Welcome to the audio side of our Pocket-lint perfect Christmas gift guide installments. If there is a music geek in the family or a loved one itching to be just that, then you're in the right place.

You've already done the shopping for the Apple fanboy/girl in your life, the photographer, laptop addicts, the console gamer, PC gamer and the AV lover as well. Now is the turn of the avid listener. Enjoy.

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Etymotics Custom Hf/Sony MDR-XB700

Good headphones are a must; beyond a must, they're integral to the music geek experience. You can get a decent set for under ?50 but for between ?10-40 more you can really get something special. A good on-ear solution are the Sony XB700 on-ear closed cup headphones. They don't give a particularly balanced sound - the XB stands for extra bass - but they're a high quality build and are really good noise cancellers. They're also rather swish. You can pick them up for a very reasonable ?70.

For the in-ear solution though, it has to be the Etymotics Custom Hf2. Now, the trouble is that the headphones themselves cost around ?90 and the custom made ear molds cost about the same again. So, either you need to be happy to fork out ?180 or your giftee needs to understand that they have to supply the extra cash. This may seem like a faff but these headphones, or more to the point, the tailor made molds are absolutely amazing.

The Hf2 is the one to go for if your loved one uses an iPhone otherwise it's the hf5. The other option is to find out what headphones yougiftee already uses and then contact ACS , who make the molds, to see if they can do a pair to fit those instead. It'll take some investigating but it's well worth the trouble.

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Creative Gigaworks T3 PC speakers

Described by Creative as a "high-end 2.1 speaker system" the T3's are an excellent desktop solution. The sub will need to sit under the table, most likely, but the pair of satellite speakers and a twisting volume knob will be at arms reach while you pump the tunes. All the cables you need are in the box and they're a great way of playing music from your computer without having to put it through an amp or send it round to other rooms in the house or however else your loved one might have their system set up.

The Creative Gigaworks T3 PC speakers are a smidge over our notional budget at ?134 but, no doubt about it, these things are worth the extra money. Make someone's day.

iTunes/Amazon gift card

Record tokens are 80s but the music credit system for today is the iTunes gift card. You can go to just about any music download provider you prefer to get these kinds of things but Apple has a good selection and your giftee can always just take the music to their own media player after they've bought what they wanted.

You might find that Amazon gives a better tunes per pound ratio but it's not worth sweating over. Just avoid Apple if your loved one happens to have it in for all things Jobs.

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Spotify/Last.fm premium subscriptions

If you want to be a little smarter and more 2009 about these things then the gift of a premium subscription is definitely the way to go. The Spotify premium costs ?9.99 per month but means the end of the irritating adverts, a few exclusive downloads, offline playlists, higher quality sound and, best of all, the use of Spotify apps on your mobile phone.

For Last.fm, it's much cheaper at just ?3/month and you get uninterrupted radio listening, ad-free browsing and streaming, recent visitors to your profile and prestigious black icon. All very nice.

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A to Z CD dividers/MP3 labelling software

Your music geek will of course have bookcases full of CDs somewhere about their living space. Although they might have been organised enough to have alphabetised or categorised it, chances are that they won't have gone to the lengths of getting a set of dividers for the purpose. Take them that extra distances with a pack of A to Z CD dividers lovingly scuzzed up to look like record shop authentics. They're made from black polypropylene, printed on both sides and come in packs of 30 for just ?14.95.

While you're at it, you may as well throw in some digital music organising software too. You can bet there'll be a mess of a catalogue of MP3 files stored away on some hard drive somewhere with labels awry. Both MP3 Tag and Music Brainz Picard are both excellent bits of free software that'll sort out the mess for you to make sure the entire collection looks the same and sits on order on your media player.

