Last spring, Spotify turned heads with the announcement of plans to turn its streaming audio platform into a more comprehensive entertainment hub with podcasts and video content. Over the following months, there has been curiosity and increasing impatience about when those changes would hit the service. This is the week. Continue Reading
The beginning of a new year often brings a wave of new product and company launches. In light of the recent interest in podcasting, this year brings a new app called ZCast into the audio content field. Continue Reading
Spotify has partnered with coffee chain Starbucks for what they’ve dubbed a “new digital music experience” in stores across the U.S. Under this new arrangement, patrons will be able to identify music playing over the store loudspeakers from within the Starbucks app. Continue Reading
App Annie has released a report on the top mobile music apps for the third quarter of 2015. Spotify topped the charts for worldwide active users, revenue, and downloads on both iOS and Android platforms. Several of the combined charts showed a heavy international bent, featuring apps based in South Korea and India rising through the ranks to land in the top 10. Continue Reading
BOOMiO has shut down its music service. GeekWire reported that the company emailed its users that the group had shuttered BOOMiO in order to rethink the product. A message on the app’s website promised that the team is planning “a fresh BOOMiO experience.” Continue Reading
There have been some rumblings about the streaming industry potentially breaking itself into niche, genre-based offerings. Today, another electronic-centered company has entered the field. Ministry of Sound, a house and dance specialist based in the UK, launched a free streaming app with round-the-clock lean-back programming. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has launched a new standalone mobile app specifically for audio creators. SoundCloud Pulse helps creators manage their accounts and communities. For now, Pulse is only available on Android, but an iOS version and new features are in the works. Continue Reading
With the big boom in podcast popularity, a few new upstarts have emerged to offer related services to listeners. One of the newer platforms is Jabbercast, a mobile iOS app for podcasts that explores new options in building community. Continue Reading
Service-agnostic playlist app Bop.fm has been acquired by LifeLock. The platform will be shutting down on Oct. 31. The app’s founders wrote a blog post to explain the news and thank users for going along for Bop.fm’s three year ride. Continue Reading
There’s a new mobile radio app on the horizon. It’s called Mr. Yep, just Mr. It’s the work of Shellanoo, the same company behind the Music Messenger program. The service bills itself as “the world’s easiest to use music radio app.” And technically, that may be accurate. Continue Reading
The comScore Mobile Metrix report for July 2015 included data about the top apps by reach across iOS and Android devices in the U.S. Pandora held the No. 7 spot with 43.9% reach. Apple Music snuck into the No. 14 with 24.1% reach. Continue Reading
App Annie always has great insights into mobile business, and the company’s latest report reviews the most popular iOS apps to date. The report has separate lists for global popularity by download and by revenue, with separate lists for games. Pandora took the crown as the highest-grossing iOS app, while Spotify ranked fifth on that chart. Continue Reading