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Spotify - page 13

Spotify baits premium hook with free Chromecast

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spotify-baits-premium-hook-with-free-chromecast-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201602chromecast-png
Get a free one of these when you buy three months of Spotify Premium.  Photo: Spotify
Get a free one of these when you buy three months of Spotify Premium. Photo: Spotify

If you haven’t already grabbed a free trial of Spotify, you’re in luck – this deal makes joining the streaming music service even more enticing.

Today through February 28, when you buy three months of Spotify Premium for $29.97, you’ll get a free Chromecast.

Pandora is considering selling itself

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Pandora is finally catching up.
Pandora is finally catching up.
Photo: Pandora

One of Apple Music’s biggest competitors is looking to sellout.

Pandora, the music streaming service with more users than Spotify and Apple Music, has reportedly been meeting with private parties regarding a possible sale of the company after experiencing its slowest amount of growth ever last year.

Apple Music blasts onto Sonos speakers tomorrow

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Apple Music is about to stream on Sonos smart speakers.
Apple Music is about to stream on Sonos smart speakers.
Photo: Sonos

Apple Music becomes an official part of the Sonos ecosystem Wednesday after months of beta testing on the wireless speakers.

“The feedback from Apple Music members on Sonos during the beta period has been great,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, in a press release. “Sonos plus Apple Music provides an amazing listening experience at home — and we’re excited to offer it to all Sonos customers starting tomorrow.”

Amazon Echo adds Spotify to its musical repertoire

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amazon-echo-adds-spotify-to-its-musical-repertoire-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201602amazon-echo-jpg
Amazon Echo adds Spotify to its bag of tricks.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Amazon’s Echo smart speaker just upped its music game, adding Spotify streaming to its ever-growing list of skills. Now playing your favorite artists and playlists is just a voice command away — at least if you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber.

Spotify’s new ‘Behind the Lyrics’ playlists decipher your favorite songs

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Rap Genius is partnering with Spotify.
Rap Genius is partnering with Spotify.
Photo: Spotify

Understanding what your favorite rapper is saying is finally going to get a lot easer, if you’re a Spotify user.

Spotify revealed a new feature going out to users, starting today, that allows you to look a song’s lyrics, as well as the meaning behind them. Songs will be compiled into a weekly ‘Behind the Lyris’ playlist that utilizes Genius’ collection of rhyme translations.

David Bowie predicted the Apple Music future in 2003

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David Bowie's futuristic vision didn't stop with sci-fi lyrics.
David Bowie's futuristic vision didn't stop with sci-fi lyrics.
Photo: Sonia Golemme/Flickr CC

David Bowie’s uncanny vision of the future didn’t stop with songs about holographic TVs or astronauts adrift in space.

More than a decade ago, the dynamic entertainer — who died Sunday at age 69 after an 18-month battle with cancer — predicted the music biz would look a lot like it does in the time of Apple Music.

You’ll soon be able to listen to The Beatles on Apple Music and Google Play

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BeatleslogoT
The Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere.
Photo: The Beatles
The Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere. Photo: The Beatles
The Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere. Photo: The Beatles

Forget The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles are coming to Apple Music, Google Play, and a variety of other online streaming music services — and just in time for Christmas, too.

Starting Christmas Eve, the Fab Four will be available for your listening pleasure on Apple Music, Spotify, Slacker, Tidal, Microsoft’s Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.

The greatest Xmas gift you can give: Apple evangelism

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The holidays are the perfect time to spread the Apple love.
The holidays are the perfect time to spread the Apple love.
Photo: Jack Mayfield

As an Apple fan, there’s a great gift you can bestow upon your friends and family this holiday season. The amazing part is, it’s free.

I’m not talking about the free tech support you’ll inevitably dole out to befuddled relatives (Cult of Mac’s how-to section can help with that, BTW). I’m talking about evangelizing for two of Apple’s least-loved products — and this gracious act will also goose the greater good.

Rdio marches to death playing the high notes

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The Rdio app just got better than ever. Photo: Rdio.
You won't be able to stream from Rdio on Christmas this year.
Photo: Rdio

Rdio made the date of its demise official this morning. The streaming music service as we know it will cease to exist on December 22 — just six days from today — at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Rdio sent around an email to its users to let them know the specifics of the shutdown.

“Rdio is being acquired, and the service is shutting down worldwide on December 22,” the company wrote on its Goodbye page. “We’re excited to bring great music experiences to even more listeners in the future as part of the Pandora team.”

Install these battery-killing, storage-hogging apps at your own risk

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android apps
Which apps are the worst for your phone's battery, performance and data plan?
Photo: Pixelkult/Pixabay CC

Phone-killing apps
Which apps aren’t the best for your phone’s battery, performance, and data plan? Photo: Pixelkult/Pixabay CC
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The latest quarterly report from antivirus company AVG has outed the battery-killingest, storage-hoggingest apps currently available.

Some of the culprits are unsurprising, but a few might be murdering your phone’s performance without you knowing, like some kind of ninjas that have somehow taken app form. All of this and more happens in “Appsassins,” the screenplay I’m pitching to SyFy.

But here are the biggest offenders, because that’s really the more important information here.

Goodbye! Adele’s new album won’t debut on Apple Music after all

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Adele won't say
Adele won't say "Hello" to Apple Music.

Spotify and Apple Music subscribers won’t be able to stream Adele’s highly anticipated album “25” when it is publicly released tomorrow.

The album is sure to be one of the biggest sellers of the year, but according to a report from the New York Times, Adele’s people have informed companies that “25” will not be made available for streaming.