Recycled Vinyl

We could have written a 10 perfect recycled vinyl list all of its own but go to Etsy "record" and you'll find an Aladdin's Cave of gift ideas for the music music geek in your life. Some of the favourites in these massive lists include - coloured cuffs ($6), LP rings ($5), record cufflinks ($12), vinyl clutch hangbag ($20), Kenny Rogers Just Dropped In record bag ($45), dripping vinyl wall decal ($35) and Santana GrooveBowl ($25). For something really special and quite hard to get hold of, then the recycled cassete tape neck tie for $120 will require some nifty international shipping.

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Musical Ruler

Yes, you read right. The Musical Ruler. Naturally, there's a certain amount of novelty factor to this one but at ?6.95 it would make an excellent stocking filler. The idea is that you put this 30cm device flat down over the edge of a table and ping the overhanging end to make a note. The ruler has markings on it for the eight whole tones in a complete octave meaning that you can basically play any tune.

It comes with a step by step guide from ruler playing master Dan Wieden and includes tips on solos, Rock 'n Roll, Folk, Jazz and special effects. Possibly the silliest present you'll see all year but, when you grow tired of the fun, it'll still work as a gadget for measuring short distances and making pens and pencils run straight.

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Stylophone Beatbox

Following the relaunch of the retro Stylophone, the Beatbox edition produces several different percussion sounds, from bass drum all the way to hi-hat. With different sound "palettes" - percussion, actual beatboxing (provided by beatbox champion MC Zani) and bass tones - this gadget lets you create a percussion loop, which means you can form a beat over which to improvise with other voices.

There's also the option to connect up your MP3 player to the Beatbox via the headphone socket and tap along with your own records. IWOOT is offering the musical gadget now for ?19.99. Silly but fun and probably quite addictive.

Lecci Mini Mixer

Wannabe DJs take note - there's a nifty little gadget which could make it easier to play off a couple of iPods. The Lecci Mini Mixer is basically a two-channel mixer that allows you to crossfade between a couple of audio sources. Those sources could be iPods, CD players, laptops - anything that outputs to a 3.5mm jack.

There's gain controls on both, a great big crossfader, and cue buttons so that you can check what a track sounds like before switching to it. Output is to either an audio-out jack or there's an internal speaker if you're DJing to a very tiny party. The Lecci Mini Mixer is available now from the Gadget Shop and costs ?20.

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Rock Band/Guitar Hero/DJ Hero

This isn't going to work if they don't own a games console but if your music geeks doesn't already have one of these titles, then buy one for them - particularly if they have no actual music playing skills of their own.

These games are easy enough that you don't need any real talent to be able to play them but hard enough to feel like you do. What they offer most of all is the chance to rock out to whatever it is that you love. You actually get the chance to be Brian May/Jimi Hendrix/Ry Cooder if only in your front room. Find the version to suit your giftee best from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero 3, 4 or 5, Band Hero, DJ Hero and all the band specific ones - The Beatles, Metallica, etc. Hours of fun.

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And finally...

You can of course buy your loved one a MP3-player/PMP as well. So, to choose the best when for your budget and your giftee's needs, then head over to our Top Products area where'll we'll help you find the one that fits. Good luck.

Related links:

• Feature - 101 life-saving Christmas shopping websites

Tags: Audio Features Christmas Sony Etymotic hf2 Custom fit Headphones Earphones Lecci Mini Mixer Stylophone Rock Band 2 Guitar Hero Spotify Lastfm

10 perfect Christmas presents for...music geeks originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:46:01 +0000

Day 5 of our Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 nominees round-up and it's time for the growth area of tech that is software, services and apps.

This category has been blown wide open of late with some enormous releases in 2009 as well as the explosion of the mobile phone app. It's going to be a close one. So, before you head over to the voting page to mark your choices, here's a little run down of our pick of the crop for the year.

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Spotify

Type

Music streaming service

Price

Free

PL review rating

9/10

Aside the minor blip of accidentally exposing the user database to hackers, Spotify has done no wrong. The free streaming music player has rocketed to stardom in 2009 making just about every other service take a look at itself and rethink they way they're doing things. The catalogue is growing and growing, the social side is as fun, informative and strong as ever and there's even all sorts of blogs and sites out there full of playlists for us all to try.

