Spotify’s new app update allows users to access Spotify Radio on iOS devices for free. Previously, the recommendation-based application was only available on mobile for Spotify Premium subscribers.
Spotify Radio is similar to Pandora and Slacker in that it allows users to “pick a song, album, artist, or playlist, and build a radio station using it.” Spotify then “makes recommendations based on millions of hours of user data combined with data based on playlists users create — since playlists are already places where users organize similar content,” reports The Verge.
The app will employ a thumbs up and thumbs down rating service. The ratings will not apply to all playlists, but rather the currently playing playlist only, since “people often create playlists for specific moods.”
Inter-device functionality allows users to start a playlist on an iPad and continue listening on an iPhone. Social functionality enables songs and playlists to integrate with friends’ Facebook streams.
The updated app will be available in the next few days for all users in the United States, and to Premium subscribers internationally.
It is not yet available on Android, but according to Spotify: “we think it’s core to the mobile experience, and we’re looking to bring it to all of the major platforms in due time.”
Sites like Vevo and YouTube have added revitalization to the music video business. Those sites pay fees to major music publishing companies for music videos, but according to CNET, the independent publishers have been left out.
On Tuesday, the National Music Publishers Association announced that it’s reached a “new model agreement” with Universal Music Group that aims to make sure indie publishers get their fair share.
“David Israelite, chief executive of the NMPA, told CNET this morning that the deal with Universal calls for the label to pay indie publishers directly and is the first of its kind with one of the top four record companies,” explains the post. “He said Vevo, the Web music video service that offers music from three of the four major labels, announced that it generated $150 million in revenue last year and has its sights on topping the $1 billion mark in coming years.”
Israelite also stated the deal is retroactive to 2008 and that negotiations with other major labels outside of Universal are in the works.
SoundExchange, a nonprofit group that processes payments for online streams, reports it has now paid over $1 billion to artists and record companies since 2000.
Although SoundExchange represents a relatively small stream of revenue for most record companies, it is increasingly making an impact.
“The way the industry is going, it is about multiple revenue streams, not just one,” explains SoundExchange president Michael Huppe, adding that digital music streams can help record companies remain profitable as traditional sales decline.
“SoundExchange collects money from Sirius XM Radio, Pandora and other forms of Internet radio,” reports The New York Times. “For most labels and performing artists, this is the only money their recordings earn for radio play, since terrestrial radio pays only songwriters and music publishers. (‘On-demand’ digital services like Spotify and Rhapsody, which let users choose exactly what songs to listen to, generally pay record companies directly.)”
SoundExchange paid out only $15.6 million in 2004, but already reports payments of over $100 million for this year.
However, some Internet radio companies are not pleased. Sirius, for example, sued SoundExchange over the right to make direct deals with record companies for recording performance royalties. Last year, Sirius paid a total of $200 million in royalties.
In the last six months of 2011, authorities across the world submitted over 1,000 requests to remove search results or YouTube content.
Google’s Transparency Report describes the “alarming trend” as a disturbing attack against free speech.
Dorothy Chou, senior policy analyst for Google, explains that the trend is “alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect — Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.”
The most government requests come from the United States, United Kingdom and India. The report shows how many times each government “sought to censor search results, drop YouTube videos or look at user data in the second half of last year,” according to Engadget.
In its latest Transparency Report, Google reports complying with 65 percent of court orders and 47 percent of informal requests asking that content be removed.
When declining to remove content, Google often cites a EU law on eCommerce that states companies cannot remove content for which they are the host and not the producer.
According to numbers released by Google, the company finds about 9,500 new malicious websites per day, “either innocent ones that have been compromised by hackers or sites built specifically to distribute malware or for phishing,” according to CNET.
“Google provides malware warnings for about 300,000 downloads per day through its download protection service for Chrome,” notes the post. “About 600 million users of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari see several million warnings per day about malware and phishing on sites the users are about to visit.”
Additional daily statistics include: a warning that sites are compromised result from 12-14 million Google Search queries, the company sends thousands of notices to ISPs and webmasters regarding malware, and phishing pages are generally removed within an hour of being detected.
“Our tangible impact in making the Web more secure, and our ability to directly protect users from harm, has been a great source of motivation for everyone on the Safe Browsing team,” Google wrote in a blog post. “We are also happy that our free data feed has become the de facto base of comparison for academic research in this space.”
After a string of violent attacks on teens stemming from the location-based flirting app Skout, Mobiledia questions if young users should be allowed to access location-based services.
Although Skout CEO Christian Wiklund believes Skout set up sufficient protection for its teen version of the app, Mobiledia argues that “letting strangers know where you are will always leave people vulnerable to violent outliers.”
The post differentiates between minimizing risk and eliminating risk, arguing that even if companies take precautionary measures such as banning sex offenders from sites, risk still exists for violent attacks based on location data.
The attacks come as Facebook mulls the option of opening its site to children under the age of 13.
Mobiledia suggests that even if sites improve security features, “parents may want to monitor or even outright forbid teenagers’ access to location tracking sites and features.”
