Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Pandora has announced a feature that allows musicians to easily speak to their listeners, similar to a radio station’s pre-recorded musician promo, but with more real-time control. Called AMPcast, it is a dead-simple (and cool) tool for musicians to engage with listeners. Continue Reading
Meerkat, the app which spearheaded into live video, is giving up its product model and shifting onto a new (as yet undisclosed) course, ceding competitive ground to Periscope and Facebook Live. In so doing, Meerkat illustrates the perils of sustaining an… Continue Reading
Amazon has created a new Echo product that’s smaller, cheaper, and designed to amp up your music options. The Amazon Echo Dot has the same type of features as the company’s original voice assistant: control smart devices, check the weather, fetch information, and play music. But it’s intended to make the music component sound a little better than the first Echo. Continue Reading
Juniper Research returned from Mobile World Congress, the preeminent global exhibition of new mobile technology, and summarized its assessment of 2016 trends. (Download here.) We have pulled out the point pertinent to the future of digital audio, spiced with commentary. Continue Reading
“Do you want to spend hours sorting and building playlists, rather than being served songs you love?” That’s the question posed by the soon-to launch new music wearable Aivvy. The product is a set of headphones bundled with the company’s own streaming music service of 50 million tracks. Continue Reading
Apple has added new functions to iTunes for podcast publishers. Existing users will be glad of the added controls. Newcomers to Apple distribution won’t know what they are being spared. The new service makes installing a show in iTunes faster and more direct. Continue Reading
Today brings an announcement from ad-tech purveyor XAPPmedia, describing a partnership with Slacker Radio that brings XAPP’s voice-interactive technology to Slacker listeners for navigating the music library. Slacker users are served promotions for playlists, artists, or songs, and can switch to the promoted music by saying a word or phrase without touching the screen. Continue Reading
For those people who miss the days of the iPod Shuffle, a new Kickstarter project aims to give fresh life to portable listening. Mighty Audio promises to be a mobile listening device free from a smartphone. Once you sync up the device with your phone, it can locally store up to 48 hours of offline Spotify music. Continue Reading
Another Kickstarter project called Music Wrap has hit the airwaves with a new approach to music technology. This one is a new take on headphones that attempts to offer safer listening, both in terms of ear protection and in remaining aware of one’s surroundings. Continue Reading
Spotify announced that it is switching the operation of its streaming music service to Google’s cloud computing platform. Its old system relied on a network of data centers, as well as some assistance from Amazon Web Services. Continue Reading
A husband-and-wife broadcasting and station ownership team has seen fast growth of their home-grown cloud-based syndication system that is being used by dozens of station affiliates, and might be unique. Continue Reading
Today’s ambitious professional musicians have more ways than ever to find gigs and paid outlets for their skills. For instance, we’ve heard about Berklee College of Music students specializing in music for podcasts. A new platform has emerged in an effort to harness those creatives and put them in touch with potential buyers. Continue Reading