BT has gone ahead and announced the results of its "Best of the Decade" music video vote.

The poll, by BT Vision Music, collated 200,000 votes from music fans across the globe for their favourite rock and pop video.

Rhianna has been crowned queen of the video charts with her 2007 hit, "Umbrella", voted the best music video of the decade.

Here's the top 20 videos, for your derision:

1 Rihanna feat Jay-Z? - Umbrella (2007)
2 t.A.T.u - All The Things She Said (2003)
3 Avril Lavigne - Sk8r Boi (2002)???? ?
4 Britney Spears - Everytime (2004)?? ?
5 Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle (2005) ?
6 Will Young - Leave Right Now (2003) ?
7 Katy Perry - Hot N Cold (2008)????? ?
8 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (2007)
9 Madonna - Hung Up (2005)??? ?
10 Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2001)
11 Coldplay - The Scientist (2002)??? ?
12 Pink - So What (2008)????? ?
13 Dido - White Flag (2003)?? ?
14 Lady GaGa - Poker Face (2009)????? ?
15 Christina Aguilera - Candyman (2007)
16 No Doubt - It's My Life (2003)???? ?
17 Linkin Park - In The End (2001)??? ?
18 Outkast - Hey Ya (2003)??? ?
19 Beyonce - Crazy In Love (2003)???? ?
20 Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way(2002)??????

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Tags: Audio Music BT BT Vision Statistics

BT Vision names best music video of the decade originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:10:32 +0000

High-end home ent manufacturer Linn has announced it has taken the "dramatic decision" to stop making CD players.

Linn will cease production from the start of 2010 to focus on digital music streaming systems, sales of which have apparently outpaced those of CD players over the last year.

A real sign o' the times story, it seems this makes Linn the first manufacturer to make this landmark move.

Linn's MD, Gilad Tiefenbrun, says of the move: "Our customers have fast recognised the limitations of CD players and in the age of home networking, people now want better control of their music and the ability to enjoy it in any room of their home".

Tags: Audio CD Linn Media streaming Music Biz

Linn announces it's quitting the CD player market originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:21:32 +0000

A small startup from Poole has created an app that aims to make it easier to share your digital media collection between your various gadgets. It's called Skifta, and allows you to shift content between a number of devices with just one catch - they have to be DLNA enabled.

If you watch the more-than-a-little-cheesy intro video above, you'll see that it works with anything from televisions to radios to laptops to games consoles to digital photo frames. It turns your computer into a DLNA server, which can then pump pictures, music or video to any device in your home.

But that's not the clever bit. The clever bit is that you can connect that server with another computer anywhere in the world, and then stream from the new device to anything on that network - so if you go to a friend's house and connect then you can instantly stream your vintage Village People live album to his television or speakers. He'll love you for it.

What's more is that there are various "boosters" available for system. A Twitter one was demonstrated, which provides a live Twitter feed to your TV, or a digital photo frame, or other home gadget. You could also build boosters for Last.fm, Flickr, a Gmail checker, an RSS reader, or any other service. In time, third parties will also be able to build boosters.

The platform is live right now at skifta.com, and the team has a Twitter account - @skifta - too. It's free to sign up and use, so give it a go and let us know what you think in the comments.

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Tags: Home Cinema Software Skifta Qualcomm PC software Mac software Linux P2P Music Movies Photos DLNA Video

VIDEO: Skifta offers media sharing app originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:18:16 +0000

You might be familiar, if you're a hardcore Spotify user, with @Spotibot - a Twitter bot that recommends bands that are similar to other bands, as well as the Better Spotify Links project. Well, the coder behind it - Andy Smith - has just completed his latest app - an automatic playlist generator for Spotify.

To make it work, all you have to do is put in a band or artist name, and pick how long you want the playlist to be. It'll generate the list, which you can then edit and extend, and once you're set you just click a button and paste the whole list into your Spotify play queue. Very simple, very easy, and very powerful.

The data comes mainly from Last.fm - a service that can establish links between bands by seeing which songs are often played next to each other. Last.fm does provide a discovery system like this one, but gives no way of skipping around within a track, pausing, or going back to a previous song. It only lets you skip forward to the next song.

It's a little bit like iTunes' Genius playlists too - however those will only play songs that you've purchased or otherwise acquired in MP3 format - and you're not very likely to have paid for content that you don't yet know, so its usefulness as a music discovery tool is limited.

Instead, Spotibot's automatic playlist generation is most like Pandora - a US-based music streaming service that also generates playlists from bands. However, Pandora no longer allows UK users to access its site, citing prohibitively high licensing costs as the reason for ceasing the service in Britain.

Spotibot brings an important music discovery feature to Spotify that has been missing since the app launched. It's still a beta - so you might get the occasional odd result, but give it a try, and let us know what you think in the comments box below.

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Tags: Software Audio Music Online Websites Spotify Pandora

Spotify gets Pandora-style recommendations originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:38:15 +0000

A survey of 2000 internet users in the UK from GfK NOP has found that iTunes still remains by far the most popular music service, but that new entrant Spotify is shooting rapidly up the charts, despite having only just celebrated its 1st birthday.

The survey asked participants which music services they used, and 11% said Spotify. That puts it in fourth place behind Real Player (13%), Amazon (24%) and iTunes sitting at the top with 50% approval rating. Spotify sits ahead of the slightly older Last.fm (7%), MP3.com (5%) and Napster (4%). 60% of users stream music direct from the Web.