Spotify's arrival on mobile phones is still just finding its feet but the main service has been so popular that the company has actually had to put it back into an invitation only beta state once again. If you're not using it by now, you should be - or you must be American.

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Windows 7 Ultimate

Type

Computer OS

Release date

22/10/09

Price

?166

PL review rating

9/10

With knives firmly plunged into Vista from all sides, it was everything Microsoft could do to bring out Windows 7 as fast as possible. Even though perhaps it's a lot more similar to its predecessor than many would think, it's seen one of the fastest uptakes of any OS so far in its short life. XP's increasing propensity for attack has meant even more users making the switch and already Windows 7 itself has a larger share than all of Apple's OS X platforms put together.

Somehow the second attempt at the Windows Aero design is much better placed. The taskbar has come to life with Jump Lists and Aero Peek and getting more flexibility out of windows by dragging them to different parts of the screen is an excellent addition. As a system, it's very secure, there's better support for laptops and SSDs and it's so much more intuitive than any other Windows OS so far. A worthy nominee.

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Tweetie 2 for iPhone

Type

iPhone app

Release date

12/10/09

Price

?1.79

PL review rating

9/10

Much ado about Twitter has meant the need for Twitter clients everywhere. There are plenty of good ones out there for desktop solutions but the one that shone out from all the rest was Tweetie 2 for the iPhone.

Once we got past the gripe that previous users will have to pay again if they wish to upgrade from the first version, we were really impressed. There's a whole pile of new features but the biggest is that it now has persistence (it remembers where you were when you switch it off), new message indicators, the ability to save draft tweets, speed boosts, cached tweets for offline reading and the ability to drag up to refresh - rather than hitting a refresh button. The result is an app that once again wins a place in our hearts.

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Dropbox

Type

Web/desktop service

Price

Free

PL review rating

9/10

A cult favourite in the software, service, app realm of 2009 has been online storage and file transfer solution known as Dropbox. It offers a standard 2GB of cloud space but its main functions are really that of syncing and sharing. The idea is that you have a Dropbox folder on the desktop of all your computers and any file you put into it on one machine can then be accessed from all the others. If you happen to be editing one of these files, it will also update those changes in all the other places automatically.

On the sharing side, it acts as a far simpler solution than the heavy geekery of FTP servers and rather demystifies the concept for the everyone else. You can make certain folders within your main Dropbox folder open to the public, which means that friends and colleagues with Dropbox can then access and download these files too. It's one thing to sit and explain it but go and try it for yourselves and you'll begin to discover its real genius.

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Sky Player for Xbox

Type

IPTV & VoD service

Release date

29/10/09

Price

Sky & Xbox Live Gold subs

PL review rating

9/10

It had a stutter and a start on its way out but the Sky Player has been a roaring success for those who can afford it. You get an excellent choice of both live Sky channels as well as a vault of on-demand content from the watchable to the ridiculous and more Ross Kemp programming than you could shake a stick at. The menus are designed into the style of Xbox Live and the integration is seamless offering intuitive control to get whatever it is you're after.

The major downside is that you need to fork out for both a Sky subscription and an Xbox Live Gold, neither of which comes particularly cheap, and it does limit the service to a minority of people. Perhaps not worth upgrading for but if you have the money you certainly get what you pay for.

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Related links:

• Feature - The low down: Best Laptop 2009
• Feature - The low down: Best Digital Camera 2009
• Feature - The low down: Best Car Gadget 2009

Tags: Software Online Spotify Microsoft Tweetie 2 Dropbox Sky Xbox 360 Pocket-lint Awards Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 Features

The low down: Best Software, Service, App 2009 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:36:17 +0000

Spotify's new Symbian app gets a video demo here with a quick look at the features the mobile phone application will offer.?

