In a significant redesign of its platform, audio network TuneIn today relaunched its mobile apps and browser experience, and disclosed audience and content statistics. TuneIn now has over 50-million active users. The new app experience presents a dramatic redesign and re-naming of existing functions, and some new features. Continue Reading
Founded in September, 2008, Mixcloud (“Making Radio Better”) is a music-sharing service that solicits user-DJ uploads and pays the royalties to rights-holders to keep it legal. More than a podcast platform, listening in Mixcloud is rewarding and satisfying. The company hopes to differentiate from SoundCloud and on-demand services. Continue Reading
Yesterday we wondered whether SoundCloud could live up to its investors’ aspiration to be the “YouTube of Audio.” The new visual player is an excellent first step in that direction. Click through to see it in action. Continue Reading
Dear Songza: Idea, great. Execution, not so much. An email promotion of Songza’s “brand new music” playlists introduces a terrific idea — new releases in 59 categories. We found 18 of them. Hope turned to sorrow. Continue Reading
The much-anticipated Beats Music on-demand subscription service launched today, following a long build-up with anticipatory marketing. Beats positioned itself in advance, emphasizing celebrity playlists and effortless listening to “the right song at the right time.” Click for our review. Continue Reading
Today Pandora announced the addition of personalized recommendations in its iOS and Android mobile apps. The new feature is most useful in accounts seeded with song stations, not artist stations. The update brings new choices to the app, gets listening started faster, and is clearly an activity and user-retainment tactic. Continue Reading
Shazam and SoundHound identify songs on the radio for hundreds of millions of users. Both apps make it easy to turn the song into a starting point in Rdio, Spotify, and other online services. Shouldn’t there be a way radio can participate in the song-identification gateway? We have an idea. Continue Reading
Clear Channel-owned iHeartRadio has been emphasizing Talk, the spoken-word portion of the iHeart app, since that section was introduced to the menu last year. A recent app update adds a feature with which you can listen to previous episodes of a talk-radio show. Continue Reading
ZUUS is streaming video playlists. The desktop experience is pleasing, allowing the user to drill into a (limited) suite of genre channels. Perhaps of greater interest are curated video stations such as Village Voice Curated and Cake Shop NYC Curated. Could ZUUS be a Vimeo-like alternative to YouTube’s upcoming music service? Continue Reading
Music service Rhapsody upgraded its Android app with something called Track Match, to solve the music-recognition need within its full-featured subscription platform. It’s a good idea — you hear something, tell Rhapsody to identify it, save it in your library. How well does it work? Continue Reading
Pandora updated its iOS app for Apple devices, adding a wake-up alarm. The app already had a timer feature that encouraged falling asleep to Pandora radio with a timed shut-off. Now users can fall asleep to Pandora, wake up to Pandora, and fortify the “hours listening” metrics Pandora publishes every month. We review the new feature. Continue Reading
How does alternative music become classic? Maybe Flashback Alternatives (www.flashbackalternatives.com) can help us puzzle it out. “The Past, Present, and Future of Classic Alternative Music” might be a head-scratching conundrum, but the music is good. We’ve been energized for Monday… Continue Reading