In the navigation arena, Google Maps dominates with 72% of those surveyed saying they used it. The AA came in second place with 40% and Multimap was third with 35%. Behind that came Mapquest (7%), MSN Maps (4%), Yahoo Maps (4%) and Streetmap (3%).

When it comes to social networking, new boy Twitter draws for second place with MySpace - but both only have 4% of people who use them as their main social network. Bebo is even lower with 2%, but Facebook romps home with over 74% of users picking it as their favourite.

IM is similarly dominated by one provider - Windows Live Messenger. 50% picked it as their main provider, with 16% going for Facebook chat, Yahoo IM coming in third with 8%, Skype at 6%, AIM at 5% and Google Talk coming in at just 2%.

Webmail is closer - 33% opt for Hotmail, but Yahoo Mail was chosen by 14%, 10% picked their own ISP's service, and only 6% have "Gone Google" and picked up a Gmail account. Interestingly, a further 6% said they used email provided by a social network - is this MySpace mail?

Lastly, Skype wins out when it comes to VoIP - 60% of respondents picked it as their favourite online voice-calling app. Google Talk was second with 13%, and VoIP.com and Gizmo came in third with 3% each.

Of course, while the best provider is winning the day in some categories, others are dominated by bloated former giants commanding the attention of people who are too lazy to make a change. Which would you pick as your favourite in each category? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tags: Software Online Websites Music IM Mapping Software Social Networks Email iTunes Spotify MySpace Twitter Facebook Amazon Lastfm Gmail Hotmail Skype Yahoo Microsoft Google Statistics

iTunes still most popular music service by far originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:41:43 +0000

While preparations for the Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards are in full swing, Apple has announced the shortlists for the iTunes Best Album & Song 2009.

Selected by the iTunes UK editorial team in London, the shortlists have been compiled from the thousands of singles and albums released on iTunes in 2009. ?

While the winning album and song will be revealed in early December, you can have your say by voting for your favourites in the "People's Choice" categories published on the iTunes UK Facebook page.?? ?

iTunes Best Album 2009 shortlist - Editor's choice

"Empire Of The Sun" - Empire Of The Sun
"Lungs" - Florence & The Machine
"West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum" - Kasabian
"La Roux" - La Roux
"Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do" - Major Lazer
"Sunny Side Up" - Paolo Nutini
"Primary Colours" - The Horrrors
"The Invisible" - The Invisible
"Conditions" - The Temper Trap
"The XX" - The XX

iTunes Best Song 2009 shortlist - Editor's choice

"My Girls" - Animal Collective
"That Golden Rule" - Biffy Clyro
"Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
"Bonkers" - Dizzee Rascal
"Heavy Cross" (Fred Falke Remix) - Gossip
"Tonight's Today" - Jack Penate
"Empire State Of Mind" - Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
"Use Somebody" - Kings Of Leon
"In For The Kill" - La Roux
"1901" - Phoenix

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Tags: Audio iTunes Apple Music

iTunes Best Album and Song Awards nominations revealed originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:32:21 +0000

If you don't fancy shelling out the best part of ?6000 for a pair of Pioneer DVJ-X1s and a decent crossfader, here's a cheaper alternative for budding VJs. It's called "Two You Tube Videos And A Motherfucking Crossfader", and it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Just search for a couple of tracks - we recommend Always Blow On The Pie and Chocolate Rain - hit play on both of them and then crossfade between the two to your heart's content. You can then save your mixes using an open source audio editor like Audacity.

Alternatively, you could use a screencasting application to broadcast your skillz over the Web to a doting audience. Try it out.?www.twoyoutubevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfader.com.

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Tags: Software Websites Online Music DJ

Add a crossfader to YouTube originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:25:38 +0000

A recent study by Nokia and Kings' College London Department of Twin Research has examined the music taste of nearly 4000 twins.

The results boil down to suggest up to 50% of music taste has already been decided by our genes, although "on the whole, musical taste is determined just as much by nature as it is by specific individual experiences".

"As much as 50% of our musical taste being predetermined, it appears there is a strong argument for the existence of 'music genes'", says Adrian North, professor of psychology at Heriot Watt University. ?

Nature's influence is said to be strongest on the appreciation of pop, classical and hip-hop music,? and weakest when it comes to country, hit play on the video above for more.

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Tags: Audio Nokia Phones Video Music

VIDEO: Nokia reveals twins' music taste study results originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:51:57 +0000

Spotify appears to be having trouble with its much-trailed US launch. Rumours are spreading that Sweden's music-streaming wonderchild is facing difficulties in getting US music publishers to sign up. At a conference in Monte Carlo, CEO Daniel Ek completely ruled out the possibility of a launch in 2009.

Ek is due to deliver a keynote address at SxSW 2010 in March and many expect Spotify's arrival over the pond to coincide. However, the difficulty that Spotify is having in Europe in converting its freeloaders into paid subscribers seems to be raising some eyebrows amongst the music companies, who question whether it'll be able to make money.

It's clear that the public demand is there for Spotify USA, but the labels and publishers are still the gatekeepers of the music, and if they can't be persuaded of the value of the service, then it can't happen. Still, Ek clearly has his vision - he says that in 10 years, an MP3 will be a foreign concept to people - that it'll be all about the URLs.

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Tags: Software Audio Music Spotify

Spotify facing delays for US launch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:54:36 +0000

Rdio, the new music service from the founders of Skype, Joost and KaZaa, is beginning to show its face on the Web. A couple of screenshots of the interface of the app have appeared on ReadWriteWeb, complete with a short description of the service.