Tidal artist Prince disses Apple for taking money from musicians

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Prince_at_Coachella
Prince still isn't ready to party like it's $9.99 per month.
Photo: Wikipedia CC

Apple Music may be gaining an edge over rival companies like Spotify thanks to its remuneration of artists — but in a new interview, the artist currently known as Prince inexplicably blames Cupertino for musicians making no money on the Internet.

“Tell me a musician who’s got rich off digital sales,” Prince told the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, adding that, “Apple’s doing pretty good though, right?”

Because, as everyone knows, all of Apple’s money comes from withholding royalty payments for “Purple Rain,” right?

Facebook now lets you share tunes from Apple Music

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Your Facebook feed is about to get a lot more musical.
Your Facebook feed is about to get a lot more musical.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook is dipping its toes into the music biz this week with a brand new feature that makes it easier than ever to share your favorite tunes with all your social network friends.

The new Music Stories feature rolls out to iPhone users today and allows you to share 30-second song samples from Apple Music and Spotify by simply copy and pasting a link into your status update.

Here’s a preview of how it works:

YouTube’s new streaming service charges iOS users an Apple tax

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YouTube is going ad-free, for a price.
YouTube is going ad-free, for a price.
Photo: Google

Google revealed that it’s getting into the subscription video streaming game today with the introduction of YouTube Red.

The new $9.99-per-month service will give customers ad-free access to all of YouTube’s content, but the company plans to charge customers extra if they sign up through iOS.

As Apple boasts about Music, Spotify takes App Store’s top spot

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Spotify was the top-grossing App in the iPhone App Store.
Spotify was the top-grossing App in the iPhone App Store.
Photo: Spotify

Tim Cook may like the “runway” for Apple Music’s take off, but Spotify is currently soaring.

Apple’s competitor in the music streaming business found itself in the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s Top Grossing charts for the first time in the United States. This is on the same day that the Apple CEO Cook told the audience at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference that Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers.

UE Boom 2 gets Block Party mode so you can blast friends’ tunes

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The UE Boom 2's new Block Party feature makes it easier than ever to share music with friends.
The UE Boom 2's new Block Party feature makes it easier than ever to share music with friends.
Photo: Ultimate Ears

SAN FRANCISCO — A slick new feature coming to Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speakers will let you stream your friends’ music from the palm of your hand.

Called Block Party, it lets up to three friends connect to the same UE speaker. Then the self-appointed DJ can pick and choose from each person’s tunes, pulled from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. The DJ can skip songs and jump from playlist to playlist, and it’s all shockingly smooth and simple.

Rhapsody fights for relevance in streaming world it helped create

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After 14 years, what's next in Rhapsody's queue as it attempts to take on the biggest competition yet?
After 14 years, what's next in Rhapsody's queue as it attempts to take on the biggest competition yet?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music cranked up the volume on music streaming, turning an insider topic into water-cooler fodder as musicians, industry bigwigs and tech analysts weighed in with questions about the future of the music industry.

Seemingly everybody is suddenly talking about Apple Music subscription numbers and the chances of competitors like Spotify and Pandora. But in all the media buzz about who’s winning and who’s losing, almost everyone is disregarding another major player — Rhapsody, the streaming music service that just happened to spark the streaming revolution.

Geekin Radio adds social sauce to music streaming

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The Geekin Radio app lets users listen to music together in real time.
The Geekin Radio app lets users listen to music together in real time.
Photo: Geekin Radio/Vimeo

The confetti from Apple’s splashy launch of its music streaming service has barely finished falling. Now comes startup Geekin Radio, with a streaming service that debuts today. It seems like odd timing.

How will it ever emerge from the shadows of Apple Music? CEO Gavin McCulley is aware of his timing and likes his company’s chances because Geekin Radio’s mobile app is the only streaming service that is an actual social network, offering a shared listening experience, perfectly synced, with back-and-forth chatting in real time.

Obama shuns Apple Music to share vacation playlists

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Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever.
Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever.
Photo: The White House

“Welcome to Spotify, Mr. President,” tweeted the streaming music giant Friday morning. That’s right: The president of the United States just shared two vacation playlists — and he didn’t use Apple Music.

The two music lists, titled “The President’s Summer Playlist: Day” and “The President’s Summer Playlist: Night,” contain 20 songs each, showing an eclectic taste with a diverse artist representation, including the Isley Brothers, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and (ugh) Coldplay.

Treat your ears to awesome Apple Music playlists

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Tired of Apple Music's playlists? Try something even more indie.
Tired of Apple Music's playlists? Try something even more indie.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has some amazing playlists created just for you, with humans behind the scenes making perfect mixes of music that fits your specific style and music tastes.

You can make your own playlists, too, and share them out to friends and family, but what if you want to see other people’s playlists? There’s just no way to pop on to Apple Music and see what playlists strangers are making.

Now, however, a new website called Playlist Hunt brings you the next best thing: a site dedicated to sharing and playing playlists by its members.

Spotify will make you pay for music by destroying its free plan

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Rap Genius is partnering with Spotify.
Spotify is finally listening to the labels.
Photo: Spotify
Spotify is finally listening to the labels. Photo: Spotify
Spotify is finally listening to the labels. Photo: Spotify

Spotify is planning to introduce a new “gated access” model that will make its free streaming plan a lot less attractive, according to a new report. Those who choose to opt out of paying for the service could see it become extremely limited, with access to just one or two songs from big album releases.

Migrating from Rdio or Spotify to Apple Music now takes just one click

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Moving to Apple Music is just a click away.
Moving to Apple Music is just a click away.
Photo: Move To Apple

Maybe you’re like me, and you’re interested in trying Apple Music. Maybe, though, you feel locked in to Rdio or Spotify, because over the years you’ve set up an extensive library of favorites and playlists. Favorites and playlists you count on.

Well, good news! Migrating your whole life to Apple Music is just $4.99 away.