Music (102 articles)

Spotify update revamps related artists

Spotify has rolled out a small update to its desktop client - the first in a few months. Bringing the version number up to 0.3.23, the update adds a "related artists" tab to artist pages which allows you to see what bands sound similar to whatever you're currently listening...

Five music hacks from the future

What did you do last weekend? Cleaned the house? Watched some football? Had a few friends over? In Stockholm, a group of coders were far too busy for any of that. Instead, they hunkered down and built the future of music at Stockholm Music Hack Day.

The event,...

We7 launches subscription packages

Music streaming service We7 has announced a couple of subscription packages for its web-based audio offering. There's a version that just removes the ads, and a version that also enables mobile phone access.

The ad-removing version is called We7 Premium. It will...

Spotify's Premium service growing fast

At the MIDEM conference in Cannes, Spotify has revealed that it's managed to convert more than 250,000 of its total 7 million users to its paid service, which costs £10 per month. If our sums are right, that means revenues of about £2.5 million, before advertising is...

MusicDNA format proposed as successor to MP3

At the Midem conference in Cannes, a new audio format has been proposed by the co-inventor of the MP3 and a Norwegian company called Bach. It's called MusicDNA, and bolts a huge pile of extra rich media content on to the music.

The idea is to make buying legal...

HP computers get Omnifone preloaded

HP has announced that it'll be launching its own streaming music service that'll be pre-loaded on sixteen models of its desktop and laptop computer range. The tunes will be supplied by UK-based Omnifone, which also runs a mobile music service called MusicStation.

When...

UK Amazon MP3 for Android officially announced

So we knew this was coming, thanks to early leaks of the contents of Google's Nexus One, and we showed you how to get the app early on your phone, but now it's official.

Unlike the early edition of the app, it now works on Android 1.5 devices. In fact there seem...

Virgin Media music service will be called MusicFish

Virgin Media has given a name to its forthcoming music download service - "MusicFish" - and according to reports in Marketing magazine it'll be launching to the public in July. The company says that it's "making good progress".

The company, which already offers...

VIDEO: Misa launches touchscreen Digital Guitar

An Australian company called Misa has built a digital guitar that replaces the strings of a regular guitar with a touchscreen. It has 144 buttons on the neck for generating MIDI notes, which are then modified by pressure and position on the touchpad.

"In electronic...

Rock Band Network to enter public beta testing

Harmonix has confirmed that the Rock Band Network will be opening up for beta access imminently. As previously reported on Pocket-lint, the service offers anyone the chance to upload music that they've created and make it purchasable in the Xbox 360 edition of the massively...

Pioneer teases new product image

Pioneer, the sly dog, is teasing some sort of new audio product on its Twitter and Facebook pages. That's it above. The company says: "Here's an exclusive preview of our newest upcoming product, can you guess what it is?"

It's evidently some sort of music device....

VIDEOS: Best retro gaming music picks

With the news just in that the Ivor Novello Awards has announced the Best Original Video Game Score as a new category for this year's awards, it got us thinking wistfully about memorable music from video games past.

In this vein, we've knocked up a quick playlist...

Get your Last.fm recommendations in Spotify

Another improvement has been rolled out to Spotify recommendations engine Spotibot. The service, which aims to help users find music they like, but just don't know yet, has added Last.fm integration.

What that means is that instead of having to put in a song or...

Oxford University bans Spotify

It's being reported that Oxford University, one of the UK's foremost academic institutions, has banned the use of music streaming service Spotify from its network. The University's computing services department, OUCS, has pinned the blame on the large amounts of data...

Thumbplay launches streaming music service

Thumbplay, a service that delivers ringtones and mobile games in the States, has launched a streaming music service at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The offering has content from all four major labels, as well as a host of independent aggregators, so your...

Omnifone and Gracenote team up on cloud-based music solutions

A development from CES could see new cloud-based music solutions hitting PCs, phones, TVs, Blu-ray players, games consoles and more in the coming year.

Omnifone has announced it has expanded its relationship with Sony-owned Gracenote, integrating Gracenote's...

PHOTOS: Gambridge guitar game controllers hands-on

Gambridge is a US company trying to turn the legions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band fans around the world into real guitarists. The company has created a guitar controller that you can use to play Rock Band with, but which actually has real strings.

Once you've...

Spotify USA to launch with Nexus One?

Speculation is floating around that Spotify could launch the long-promised US edition of its service as soon as 5 January, and that a deal has been reached with the labels that would allow the US access to the free edition of the software which has proved so popular in...

Last.fm reveals 2009 statistics

Last.fm has announced the release of its annual Best of 2009 web "featurette" of what users of the social music service have been listening to the most in 2009.

With one big artist list (instead of artists/albums/tracks) expanded to a Top 40, Last.fm has split...

Radio 1 to reveal best-selling songs of the Noughties

As the Noughties draw to a close, BBC Radio 1 is set to unveil the charts of the decade – revealing which singles and albums have sold the most in the UK in the last 10 years.

Radio 1 will count down the Top 100 best-selling singles and albums of the...

Deck your halls with Christmas music

It's Christmas. The season of eating, drinking, making merry, and - most importantly - giving. So here's what we're giving you this Christmas - the gift of music. The gift of Cliff Richard, Mr Blobby, and Rage Against the Machine. We're giving you the gift of as much...

Spotify publishes top tracks of 2009

Spotify has announced its most listened-to tracks of 2009, based on the number of streams each track got across the six countries where the service is available.

The Black Eyed Peas took the top spot with "I Gotta Feeling", followed up closely by Flo Rida's "Right...

We7 reveals most played songs and artists of 2009

Online streaming service We7 has revealed its most-played songs and artists for 2009. As far as the last year goes, We7 says more and more music fans are choosing to listen to their favourite songs online and that it's enjoying "rapid growth".

"The ability...

3 rolls out Spotify for its Symbian handsets

Mobile network 3 has announced that its contract customers will shortly be able to get access to Spotify for Symbian handsets through the operator's "Planet 3" portal.

The service still costs the standard £10 per month, but the operator says "over 6 months" -...

Simple Minds offers entire tour on USB stick

Simple Minds, the Scottish rock band best known for their hit, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", has done the same thing as several other bands, issuing a USB stick, except that they've gone a step further. They've put recordings of every single date on their tour on it.

That...