As you can see, it has a little bit of a a Zune-y look to it, though this is an image of the BlackBerry client's interface. That's right - there's going to be a BlackBerry app, expanding the music choice on the platform, which is already in testing. On top of that, it seems there'll be clients for Android, iPhone, and obviously the desktop.

It's not a straight Spotify or Last.fm clone, though. It has the on-demand aspects of Spotify, but requires a subscription for unlimited music and focuses on the connection aspects - sharing reviews and playlists. You'll also be able to stream collections, as well as find music in heavy rotation amongst your friends.

There'll be offline playback, and the team has already made deals with Warner Music and indie aggregator The Orchard. Deals with Sony, Universal and EMI are still in the works, however. Rdio is due to go live in 2010, but it'll very much depend on how keen the labels are to license to the founders of Kazaa - one of the bigger P2P networks of this decade.

Either way, whether Rdio sinks or swims will ultimately depend on its usability and its catalogue. If the team can get those things right, then Rdio will start with a considerable advantage over many of its competitors.

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Tags: Audio Music Rdio Skype Joost Kazaa

First Rdio screenshots appear originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:40:18 +0000

Spotify has announced on its blog that the previously-promised Spotify Phone is now available from 3 UK, in both its retail stores and online.

The deal comprises of an HTC Hero preloaded with the Spotify Android app, a 24-month subscription to Spotify Premium, 750 minutes and unlimited texts and data for ?35 per month over 24 months. The phone itself will require a ?100 initial outlay.

If you like the idea of the deal, but aren't keen on the phone, then there's a good chance that if this does well, more handsets will become available with similar offers, potentially from other operators. If and when that happens, we'll bring you the announcement.

It'll also be interesting to see what effect this has on services like Nokia's limited Comes with Music. In the meantime, is this a deal you like the look of? Or is the monthly fee and upfront payment a smidge too much over a 2-year contract? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones Audio HTC Hero 3 Spotify Music

3's HTC Hero with Spotify now available originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:27:42 +0000

Hank Risen, the owner of BlueBeat.com, which was found last week to be selling MP3s of the Beatles' catalogue for as little as 15p per track, has defiantly stated that he owns the copyrights in the songs that he's selling.

EMI filed a lawsuit against the company, and Hank Risen - the owner - has issued a bizarre defense filing that claims that he - not Apple Corps or EMI - owns the sound recordings. He says that because he's re-recorded them using "psycho-acoustic simulation" which "express the way [he] believe[s] a particular melody should be heard as a live performance", he owns the recording.

Risan told EMI in an email that he's got a successfully registered copyright on those recordings with the US Copyright Office, but a judge will now have to decide whether those recordings are sufficiently different to the originals to justify a new copyright. Legal precedent, particularly with regard to sampling, suggests he might be facing an uphill battle.

For now, though, BlueBeat.com still continues to offer free streams of the Beatles' catalogue, and 25-cent 160kbps MP3s. It'll be interesting to see how the judge in the case interprets the law. We'll keep you posted.

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Tags: Audio Music BlueBeat EMI Beatles Copyright Music downloads Lawsuits

BlueBeat claims it owns copyright in Beatles tracks originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:03:24 +0000

Deezer, a French music startup that rivals Spotify and We7 in providing ad-supported music streaming, has announced a couple of premium subscription options and a desktop client, so you can listen to the service without having a browser window open.

The Deezer site itself will remain free, but ad-supported and low quality. Users that want better audio bitrate and the removal of ads can pay 5 euros per month for a service called Deezer HQ. Alternatively, paying 10 euros per month will give access to a desktop app (built in Adobe Air) and a set of mobile clients that work on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms.

The company says that 80% of its users wanted mobile access, and 40% wanted better sound quality - those users will presumably be buoyed by this announcement, and the company should get a bit more revenue as a result. Interestingly, the top end package has a 7-day free trial - something not offered by its competitors, but which will likely increase conversion rates.

But what the platform's success will rest on is its catalogue and ease-of-use. It remains to be seen whether it can conquer Spotify's current dominance in the space, and stay afloat when several other big names are launching similar offerings.

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Tags: Audio Music Deezer Spotify We7

Deezer launches premium desktop client originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:35:47 +0000

No Doubt, Gwen Stefani's band who had a hit with the song "Don't Speak", have sued the publishers of Band Hero, Activision Blizzard, over their likeness in the game. The band complained that they were breaching their contract by allowing them to be turned into a virtual karaoke act.

In the game, it's possible to unlock Gwen Stefani as a playable character and get her to sing the Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Woman. The lawsuit says that this: "results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes".

The band are protesting "fraudulent inducement" and breach of contract, seeking unspecified damages and an injunction that would stop Activision from distributing the title. Back in September, Courtney Love declared that she was going to "sue the s**t out of" the company for similar reasons - allowing Kurt Cobain to sing Bon Jovi songs.

Meanwhile, rival franchise Rock Band has avoided similar problems by not featuring real rockers as avatars with the exception of the tightly controlled Beatles: Rock Band title.

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Tags: Gaming Audio Music Music games Band Hero Activision No Doubt

No Doubt sues Activision over Band Hero originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:12:59 +0000

EMI has launched a subsidiary called Abbey Road Live to offer gig-goers the chance to walk out of the venue with a recording of the concert they just attended on their mobile phones. The service has been available previously at gigs, but only on CD-R.

The company will offer fans a choice of formats, including CD, DVD, digital devices, or even a secure digital delivery to your mobile or waiting for you when you get back home. The service will be initially launching in Europe and North America, but progressively rolling out across the rest of the world.