But the post also suggests that there are options other than banning the sites for children, and that “educating them about how to navigate these potentially hazardous situations may start them off on a path to more sophisticated digital literacy.”
Digital Trends has acquired a 56-page document outlining Microsoft’s plans to introduce the Xbox 720 in late 2013. Although authenticity of the document has not been confirmed, the length and depth of the report suggests the briefing is not a hoax.
The document describes plans to sell the Xbox 720 for $299 during the 2013 holiday season. The device will feature improved Kinect capabilities including “an improved camera, support for up to four simultaneous players and improved, hardware-based player tracking technology,” explains the post.
The Xbox 720 will reportedly output content in true 1080p and full 3D, creating the possibility of 3D gaming and streaming video. Additionally, the console will supposedly function as a DVR with the ability to stream across multiple devices.
“That concept, more than anything, offers hope that this document is indeed legitimate, as that last feature sounds quite similar to the SmartGlass initiative that Microsoft outlined at [the recent] E3 conference,” adds Digital Trends.
The document also outlines plans to implement “props” in a fashion similar to the Wii. The props may possibly operate as controllers, and also pulse and shake as users “feel the experience,” according to the document.
Zynga’s social game “Draw Something” hopes to revive its success as a new interactive game show on CBS.
Variety reports that Sony Pictures Television, Ryan Seacrest Productions and Embassy Row are producing the show, which will allow viewers to interact with celebrities and their drawings from home.
“Teams of celebrities and everyday users will test their skills in front of a studio audience to earn money and big laughs,” explains Variety. “Viewers can also play along at home for a chance to win prizes and compete with the celebrities.”
A related TechCrunch post suggests that the move may represent a last-ditch effort from Zynga to spark interest in the app after a dramatic traffic decease following the acquisition of OMGPOP.
In an interview with Lost Remote, social TV graphics expert James Neufeld says one challenge facing the “Draw Something” television experience will be that the game “is based on timing and revealing the drawing as it was captured.” He suggests that it will be difficult “to maintain the sensation of the game’s real-time nature and render out the drawings in a way that is presentable in studio, or even harder, the audience at home.”
Despite the inherent risks involved in transitioning a social game to a television show, Neufeld maintains that “this is a huge step for social TV and participation TV.”
Speaking at the TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco last week, Roku CEO Anthony Wood predicted Blu-ray player sales would peak this year or next and then decline.
“Will people use Blu-ray players in four years? I don’t think so,” he suggested.
While admitting that most video streaming takes place on game consoles today, Wood doesn’t expect we’ll see much growth in that area. “New customers don’t go out and buy game consoles to stream video,” he said.
“Wood sees momentum shifting to streaming players like the current-generation Roku boxes, as well as Smart TVs,” reports GigaOM. According to Wood, his company’s “goal is to be the dominant platform in those two segments.”
Roku’s streaming stick is scheduled to launch later this year and Wood sees it as an initial step into the Smart TV space for Roku.
“Wood also shared some new numbers about his company’s performance: He said that Roku made $100 million in sales last year, and that the number of devices sold tripled year-over-year,” notes the post. “However, he didn’t mention that the company missed its projected sales goal by 500,000 units.”
Online video is evolving from an entertainment medium geared toward viewers with short attention spans to a legitimate platform featuring programs running 30 minutes or more.
Long-form content is finding a home online thanks in part to YouTube’s made-for-Web initiative, services such as Netflix and Hulu, and the cord-cutting trend.
“I think our creators always wanted to make longer content — we’re just reaching a certain point in the lifecycle of online video where people have the command over the audience and the budget to make longer video,” says YouTube Next Lab director Tim Shey. “More creators are building huge audiences on YouTube, and once you build a loyal audience online, they all tend to want more.”
Producers are experimenting with more full-length content, and research suggests that consumers are responding, with retention rates of more than 75 percent reported for some archived programs.
GigaOM lists a number of early success stories including Wil Wheaton’s “Tabletop” on YouTube and Wilson Cleveland’s “Leap Year” on Hulu.
“What’s encouraging to me is that the platforms are becoming networks funding their own original series,” says actor/producer Cleveland. “These series are on-par with the broadcast and cable fare audiences have already been comfortably consuming on these same platforms for years. THAT’s the marriage of TV and digital programming realized.”
In a reversal of its long-standing opposition to selling subscriptions through Apple, Time Inc. has announced plans to offer all of its magazines through the newsstand section of Apple’s App Store.
The Apple newsstand, which currently lists more than 5,000 magazines and newspapers, has softened some of its initial restrictions in order to better compete with the likes of Amazon and Google. The imposed restrictions are what drew concern from Time.
“For a magazine or brand like People or Time, a tablet will become an increasingly important part of the experience,” says Time CEO Laura Lang. “Our goal is to offer content where our consumers want to read it.”
“The agreement also moves Apple further along in its strategy of expanding its App Store beyond popular games like ‘Angry Birds’ and making it more of a destination for news, information and videos,” reports The New York Times.
The article also notes that Time Inc. has been struggling with a decline in print advertising revenue (about 30 percent in the last five years), joining the ranks of others in the print publishing business looking to a digital transition for change.
