We’ve seen a large number of new apps promise an experience that combines music with social interactions, each with their own particular angle on the subjects. The new player in this field is Geekin Radio. Continue Reading
When a big success hits the start-up world, it typically spawns a series of clones. In this case, we have a new service positioning itself as “the Snapchat of music.” Msty is a mobile app that lets its users send song clips via message to their friends, accompanied by images and snippets of text. The unusual name stands for “my song to you.” Continue Reading
The hi-fi streaming club has another member. Aud.io bills itself as the world’s first high-fidelity Internet radio service. It offers ad-free listening to stations grouped by genre for $7.99 a month. The service uses a Pandora-like system of personalization based on likes and skips. But unlike the online radio standard, there’s no way to add other seeds or artist preferences or new stations. Here’s what I thought. Continue Reading
Mixcloud announced updates to its mobile apps this week. The updates include landscape mode, a play queue to line up shows in advance, and automatically playing suggested content when the listener runs out of shows. The company also recently added tools for listeners to build their own stations. Continue Reading
Even a cursory glance at the music industry headlines and market research will show that mobile is the wave of the future. We communicate, we entertain ourselves, everything happens on smartphones. In response, we’ve been seeing a surge of startups and programmers exploring just what the mobile music space might look like. This morning I explored an entry into the field of mobile apps for social music. This one is called Cymbal. Continue Reading
Public radio is often ambitious in its goals for curating and presenting great music, and the latest project to come out of the organization is a delightful response to recent trends favoring both mobile and video. Several venerable public radio stations have joined forces to power a new mobile app that focuses on recordings of live performances. VuHaus is free for both iOS and Android, and it’s definitely worth a look and a listen. Continue Reading
With the entry of Apple Music into the streaming industry, many have wondered whether the backing of the tech giant would be enough to challenge Spotify’s dominant position. After the first week, it’s looking like no. Continue Reading
Emmis Communications announced the launch of its second mobile app for music streaming. The app is named Where Hip Hop Lives, and it’s available for iOS. The free version of the app is ad-supported, but it does have a subscription component as well. Continue Reading
App Annie released its April 2015 index of the top performing mobile apps in the U.S. Pandora held the top spot for top app by downloads and revenue, followed by Spotify. SoundCloud was fourth by downloads and iHeartRadio was fifth. In terms of revenue, Beats Music was the No. 3 app, while Rhapsody secured the No. 6 place. Continue Reading
As rumored in December, Japan-based messaging app Line has launched a Line Music service for a trial in Thailand. The service is available within Line’s flagship mobile software as an in-app purchase for 60 Baht (about $1.80) per month. The new platform will let users listen to music and share songs with friends either in individual or group chats. Continue Reading
Amazon has expanded its Prime Music app on the Android operating system to include its new stations feature. The app now includes hundreds of Pandora-style lean-back listening channels without advertisements. Continue Reading
Kids these days and their real-time, instant communication. Messaging and social apps have been seeing an increase in popularity, and several are experimenting with a musical angle. The latest is Rithm, a social music messaging service that officially launched its commercial listening platform today. Continue Reading