Artists working with the service include Blur, Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinand, Nick Cave, the Pixies, Goldfrapp, Moby, Status Quo and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. All have sold recordings of gigs through Live Here Now, which was established in 2004 by Mute Records and was a precursor to Abbey Road Live.

But could this breed a new generation of offensive gig goers ruining people's recordings by shouting "Hello mum!" during quiet moments in the set? Only time will tell, let's hope not.

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Tags: Audio Music Abbey Road Live Mobile phones USB

Abbey Road Live offers instant gig recordings originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:38:02 +0000

Microsoft has relaunched its previously-shuttered MSN Music download store in the UK, which offers album and single-track downloads from all four major labels. Microsoft says the store is "large and competitively priced".

As well as purchasable tracks, Microsoft hopes to differentiate its service by offering playlist creation, artist bios and discographies, and editorial content from the MSN Music channel. All tracks downloaded will be free of DRM, and users can choose between getting an MP3 or a WMA file.

To use the store, customers will need a Windows Live ID to log in. From there, you have to buy credits - 10 will cost you ?8. A "standard" single (again, unclear if this includes B-sides, or just refers to single tracks) will cost 1 credit, and a "standard" album will cost 10.

In the same release, Microsoft says: "As part of the service, free music streaming will be tested on a limited basis". It's not clear what that means - whether there'll be Spotify- and We7-style adverts supporting the content, and whether the streamable tracks will be just previews or queueable in the interface.

We're trying to find out more about this one, but for now the FAQ suggests that it's a very limited offering that employs Windows Media Player to deliver 30-second previews of tracks before you download them. That's not exactly revolutionary, and the press release seems to suggest more, so we're digging deeper into this one. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The streaming service is confirmed to be more than just a 30-second set of previews, for some users, anyway. It's a full-on competitor to Spotify and We7, but employs display ads, rather than audio ads - which could be very attractive to those who want to leave it on in the background.

It supports playlists, though you can't share those lists with other users like you can on other services. For now, though, it's a closed beta that only a few thousand users will have access to. We're in the process of gaining access right now and will give you the lowdown as soon as we're in on it.

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Tags: Software Online Music Microsoft MSN

Microsoft relaunches music download store originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:02:44 +0000

The Beatles have perennially refused to put their catalogue on any digital download sites, despite a little-known site called BlueBeat stocking the fab four's tracks at knock-down prices.

But if you want to get your hands on legitimate digital recordings of your Beatles tracks, you can now do so in the form of an apple-shaped 16GB USB stick stuffed with everything a Beatles' fan could possibly desire, short of Ringo's underwear.

The drives contain the 14 stereo Beatles albums in lossless FLAC 44.1Khz 24-bit, which will satisfy any audio purists, as well as 320kbps MP3s for those who care more about storage space and compatibility on their mp3 player. There's also a pile of liner notes, album art, photos and mini-documentary films about each album.

There's only 100 of the drives available to the UK, and they're up for pre-order now for the rather costly sum of ?200. They'll be available from 7 December.

Tags: Audio Music Beatles USB drives USB gadgets

Beatles offer 16GB apple-shaped USB drive originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:49:48 +0000

A survey from London-based think-tank Demos has added weight to the position held by many that file sharers are the biggest music fans, revealing that those who admit downloading music illegally spend an average of ?77 per year on music, compared to ?44 for people who claim that they never download dishonestly.

The poll spoke to 1000, 16 to 50-year-olds with web access. One in ten admitted to downloading music illegally, though the real figure is suspected by many to be considerably higher. However, 61% of those downloaders said they would be put off downloading illegally if their connection was in jeopardy.

The government, led by Peter Mandelson, is trying very hard to push through plans to set up a ?"three-strikes" system that would disconnect file sharers from the Web. However, there's fierce opposition to the proposals from everyone from artists, to ISPs, to even MI5 and the police.

The report's authors say that the results of this survey suggest that Mandelson's plans could actually harm the music industry more than helping it, especially as there are other sources of entertainment - like video games - that are fighting for consumer attention. Will file sharers stop spending their cash on music entirely, if disconnected from their sources of content?

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Tags: Software Online Broadband Filesharing P2P Statistics Surveys Music downloads Music Audio

Survey claims illegal downloaders spend most on music originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:32:13 +0000

Rock band Foo Fighters have announced that they'll be streaming a free gig on Facebook on 30 October. The show will come live from the band's Los Angeles HQ and the stream will begin at 7pm PST (that's 3AM GMT). It'll be powered by Livestream.

Fans can RSVP to the show from the event page and when it begins the stream will be available from an application. Fans are also being asked, during the show, to update their status messages to reflect what they think of the performance, which will hopefully then bring other viewers in.

MySpace has undertaken a few live gig streams, and YouTube has covered a few, but Facebook has stayed relatively clear of the action until now. Are you planning to watch the show? Or just grab a copy from a file sharing network the following morning? Let us know in the comments.

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Tags: Audio Music Online Foo Fighters Facebook

Foo Fighters stream gig over Facebook originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:16:50 +0000

DJ Hero, Activision's attempt at turning its Guitar Hero franchise over to the world of electronic music, has now been released in Europe and is available to buy. The game simulates some of the fundamentals of DJing using a plastic "deck" controller, allowing players to mash up a whole host of different bands.

There are 93 mixes in the game, complete with genres that cross rock, pop, dance, R'n'B, techno and hip-hop. Artists as diverse as Queen, Eminem, Daft Punk and Bloc Party are present on the soundtrack, which can be seen in full here.

