Boxee, the innovative software solution that puts the Internet on your television, has long been among the brightest lights in the strange hinterland inhabited by users of AppleTV.
Friday, the company announced a new partnership with Wolfgang’s Vault, the virtual motherlode of live music recordings, that immediately sweetens the pot for those intrepid souls who dare to invite the Internet into the living room.
Lest one mistake Wolfgang’s Vault for a sparkly bauble dangled at aging Boomers and Hippies lost in nostalgia for the Summer of Love, the company also offers access to plenty of current music, including high-fidelity recordings from artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Ani Difranco, Sean Hayes and Vampire Weekend.
The Wolfgang’s Vault app gives Boxee users access to all music from the Wolfgangsvault.com site including vintage and recent concerts, customized playlists, and Vault radio. Listening to music on the app is free for up to 10 hours per month, and after that just $4 per month ($48/year) entitles users to VIP access and unlimited streaming at a higher bitrate, along with $50 credit & discounts on store merchandise. WVIP members can log into their accounts from within the app.
With companies such as Boxee and Wolfgang’s Vault enabling a fully immersive Internet experience through the iconic device that has virtually defined modern culture for three quarters of a century, bringing television viewers streaming content from websites such as Netflix, MLB.TV, Pandora, Last.fm, and flickr, in addition to streamed content from broadcast and cable television producers, and now streamed full-length concerts from the last 50 years (as well as soon making vintage rock posters, rock photography, and vintage and retro concert t-shirts and apparel available for purchase — through your TV), it really begs for an answer to the question: is Apple missing the boat on the convergence of the television and computer worlds, or is that merely the next landscape the company will ultimately seek to conquer?
