Who wrote that song? Rhapsody becomes first music service to offer liner notes

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To many listeners, one benefit of purchasing physical music is the ability to learn who was responsible for the behind-the-scenes production, like the names of songwriters, background vocalists or song producers and engineers. Unfortunately for those music fans, often-used digital players today now only include basic information like song title, artist name and album. Now, though,… Read More…

Rhapsody exec advises Spotify, Rdio: You’re doing it wrong

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Jon Maples, Rhapsody VP of Product and Content, has some veteran advice for fellow music streaming competitors Spotify and Rdio: Stop making the same mistakes we did. In this blog post, Maples takes a trip down memory lane and discusses how Rhapsody put out costly advertisements from 2008-2010 that share similarities with the TV spots Spotify… Read More…

Twitter unveils sleek new #music discovery app for web, iOS

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There’s a new way to find the tunes and tracks everyone is talking about. Twitter today debuted a new music discovery platform for both browsers and iOS devices. The service uses Twitter activity to aggregate the most popular music. You’re also able to preview the songs right through the app via iTunes, and subscribers to… Read More…

Good news, gamers: Windows Phone finally getting uber-popular Temple Run

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One of the top mobile games is finally coming to Windows Phone. At this week’s Game Developer’s Conference, Microsoft announced that Temple Run will be arriving in the Windows Phone Marketplace “very, very soon.” Microsoft is actually a bit late with this, as it promised Temple Run for the 2012 holiday season. The original Temple Run… Read More…

Windows Phone 8 finally gets Pandora — ad-free for 2013

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At long last, Pandora released its Windows Phone 8 app this morning. Microsoft says the free app will come without ads for the remainder of the year — a benefit usually reserved for the premium Pandora service. Unique features include the ability to pin personalized radio stations to Windows Phone 8 Start screen for quick… Read More…

Music sales up, illegal downloading down as people turn to streaming services

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There was a point in the past decade when it seemed as if technology, largely by way of illegal peer-to-peer downloading, was going to ruin the music industry. But recent numbers show otherwise. According to the industry trade group IFPI, global music sales rose 0.3 percent last year to $16.5 billion for the first time since 1999…. Read More…

A Pandora killer? Apple rumored to be considering a new ad-based music service

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Shares of Pandora slumped today after Bloomberg News reported that Apple plans to launch a new ad-based online music service early next year. Pandora fell more than 11 percent, with trading halted at one point. Bloomberg notes that a deal could be hammered out next month, with talks revolving around how ad revenues would be… Read More…

Internet Radio Fairness? What it means, why it matters

Tim Westergren

Pandora listeners may have recently heard a call to support a bill called “The Internet Radio Fairness Act” in place of regularly scheduled advertising. Tim Westergren, the Pandora founder, also sent a message to Pandora members on Friday asking them to urge their Congressional representatives to support the bill. So what’s going on here?  The… Read More…

Dear Alley Insider: What’s Zillow, chopped liver?

Spencer Rascoff opens trading on the Nasdaq in July

I’m a big fan of Alley Insider’s Chart of the Day service in which the online news publication puts relevant news in chart form. But their latest effort left me scratching my head. What grabbed my attention was the title of the post: “LinkedIn Is The Only Consumer Tech IPO That’s Doing Well.” Really? I am… Read More…

iHear unveils ‘social news narrator’ on Android, an app for multitasking news hounds

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A few weeks ago on the GeekWire podcast, we featured a new iPhone app called Snackr that tuned into a user’s personal social networks in order to deliver a customized audio news report, told in the charming voice of a British gentleman. Now, Seattle upstart iHear Network is unveiling a similar offering, launching what it’s… Read More…