The game costs ?110 with the turntable kit, so it's not cheap, though Amazon's currently selling it for ?90. There's also a "Renegade Edition" which comes with a premium controller, hardshell case, and a stand to put your deck on. There's also a CD from Jay-Z and Eminem that contains a best-of both artists and some unreleased tracks. That costs ?140.

DJ Hero is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

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Tags: Gaming DJ Hero DJ Music games Music Activision

DJ Hero now on shelves originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:53:31 +0000

Blinkx has launched a dedicated music area to its video search service. The section, called Blinkx Music, allows users to search through a 33,000 hours-strong catalogue of digital music from 10,000 artists.

Some of the content (about 20-25%, says the company) is hosted on Blinkx itself, through deals with SonyBMG, Universal, MTV and the Ministry of Sound. If the song you're after isn't there, though, then it'll redirect you to other sites like Yahoo Music.

Users who regularly publish video content can submit it to Blinkx via an rss feed, but there's no option to download the videos to your portable devices.?CEO and founder of Blinkx, Suranga Candratillake, said: "There are hundreds of thousands of music videos available on the Web today which makes it nearly impossible to navigate and find what you are looking for".

"Based on the success of blinkx Remote, our online TV guide, we recognized there was a need to help organize music videos and make them easily searchable on the Web. By leveraging our award-winning video search index, we built blinkx Music to help our users find their favourite music videos quickly, easily and in one place".

The service is live now at music.blinkx.com.

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Tags: Software Online Websites Blinkx Music

Blinkx launches music video jukebox originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:36:16 +0000

Roger Daltrey, the lead singer in The Who, has revealed that his band will be the stars of the next edition of the plastic-controller music series Rock Band. The singer confirmed the move to the Republican in an interview.

Daltrey, when asked about Beatles: Rock Band, replied: "The game, yeah, yeah, they're going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned. (The idea) is fabulous. Anything that gets non-musical people interested in music is wonderful. In my opinion, music is our last true great freedom. They can burn our books, they can burn our paintings, but they can't stop us singing and making music".

He's changed his tune somewhat from the middle of 2008, when he said that he had tried Rock Band but that it "bored" him. He said that back in the 60s, "all we had was music". "There was nothing else. There was cinema, music and sex. Life was better". Perhaps seeing how much the Beatles are making off the game changed his tune.

Still, Who fans will be pleased to hear about the development, which remains unconfirmed by Harmonix. A spokesperson said, on the subject, ""We're working closely with The Who on what's next, but don't have anything new to announce at this time".

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Tags: Gaming The Who Music Music games Rock Band Harmonix

The Who: Rock Band on the way originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:20:38 +0000

Spotify, following a good deal of public experimentation with price points, has decided to lower the price of its premium subscriptions in a sponsorship deal with insurance company Swiftcover.

Billboard is reporting that until 2 November, you'll be able to get a Premium subscription for ?6.49 per month for 6 months. There's no minimum term, so you're free to cancel after that time if you want to. The company had also experimented with deals at ?5, ?8 and ?9 price points.

The move is clearly in response to the launch of Napster and Sky Songs' offerings, which cost ?5 and ?6.50 respectively, and bundle in MP3 downloads. They don't, however, include mobile access, higher bitrates or exclusive content, unlike Spotify. The main attraction of Spotify Premium for many people, though, is the removal of ads from the content.

The reduced rate offer is only available to new subscribers, though it's not clear if you can cancel your subscription and re-sign-up at the lower rate. Many people have said that the ?10 price point is too high, so does this make you want to sign up to the service? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Tags: Audio Software Music Online Spotify Swiftcover Media streaming

Spotify expands Premium discount programme originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:43:20 +0000

When Spotify launched its API back in April with a great song and dance, much was made of the possibilities it could bring. Except that when it finally emerged, it turns out that you couldn't do very much with it. Many were disappointed, and Spotify's attentions turned to its mobile clients instead.

Now that the iPhone and Android apps are out in the wild, Spotify seems to have begun work on its APIs again. It's just released a Metadata API that'll allow programmers to query Spotify's vast library of music - just like searching in the client - but returning XML data that can then be output into a program or website.

It could be used for all kinds of applications, including a web interface for playing Spotify like the one run by We7, where you could search for artists or songs on a site and then get a Spotify link back. You could also build a script that automatically turns Spotify links on websites into artist and track titles.

There's a couple of limits, though - you can't query the API more than ten times per second, per IP address. And the terms and conditions have some pretty harsh language about what you call the tool you develop - it can't have the word "Spotify" in it, for starters.

You can grab the Metadata API from Spotify and start tinkering today. Let us know what you come up with.

Tags: Audio Spotify API Music Software Websites

Spotify launches Metadata API originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:55:06 +0000

Spotify, the streaming music service which has captured plenty of users in the year it's been around, has launched its first "reklam", or TV advert, albeit in Swedish. You can see it above.?

Many have suggested that despite doing well with web users, Spotify is stuck in that "early adopter" market and is having trouble expanding out to the general public. This ad should, in theory, help with that.

We wonder if an English version will be rolled out to the UK, or even the US once the service launches in the States - as it's scheduled to - in 2010.

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Tags: Audio Software Online Music Spotify Advertising Advertising Video

VIDEO: Spotify launches first TV advert originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:38:32 +0000

Spotify might be finding it tough to shift subscriptions, because the music streaming service is already offering a discount on the ?10 per month cost of stripping out ads and getting access to the mobile apps.

The Swedish company sent out an email offering its subscribers a limited-time chance to get a quid off the monthly cost for six months "thanks to our good friends over at Swiftcover". Swiftcover has been heavily advertising on Spotify, so it looks like this is some kind of sponsorship deal.

