Pandora - page 3

iTunes Radio still has a long way to go before it catches up with Pandora’s number of subscribers, but in an effort to keep up with increasing royalty costs, Pandora announced this morning that it’s bumping up the monthly subscription price for Pandora One.

Starting in May new subscribers will have to pay $4.99 per month if they want their music stream ad free, which is still cheaper than competitors like Spotify and Rdio (both $9.99 per month).

Apple’s alternative, iTunes Radio is ad-free with $24.99 annual iTunes Match subscription, but Pandora is deciding to just drop the annual subscription option altogether.

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing changes:

iTunes Radio has barely been around for six months but after launching alongside iOS 7 in the U.S., Apple’s music streaming service has already knocked Spotify off the #3 spot among the most popular music streaming services in the country.

Internet Radio has some fierce competition. Since the launch of iTunes Radio in 2013, it became much harder to single out one service in particular that reigns supreme. Does the popular US service Pandora still have what it takes to surpass all others? Is Slacker Radio more your personal preference?

Either way, following on from last week’s column where we compared on-demand music services, we have taken it upon ourselves to narrow down the competition, including iTunes Radio, Pandora,  Slacker Radio, iHeartRadio, Last.fm and TuneIn Radio; see the table below. We’ve also done some hands-on testing and in-depth research in order to determine just who has the leading edge and what they offer in terms of functionality, catalog size, features and usability.

It’s time to return to the bizarre and unpredictable planet of Pandora with Borderlands 2…and Cult of Mac Deals will you help you do so without putting a dent in your wallet.

A true role playing first person shooter, you can embark on campaigns solo, or invite three friends to join you in the mayhem that is sure to ensue. This game is just pure, unadulterated, shoot-em-up fun that’s wrapped in an absurd, colorful, and interactive package. Add to that four-player online and co-op goodness, and you have an addictive game everyone can love. And all for just $9.99!

With popular music streaming apps like Spotify and Pandora already popular and on devices all over the world, any newcomers are faced with an immediate challenge. The makers behind the popular headphones and speakers Beats By Dre are taking their crack at the genre, with their new app and service Beats Music.

Take a look at the new Beats Music app and see how it compares to the competitors.

This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the iOS application “Beats Music” brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”

Beep is a weird little device that could be either just the thing you’re looking for, or the stupidest accessory ever. It’s a Wi-Fi volume knob that hooks up to your speakers, and streams music either direct from Pandora, or from your iDevice via its own companion app. No AirPlay, no Rdio or Spotify. I told you it was weird.

Ever wished there was a way to make Pandora (or iTunes Radio) play little snippets of news, tailored to your tastes, just like it does with music? Free app Swell Radio does just that, and does it perfectly.

This week on the CultCast—its layout, its machinery, and the creative people and processes that build the amazing products we love—we go behind the veil of Apple’s insanely secretive design studio. Plus, how to get great paid apps for free (it’s legal, promise!), and could an Apple/Microsoft merger be in our future? One analyst thinks so…

Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Download new and past episodes of The CultCast on iTunes or hit play below and let the audio enjoyment commence.

Thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode. Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

Pandora released an update for it’s iOS app today that brings its UI inline with iOS 7’s minimal aesthetic. The free update isn’t just a new coat of paint though as the company also included a neat new alarm feature that allows users to wake up to their favorite Pandora station.

Apple added the ability to change the alarm tone to a song in the new Alarm app for iOS 7, but rather than waking up to the same song everyday, Pandora’s feature allows users to pick their favorite station to wake up to, so you’ll be serenade into consciousness by a new crooner every morning.

The free app update also contains a number of small improvements and bug fixes and is available in the App Store now. Here are the full release notes:

While Spotify can be used without a paid subscription on your desktop, you need to sign up to Spotify Premium at $9.99 a month to enjoy it on mobile. But that could be about to change, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that Spotify is planning a new ad-supported version of its music streaming service for mobile devices.

When Apple announced iTunes Radio at WWDC this June, it looked like a lot of subscription radio services would take a massive hit. But for Pandora, things couldn’t be better. Since Apple’s new service made its debut alongside iOS 7 back in September, listening has increased by 9 percent.

Before iTunes Radio came along, everyone thought it would be the death knell of good old Pandora. But it doesn’t look like Pandora is going anywhere: even those Pandora users who have access to iTunes Radio either don’t use it, or listen to Pandora alongside iTunes Radio.

Samsung has today unveiled Shape M7, a $400 wireless speaker that hopes to compete with the Sonos. It connects to your smartphone, tablet, or computer via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or NFC, and there’s a handy companion app that makes setup easy on Android and iOS devices.

