You don’t want to be that guy who’s never heard the track all your friends are raving about. But if you use Apple Music, you don’t have to be.
The new “Friends Mix” playlist makes it easy to enjoy the songs your friends can’t get enough of. It’s updated every week, and you can enjoy it now across all devices.
HomePod has landed. If you’re an Apple fan who loves audio, it’s a wonderful day. If you’re a speaker company, however, you now have to compete against the biggest tech brand in the world.
Sonos has shown it’s not scared by trolling HomePod with a Spotify playlist that contains a hidden message.
Spotify has launched a new music portal that puts the soundtracks to your favorite videos games in one place. It features original music from titles like Grand Theft Auto, Halo and No Man’s Sky — plus curated playlists from Spotify and the community.
Apple has rolled out a new iTunes update to fix a bug that could prevent playlist changes from syncing between Macs and iOS devices. The version 12.4.3 release is available to download now from the Mac App Store.
Update: Uber and Spotify have confirmed a partnership that will let Spotify Premium subscribers become backseat DJs in Uber cars in 10 cities. The service starts Friday in London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Toronto.
“The integration couldn’t be easier,” the companies said in a press release. “Simply connect your Spotify account via the Uber app, request a ride, and when you get matched up with a Spotify-enabled Uber, select music that suits your mood. Your tunes will be playing when your Uber arrives, and you can change it up at any time.”
When Xbox Music finally made its debut on the iPhone last September, one of its most notable shortcomings was the lack of ability to store music locally for offline listening. But a new update that hit the App Store today rectifies that, giving subscribers the ability to enjoy their favorite playlists without a data connection.
Nothing gets us through a day at the office quite like some brand-spankin’ new music. And Grooveshark is one of the best places to discover what’s on the cutting edge.
Cult of Mac Deals has teamed up with Grooveshark to bring you a premium one-year subscription to Grooveshark Anywhere. This gives you unlimited commercial-free streaming of their on-demand music service on your desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers. Enjoy over 15 million tunes, easy music curation, and online radio from the largest community of music lovers on the web. And do so for 50% off the regular price – just $49.
iTunes 11 has a new feature called Up Next. It’s a way to let you know what is going to play next, of course, which is cool when you’re shuffling iTunes tracks, but it’s also a way to set up a playlist of sorts, letting you manage what songs come up at a party, for example.
There are a couple of different ways to add songs to the Up Next queue as well. Here’s how.
Spotify’s official iOS app has received a new update that introduces a number of new features and improvements. In addition to playlist sorting on the iPad, Spotify promises “friendlier” login for first-time users on iPhone, a new settings menu that’s now arranged by category, faster radio, and more.
You might have suspected that the right music – whether it’s thrash metal or Mozart – keeps you more focused or relaxed.
Now a trio of brain researchers have studied the effects of playlists on the brain, resulting in a nifty little book called Your Playlist Can Change Your Life. In the book’s 200-or so pages, they explain how to use specific playlists to alleviate anxiety, promote concentration, get happy or move into a flow state thanks to Brain Music Treatment or BMT.
If you can’t make it to New York for BMT therapy, for $9.99, you can also download a Common BMT File. Created from more than 2,000 people’s brain waves with the help of evidence-based BMT tech, they say it acts as a kind of aural “first-aid” before you get your own playlists together.
Intrigued (my current nightstand read is Mark Changizi’s excellent Harnessed about music and the brain), I talked to author Dr. Galina Mindlin about what playlists have the most impact, cleaning up your music collection and her current heavy rotations.
The iTunes Celeb Playlist feature is now a free podcast. Kicking off the 15-minute-podcast of tracks loved by the rich and famous is Tom Jones, who recently admitted that his knowing hands are all a fumble when it comes to his iPod, which is stocked by an assistant.
The podcast is worth it just to hear that Welsh accent as a very personable Jones admits first hearing Aretha Franklin on the car radio thinking it was jazz singer Nancy Wilson , professes his love for Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” and thinking Elvis was talking about “salomi” instead of “so lonely.”
The LA Times, nothing if not the newspaper of hard knocks, offers this feature of best tunes for the economic blues, assuming you haven’t “pawned your iPod weeks ago.”
Picks include:
The Clash, “Career Opportunities”
Crystal Waters, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”
Bob Marley “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)”
Still working out whether this is supposed to be funny. And wondering why “Working in a Coal Mine” (Devo’s version especially) and “Hard Candy Christmas” didn’t make the cut.
Wow. Blown away to discover that Tommy Hilfiger, the man whose clean-cut, simple designs spell yesteryear americana rocks out on his iPod.
Here are two of three selections on his hot button:
“The Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil I like the lyrics, I like the drums, I like the guitar my favorite band ever.
Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? It reminds me of the Fillmore East, in New York, but I also loved Hendrix’s style. I thought the way that he created this vintage rock’n’roll look was very cool.
The trouble with these features, meant to replace the “top ten desert island album” party question, with the amount of storage even on a Shuffle, how can he give such a miserable selection?
I mean, does he really have only three songs, three playlists on his iPod? C’mon.