We're also hearing rumblings that some other customers are being offered even greater discounts from Swiftcover, so we've contacted Spotify for verification of exactly what's going on. We'll update this post when we hear more.

Either way, between this deal (which apparently only lasts until 2 November, so get in there quick - it can be applied to existing accounts) and phone network 3 offering HTC Hero handsets bundled with a free 2-year subscription, it's cheaper than ever to get Spotify in higher quality, without ads and onto your mobile phone.

UPDATE: We've successfully verified the existence of ?5, ?8 and ?9 subscription deals, all from Swiftcover. Spotify has also confirmed that this is a sponsorship deal, so get your hands on a code if you can find one.

We're trying to establish the reason for all the different price points - perhaps it's research for a subscription price cut in the future, now that Spotify is facing competition from Napster and Sky Songs?

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Tags: Audio Online Music Spotify Swiftcover

Spotify offers Premium subscription discount originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:20:06 +0100

It's being reported that Google is planning to launch a music service imminently. A number of sources quoted by TechCrunch are saying that the company is securing content from major labels, and one source has named the offering "Google Audio".

At a time when the whole world and its dog are launching music services, it's unclear whether the music platform will be download-based like iTunes, streaming-based like Spotify and Pandora, or a hybrid of the two like Napster and Sky Songs. It'll be available to "at least" the US, but we'd predict that it'd be limited to the States for the time being - licensing of tracks in multiple territories is a real headache.

Google already has a music service in China that allows users to download tracks for free, and it has a music search engine that can be accessed by putting "music:" before a query in the search box. Songs accessed that way aren't available to listen to, however.

This is a breaking story and we'll bring you more news as it arrives.

Thanks to Alan for the tip.

Update: A little trawling has revealed that Google Audio popped up in 2006 on the company's job search boards. There were talks at the time with major labels, but nothing came of it. Could it be that Google decided the industry wasn't ready back then, and it is now?

Update II: TechCrunch is now reporting that iLike and Lala will be partnering with Google on this one, and it'll allow users to stream songs from search results. There'll also be the option to buy downloads. Seems like an odd move to us, especially as current streaming options from both iLike and Lala are very limited, but perhaps there's more to it. We'll keep you posted.

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Tags: Audio Music Online Google Music downloads Google Audio Rumours Spotify Napster Pandora Sky Microsoft

Google launching music service? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:03:09 +0100

Sky's "Sky Songs" music subscription service, which we've dissected in detail previously, has now gone live and is available to consumers. It costs ?6.49 each month, and that'll get you ad-free unlimited streaming and ten MP3s. There's also an ?8 tier that gets you 15 songs.

The catalogue size is 4 millions, and it's managed to license the four major labels and most independents too. Beggars, The Orchard and PIAS are all present and correct. If you want to buy more music than your subscription allows then it starts at 65p and goes up from there.

You can sign up right now at songs.sky.com (which, intriguingly, pictures a Zune under the "Download" header). Similar services are also available from Napster and - of course - Spotify. There's a whole lot more, too, all covered in our Music Services Roundup feature.

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Tags: Audio Sky Songs Music downloads Music Sky

Sky Songs is now live originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:25:21 +0100

Spotify will shortly be launching an improved MP3 purchasing experience for tracks on its streaming service. It's always been possible to buy MP3s through a right-click menu, but clicking that just opened a browser window that took you to 7digital's website.

From now onward, every single track and album in Spotify's catalogue will have a great big stonking "buy" button next to it. Clicking that button will open up a floating window in the Spotify application which lets you put in your card details to buy an MP3. Once you've done that, tracks download to a "Spotify" folder in your music directory.

There's also now a "purchases" button in the sidebar from which you can play any MP3s that you've downloaded through the service. You can redownload a file that you've bought 3 to 5 times, and the download quality differs between tracks but are mostly 256 or 320kbps.

Is this Spotify trying to add short-term referral cash to its incoming revenue streams, or providing a feature that users have been clamouring for? The company says the latter - what do you think?

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Tags: Audio Software Spotify Music software Music downloads Music 7digital Video

VIDEO: Spotify debuts improved MP3 purchases originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:17:18 +0100

It's no great secret that Spotify is expanding sideways at a rate of knots. Now that it's got its core desktop music-streaming experience locked down, it wants more little added benefits that it can turn over to premium subscribers to convince them to shell out an tenner a month.

Among those little added benefits are the removal of ads, higher audio quality, mobile applications, exclusive content, and they could soon be joined by the ability to stream music through your games console - specifically the PS3.

MusicAlly has spotted that during a presentation showing distribution strategies for the music service, a slide titled "Consumer Electronics" mentioned?games consoles, media extenders and TVs. Some of those emerged the other day in a deal with Telia, but as MusicAlly points out - we've not heard anything on the console front and the slide was illustrated with a shot of a PS3.

Meanwhile the same article also shares a rumour about a Spotify Facebook app being on the cards. It will initially revolve around expanding the Facebook sharing functionality to get more info out of Spotify (rather than just an URL and a green logo, as it currently is) but could eventually expand into a Facebook app that can play music.

We'll bring you more news of both rumours as we get it, but neither seem out of the realms of possibility.

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Tags: Audio Spotify Music Rumours Facebook PS3

Is Spotify coming to the PS3? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:58:37 +0100

MOG has announced that it'll shortly be launching a music streaming service. The website, which since 2006 has offered a music-oriented community and blogging platform will be rolling out the subscription-funded "All Access" scheme by the end of November.

