runs for 10 minutes with nothing but silence. And it appears to be music to iPhone owners' ears, as the track is racing up the iTunes charts.
The SoundCloud shutdown has had a last-minute reprieve, with a new financing round saving the popular podcast and music sharing site from its imminent demise. The site had made sizable redundancies in July, axing 173 members of its team in an attempt to curtail costs, but fears persisted that it would be forced to shut down altogether if it couldn't make ends meet. Now, SoundCloud says, that's not a worry, though there'll be some changes ahead.
Roland has given two of its most iconic electronic musical instruments, the TR-808 drum machine and SH-101 synthesizers, a 21st century reboot. The Roland TR-08 and Roland SH-01A promise the same highly-recognizable sound of the originals, but with price tags that are a whole lot more affordable than trying to pick up classic hardware. It's part of the Roland Boutique range, a modern-day rebirth of some of the most coveted hardware in the company's back-catalog.
Until now, if gamers wanted to play games while listening to their favorite music on Spotify they needed to be PlayStation 4 owners. However, that will soon be changing for Xbox One owners, as the last few days have seen reports of Microsoft's Major Nelson testing a Spotify app on the console, along with confirmation from anonymous sources. But now Microsoft itself has spilled the beans with their weekly Xbox news video showing Spotify running on an Xbox One.
The YouTube Music app was just on the receiving end of a new update, and with it comes a special new feature specifically for YouTube Red subscribers. Those with a subscription can now save playlists, songs, and albums for offline access, shedding the need to use data when out and about where WiFi connections aren't available. The update is available now.
It is not courageous to ditch one's headphone jack - it's completely bonkers - and I'll tell you why right this minute. When I get in my car, I plug my smartphone in to a power cord and a headphone cord. If I want to listen to music in my car, I need to plug it in this way. If Google follows Apple's lead and decides to get rid of their headphone jack in favor of another converter dongle, I may just lose my marbles.
Both the iPod touch models left in this backwards, messed-up world have been given boosts to storage while the classic iPod nano and iPod shuffle have been discontinued. It's like Apple didn't even care about the people who were putting off buying an iPod shuffle for the past several years - it's as if they didn't even think of me! Meanwhile those users that wanted an iPod nano will have to buy one like a neanderthal, finding them on eBay or wherever the deepest, darkest, dankest resellers now dwell.
Last month, a new radio station on Google Play Music called 'New Release Radio' arrived for Samsung's latest flagship smartphones. It was a Samsung exclusive, apparently, but that exclusivity didn't last long. The feature was at first available to some non-S8 owners via a couple tweaks, and now it is officially available for all Google Play Music users. What does it have to offer? Everything you want to hear.
Today the Jay-Z album 4:44 was made available on platforms outside of Tidal. This album was originally released on June 30th, 2017 on Tidal exclusively. It was immediately streamed by iHeartRadio for a full day with talking breaks, and was given away in a promotion with Sprint. Promotions such as these make us recall his deal with Samsung to give his Magna Carta Holy Grail album away with a rare deal that resulted in the album being "sold" 1-million times before going on sale in the retail space.
![Google Play summer sale begins today [App downloads, media]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/googleplaystore.jpg)
This week the folks at Google have begun the first summer sale they've ever held in the Google Play Store that's also store-wide. This stale includes a number of pieces of software and media right from the start, and will roll out additional price-cuts for software and media in the near future. This will include apps, books, and games - while Google Music seems set to stay separate as its own entity.
Spotify has begun showing its free-tier users sponsored songs, something presented as part of a test that may see a wider rollout in the future. The sponsored songs are showing up for some users in both the mobile app and on desktop, showing up within existing playlists. The songs are opt-out, meaning users will see them unless they specifically choose not to. How widely the sponsored songs are being distributed isn't clear.