Before Apple is able to officially unveil its free new iTunes Radio feature, popular music-streaming service Rdio has revealed that it has struck a deal with Cumulus Media and plans to bring a free version of its service to the market.

The new deal will give Rdio users access to Cumulus’ 525 radio stations which will strip out localized traffic and weather details as well as be used to create playlists and other programs based on the stations and their syndicated shows, explains the New York Times:

Notetaking comes in all forms, but it is essential when conducting interviews. I’ve done many, and no matter how good I am at using something like Evernote I always feel that much better having the original words in some format on my Mac. It means more accuracy when grabbing pull quotes. It means more notes that get retained for use in a story. Basically, it means I can focus on asking the questions and letting the technology handle what it can do best for me.

That’s why having an app that can handle that is such a huge asset. Whether it’s interviews, meetings, or even grabbing audio snippets directly from the web browser (like I did for my own TEDx talk), it’s an excellent tool to have at your disposal. (After all, even a conversation over Skype is essentially an audio stream, right?)

An example of this type of tool is Audio Recorder Pro (although it does focus on audio streaming more than anything else) and Cult of Mac Deals has it for $4.99 for a limited time.

Apple’s iTunes Radio service doesn’t launch in the U.S. for a few more weeks, but Rdio’s been pumping some awesome updates into its iOS app to get ready. The latest Rdio update for iOS today added the much needed Station Tuning that’s been available on desktop since the launch of You FM earlier this month.

The Rdio 2.3.1 update also comes with a redesigned view for Collection that features a new album art view. Some UI tweaks and bug fixes were also tossed in for good measure along with improved search.

Here are the full notes:

Today Pandora announced that it will be removing its 40-hour-per-month listening cap come September 1st. Now free users will be able to listen for as long as they like and ads will play every 30 minutes.

The decision to remove the cap is an obvious reaction to the impending launch of Apple’s iTunes Radio, a radio streaming service that will be shipped to the public in iOS 7 after September 10th. Since more than two thirds of Pandora’s revenue comes from its mobile apps, iTunes Radio is very much a threat.

Rdio announced this morning that it is launching a new personalized radio station feature to take on Pandora and iTunes Radio. The new radio station feature, dubbed You FM, combines users’ listening history with track voting, Facebook likes, Twitter follows and more to give each user an individualized experience.

Users can tune stations towards familiar or adventurous sounds or pivot it based on your favorite tracks. The new stations feature is available now on the App Store, Google Play and the web.

Here are the other features Rdio added:

Along with today’s release of the fourth iOS 7 beta, Apple has also seeded a beta build of iTunes 11.1 to developers that includes the new iTunes Radio feature.

Apple unveiled iTunes Radio at WWDC 2013 last month. The new streaming music service allows users to create radio stations based on artists or songs, similar to Pandora. iTunes Radio will be free with ads, but if you have an iTunes Match subscription, there are no ads.

Developers can download the new preview directly from the iOS Dev Center.

The Pandora app for iOS has today been updated with a number of new features that promise to make your listening experience all the more pleasurable. In addition to improved playback buffering, there’s a new automatic pause feature, Pandora URL support, and more.

Apple will pay music labels more than Pandora for its new iTunes Radio service, according to terms reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In addition to a set fee, the Cupertino company will also cough up a cut of its net advertising revenue every time a song is played.

The rumors were right. Apple has unveiled iTunes Radio (previously dubbed ‘iRadio” by the rumor mill) in the iOS 7 Music app. The service works a lot like Pandora. You can create stations based on artists you like and share what you’re listening to over social networks.

There are featured stations as well as the collection you create based on your own tastes. iTunes Radio is built into iOS 7, the Apple TV, and an upcoming version of iTunes.

The service is free with ads, and if you have an iTunes Match subscription, there are no ads.

Pandora has finally updated its mobile apps and website to let you connect with Facebook’s “Open Graph.” This means that you can now flip a toggle and share everything you listen to on Facebook. What you listen to is collected under the music section of your profile. Services like Spotify and Rdio have had this ability for awhile.

Have you ever wondered: if Apple makes billions of dollars off of music downloads, why are they supposedly planning on launching their own music streaming service, iRadio, later this year? Wouldn’t such a service actually lead to less downloads?

It’s a good question, and there’s a good answer.

Google is preparing to take on companies like Spotify and Rdio with a new YouTube music streaming service, according to sources in the record industry, who have been speaking to Fortune. The service, which is expected to launch later this year, could be available for free, but there will be subscription options for those who don’t like to see advertisements.