It'll cost $5 per month for access to a catalogue of 5 million tracks from all four major labels and a host of independents. There'll also be a free trial offer, but unlike Spotify there's no ad-supported free option. A desktop version will be arriving "some time before Thanksgiving", and there will be iPhone and BlackBerry apps in time, too.

Bloggers who're signed up with MOG will get free access to the service to help promote it, and there's also talk of social features - users will be able to see what other people are streaming. Like other services, there'll be playlist creation and the ability to discover music that you don't already know.

What's not clear is how the service will differentiate itself from Napster, Rhapsody, and the soon-to-launch-in-the-US Spotify. Perhaps it'll be the network's ability to pull in content from its contributor blogs, but whether the content from those blogs will be strong enough remains to be seen.

When the service launches we'll bring you a full low-down.

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Tags: Audio MOG Websites Media streaming Online Music

MOG readies $5 music subscription originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:32:06 +0100

Spotify is continuing celebrations of its 1-year anniversary and as part of the jamboree, the company's founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, has taken some time out to pen a blog post about the future of Spotify, and his thoughts on the state of the global Music industry. In it, he concedes that ads "devalue" music, but says that they're earning his company "millions of euros" in revenues each month.

He said: "I first considered writing about the state of ad-supported music, and given that I care more than most about figuring out a revenue model that doesn’t devalue music, it probably wouldn’t praise wholeheartedly (as some may have expected it to do) the ad-supported space. Especially since Spotify’s business model is, and has been since launch, more about the mix of subscription and ad supported".

He went on to answer critics of Spotify's business model by pointing out that iTunes missed its revenue targets by 30% in its first year, saying that he's in it for the "long haul" - "We aren’t interested in just trying to hype the company and then "flipping it", he said, then adding: "The product has been our core and our main marketing message, and perhaps now is the time to modify that message".

He says that the music industry has the potential of becoming a $40 to $50 billion industry, and reckons that he's the man for the job. Spotify has repeatedly pointed to a survey that says that 80% of Spotify users file share considerably less after getting the software. Ek says that by increasing the amount of people with access to the music streams, setting a target of "trillions", piracy can be cut by "big chunks".

Ek says that the focus for Spotify in the coming months will be better library handling, making Spotify socially capable and improving the portability of the software - i.e. releasing more editions of the mobile version of the client.

Finally, Ek said that his biggest mistake with Spotify was to make it so dependant on its partners - the labels, composers, artists, etc. He said: "If we’re asking the industry to change, we need to be transparent and honest about the end goal - especially since we’re asking everyone to make a huge leap of faith to an unknown place where you could potentially argue that the industry risks its most profitable customers. We haven’t been as open as we could have been up until now, and that’s been an oversight on my behalf".

Many have said that Spotify could do with a little more openness, so it's refreshing to see Ek agree. He now needs to turn those words into action, and we'll keep you posted of what happens on that front.

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Related links:

• News - Spotify has 2.7 million users in the UK
• News - Spotify phones coming soon?

Tags: Audio Spotify Music software Music Biz

Spotify CEO: Advertising devalues music originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:55:17 +0100

A few statistics have emerged about the growth of Spotify in the UK over the first 6 months of this year. They're from a presentation that the company gave in Edinburgh jointly with PRS For Music and represent the time period from the end of January to the end of July.

At the end of July, Spotify had 2.7 million users in the UK. More were male than female, and interestingly half of them were over 30. The biggest single age group, though, was 20- to 29-year-olds - a full 1.1 million of them, representing 40.7% of the total userbase.

More than 4 million tracks were available to stream over the time period, of which 3 million were accessed - indicating that the "long tail" (a statistical term referring to people seeking out more obscure content) is alive and well on the service. Over a billion streams were served over the time period.

Impressive numbers, but can Napster's ?5-per-month streaming option whip the rug out from under the company? Time will tell.

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Related links:

• News - Spotify phones coming soon?
• News - Spotify is 1 year old

Tags: Audio Statistics Spotify Music

Spotify has 2.7 million users in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:32:16 +0100

U2's bassist, Adam Clayton, has said that the band wants to follow in the footsteps of Metallica and the Beatles by starring in their own video game. The band has been extensively associated with Apple's iPod and RIM's BlackBerry products in the past, but hasn't ever made the foray into games.

Clayton told USA Today: "We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren't what we wanted. That could change. I love the idea that that's where people are getting music, and we'd love to be in that world".

"We'll figure something out. What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we're interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn't want to be caricatured".

We expect that Neversoft are on the phone to Bono, Clayton, the Edge, et al as we type this, to negotiate their appearance in the next version of Guitar Hero.

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Related links:

• News - U2 to create something "spectacular" for RIM

Tags: Gaming U2 Music games Music Beatles Metallica

U2 wants their own video game originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:28:18 +0100

Spotify has announced that it has signed a deal with Swedish broadband supplier and mobile network Telia. The two companies have agreed to "co-operate" for 2 years, with Telia helping to develop the streaming music service on computers, mobile phones and eventually onto TVs.

Telia's head of mobility services, Erik Hallberg, told Pocket-lint: "Swedish people love music and for the connected generation, being able to take their favorite music with them wherever they go is a given. That is why we are making preparations to launch Spotify mobile phones, which will make it even easier to get started and listen to music wherever and whenever you want to".

The suggestion of dedicated Spotify phones is interesting, assuming that they're much like the Skype phones available in the UK from 3. Currently, one in nine of Sweden's population are Spotify users, according to the streaming music service's stats released on their first birthday, so rollout could be relatively painless.