The Huffington Post is a prime example of how digital media continues to impact the magazine and newspaper businesses.
Last week, it introduced a sleek new digital magazine for the iPad called Huffington and it is moving aggressively into online video.
“Huffington is a particularly acute reminder of how much things have changed,” writes David Carr for The New York Times. “Last year, The Huffington Post was sold to AOL for $315 million, less than a year after Newsweek was sold for a dollar, and in April the site won its first Pulitzer, for David Wood’s 10-part series about wounded veterans.”
“More unique Web visitors now go to The Huffington Post each month than The New York Times, according to the research company comScore,” writes Carr.
Meanwhile, traditional media is being dragged reluctantly into the digital era. Time Inc., for example, just agreed to Apple’s terms so it can sell its digital magazines on iTunes. And local newspapers continue to struggle. The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, for example, is undergoing a big layoff.
“It’s true that legacy media brands still have juice and powerful assets at their disposal,” notes Carr. “No purely digital media product has kicked up anywhere near the profits that beleaguered traditional brands still do. But smart minds will figure that out. As his lawman uncle told the sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones in ‘No Country for Old Men,’ ‘You can’t stop what’s coming.'”
Vizio, known primarily for its LCD TVs and home entertainment products, has announced it will start selling a variety of PCs this summer, including a pair of all-in-one PCs, a 15.6-inch laptop, and two ultrabooks.
“In a market that’s already crowded with competition from the likes of Apple, HP and Dell, Vizio is hoping that it can lure new customers by offering products that combine high performance and stylish design,” reports AllThingsD.
The all-in-one PCs come in 24-inch and 27-inch versions, both with a 1080p HD display, wireless keyboard and touchpad with multi-touch support. “Surround sound audio is also onboard, as well as dual HDMI ports, so you can connect your cable box, Blu-ray player or gaming console and turn it into a mini entertainment hub,” notes the article.
The company’s Thin + Light ultrabook series tout HD displays, a slim aluminum unibody design, 4GB of memory, SRS Premium Sound, 1.3-megapixel 720p camera, and HDMI and USB 3.0 ports.
The Vizio notebook features a 15.6-inch HD display and although not as thin and light as the ultrabook offerings, runs a more powerful graphics processor for users concerned with multimedia.
“All of Vizio’s laptops and all-in-one PCs feature Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors and ship with the Signature Edition of Windows 7, which means you won’t get any bloatware or unnecessary applications,” adds AllThingsD.
Microsoft has long been a software company, creating programs to run on other company’s machines. However, “the company will make its biggest-ever break from that tradition” when it launches “its own brand of tablets as part of an effort to reinsert itself into the market,” reports AllThingsD.
While Microsoft is not entirely new to hardware, it has experienced more misses (Kin, Zune) than hits (Xbox 360). And similar to how the Zune music player had to compete with Apple’s iPod, Microsoft’s Surface tablet will attempt to challenge the tremendously popular iPad.
Microsoft does bring assets to this battle, including Windows and Office. “The company also has its Xbox gaming abilities, plenty of licensing deals with Hollywood and the music labels, as well as the Barnes & Noble partnership it stuck when settling a legal battle earlier this year,” notes AllThingsD.
Microsoft unveiled its new tablet at an event in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. Surface features a 10.6-inch screen and will run a forthcoming variation of Windows 8. “The tablet has a built-in ‘kickstand’ that will allow users to prop it up for watching movies, and a detachable cover that will serve double duty as a keyboard,” reports The New York Times. Pricing and availability have yet to be announced.
There could be a great deal at stake for Microsoft. Consumer expectations regarding the marriage of hardware and software have been impacted by the iPad — and Apple’s tablet is becoming more popular with business customers, a market that Microsoft has dominated in the past.
“We’re no longer talking about a peripheral, but rather the future of computing and the core of Microsoft’s business,” suggests AllThingsD.
The U.S. government has partnered with private corporations to create ultra high-speed broadband networks. The program is called US Ignite and invites private developers to build applications to advance the economy.
A White House press release explains that it envisions the program as “a test-bed for designing and deploying next-generation applications to support national priorities areas such as education, healthcare, energy, and advanced manufacturing.”
“US Ignite will challenge students, start-ups, and industry leaders to create a new generation of applications and services that meet the needs of local communities while creating a broad range of job and investment opportunities,” adds the release.
The network will expand to 25 cities in the next five years, says the White House, and aims to advance network speeds to 1 gigabit-per-second. This represents speeds 100 times faster than today’s Internet.
“In the 1970s, many doubted there were uses for even 50 kilobit-per-second Internet,” explains Bob Metcalfe, who co-invented Ethernet. “But soon application explorers came up with remote login, file transfer, and email. Pioneers have since found new worlds in telephony, television, publishing, commerce and social interactivity. Today, while investing in gigabit generations of Internet, we are again sending out our application explorers.”
Spotify’s new app update allows users to access Spotify Radio on iOS devices for free. Previously, the recommendation-based application was only available on mobile for Spotify Premium subscribers.