Telia says that its customers will be the first to get access to TV services in Sweden. The release issued by Telia says: "In a few months, Telia and Spotify will launch a mobile offering to customers in the Swedish market", so we're taking that to mean the cost of Premium will be bundled in with the subscription fees to Telia.

As for the UK, no such deals have been announced, though we wouldn't be surprised if talks were ongoing. We'll keep you posted of any developments on that front.

UPDATE: In response to our question as to whether Spotify was in talks with carriers in the UK, the company confirmed: "Spotify-branded phones - yes, in the works". More news will apparently follow soon.

UPDATE 2: INQ has been rumoured as the company that are making the handsets. That wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility, we reckon.

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Related links:

• News - Spotify is 1 year old

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Audio Broadband Spotify Telia Music

Spotify phones coming soon? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:39:33 +0100

Pinnacle Audio has announced the launch of a standalone music server - the Folio. It's designed to contain your digital music collection and then play it back on demand. Unlike some other similar products on the market, though, you don't have to plug it into a laptop or television to make it work.

Instead it comes with a touchscreen remote control which you can use to play tracks, organise playlists, cue up music or search your catalogue. It also comes with a CD slot, which you can use to rip your music in a lossless format (we suspect, but can't 100% confirm, that it's FLAC). CDs will automatically rip when inserted, unless they've been inserted before.

The Folio contains a pair of hard drives in RAID1 formation, meaning that the drives mirror each other. If one disk fails then your catalogue isn't lost - it can be read from the other drive instead. There's 250GB, 500GB and 750GB options available, which cost ?2400, ?2500 or ?2800 respectively. Expensive, but if you order before 31 March 2010, you'll get 15% off that.

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• News - Pinnacle nanoStick Ultimate announced

Tags: Audio Pinnacle Audio Servers Music Hi-Fi Video

VIDEO: Pinnacle Audio launches Folio Sound Server originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:54:41 +0100

Gosh - how time flies. Streaming music service Spotify is 1 year old today. The company opened up its service into private beta on 7 October 2008, and was roundly ignored by most of the world's media.

Following hyperbolic blog posts from the few people who'd managed to get invitations, the service ramped up slowly - both in terms of catalogue and in terms of adverts on the system - which originally featured the now legendary Roberta from Spotify (pictured).

The service launched publicly in the UK early the following year, launched a since-neglected API shortly after, and then launched a mobile application more recently in an attempt to bulk up its paying userbase.

The company said in a blog post: "Over the past year we've worked hard to continue to improve Spotify. We’ve more than doubled the size of our music catalogue over the year and work continues to add more content each week".

Spotify has also shared a few statistics about its service. Apparently listening to every song in the entire catalogue would take more than 34 years with no sleep allowed, more than one in nine Swedes are Spotify users, and it streams "billions" of tracks every month. Apparently tens of thousands of new users join each day.

But since the company's hype bubble burst, many have questioned whether the service can afford to keep up its free streaming long-term. CEO Daniel Ek tweeted the other day: "Thinking about writing about the state of ad-supported music. I know what the industry thinks, but I think they're wrong". Time will tell whether or not he's right.

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Related links:

• News - Spotify brings offline playback to desktop
• News - Spotify Premium subscriber percentage not double digits

Tags: Audio Music Spotify Media streaming

Spotify is 1 year old originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:16:02 +0100

Spotify has announced that Premium users will shortly be able to access on their desktop the same "Offline mode" that exists on mobile versions of the streaming music company's software.

Subscribers will be able to right-click their playlists and select them as "available offline". If their web connection goes down, or they go out of wireless range, those playlists will then still be accessible. A marker will indicate which playlists can be accessed offline.

As previously mentioned, the feature is only available to Premium subscribers. That subscription costs ?10 per month and removes ads, ups the quality of the music and enables access to premium content, mobile Spotify, and this new feature.

Tags: Audio Music Spotify Music software

Spotify brings offline playback to desktop originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:16:52 +0100

Spotify has finally caved in to popular demand and added a PayPal payment option to its subscription services. Until now, the site only accepted Visa and Mastercard, meaning that many people without credit cards weren't able to switch to Premium.

PalPal supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover cards, and you can also link PayPal to your bank account to make direct payments. Spotify says: "If not having a credit card has been holding you back from subscribing, now is a great time to upgrade".

Unfortunately the PayPal service is only available to UK users at the time of writing. The company says it'll be adding more countries in the near future. Premium subscriptions cost ?10 per month and enable mobile access, removal of advertising, exclusive content and higher quality audio.

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• News - Spotify updates playlist interface, promises more payment options

Tags: Audio Music Spotify Music software eBay

Spotify adds PayPal payment option originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:49:43 +0100

Avid, the company behind Pro Tools music software, has announced three bundles that combine the company's software wing with its hardware division - M-Audio. There's Pro Tools Vocal Studio, Pro Tools Recording Studio and Pro Tools KeyStudio.

Each combines a basic, cut-down version (Pro Tools Essentials) of the normally-very-expensive Pro Tools app with useful music hardware. There's one that comes with a USB microphone, one that comes with a FastTrack audio interface, and one that includes a USB keyboard that'll also function as a MIDI controller.

The idea is to make music production and home studios considerably more affordable, and given that each of these packages run to ?80, it looks like that goal isn't far away. All will be available from the middle of September.

Related links:

• News - Avid upgrades Pinanacle Studio

Tags: Software Audio Pro Tools Avid Music

Avid offers Pro Tools Essentials packages originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:03:55 +0100