To get Spotify's Symbian application, users must be paid-up premium subscribers. They can then either download it directly to their phones by visiting m.spotify.com through their mobile web browser, or by entering their phone number on the new Symbian information page to receive instructions via an SMS.

Hit play to see the walk-through now and we'll keep you posted with all things Spotify.

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Tags: Phones Mobile phone apps Spotify Symbian Video Nokia

VIDEO: Spotify's Symbian app shown off originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:46:25 +0000

Spotify has expanded its mobile reach with a launch onto the Symbian platform - a potentially huge new audience spanning around half of the global smartphone market.

As well as a large range of Nokia handsets, the app will also run on a selection of Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones running the Symbian platform, such as the Samsung GT-I8910 Omnia HD and Sony Ericsson Satio.

To get Spotify's Symbian application, users can either download it directly to their phones by visiting m.spotify.com through their mobile web browser, or by entering their phone number on the new Symbian information page to receive instructions via an SMS.

As with the other iPhone and Android Spotify offerings, the Symbian app is only available to those who are Premium, i.e., paid-up members of the service.

Tags: Phones Audio Nokia Spotify Symbian

Spotify announces Symbian app originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:56:10 +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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Read

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

Here are the nominations for Best Software, Service, or App in The Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009.

The following products were chosen because we feel they represent the best software, service or app on sale in the last 12 months that are available in the UK.

The nominations are:

Spotify

Windows 7

Tweetie 2

Dropbox

Sky Player for Xbox

A notable commendation should also go to Snow Leopard from Apple.

Now in its 6th year, the Pocket-lint Gadget Awards, thought to be the longest running in the UK, pick the best gadgets and gizmos from the last year released in the UK.

Pocket-lint's vigorous vetting process means that all the gadgets up for nomination have to have been seen by a member of the Pocket-lint team (so far over 600) and have to have been available in the UK between December 2008 and December 2009.

The awards, voted by a panel of leading gadget journalists from around the world, including the staff from the Pocket-lint team, will decide the real must-have gadgets of the year, rather than those simply deemed cool or anticipated, being the definitive guide for consumers looking to buy gadgets.

Winners will be announced at an Awards evening in London on Monday 7 December.

If you would like to order tickets to the event please visit our awards event page.

Public voting will start on Wednesday 18 November.

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Related links:

• Link - Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009

Tags: Software Online Spotify Microsoft Tweetie 2 Dropbox Sky Xbox 360 Pocket-lint Awards Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009

Best Software, Service, or App 2009 nominations originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +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

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

It's been a bumper year in 2009 for software, services and apps as the overarching trend of tech creeps glacially away from its hardware focus and more towards what the Internet and its friends can do for us. So, before you shout out in the comments who you think should be nominated for the Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 Best Software/Service/App - and we hope you do - here's a little reminder of how the year panned out.

The Big Players

It was something of a solar eclipse moment in 2009 with both Apple and Microsoft releasing completely new versions of their desktop operating systems. Although Snow Leopard only claimed to be a relatively small upgrade there was still plenty to get excited about with the arrival of 64-bit computing and addition of Grand Central Station, as well as all the other speed, efficiency and power boosts under the hood of the new caged cat. Microsoft, on the other hand, was a lot more overt about the scale of Windows 7 - partially because of the disappointment over Vista and also, with good reason, because of the success with which the product has launched. Like Snow Leopard, it boasts speed and efficiency but, more importantly, the coming of age of the new AERO look and feel which its predecessor introduced.

Naturally, a new version of iTunes came with the OS for Apple with more playlists and more album art as well as offering a block to the Palm Pre's compatibility feature. Aside that, it was really just the next release in the hugely popular video editing Final Cut series with the launch of Final Cut Studio. It seems the Cupertino company was keeping itself busy on mobile matters but more on that in a minute.

The 'Soft, though, hasn't been so content to leave things as thin. 2009 has seen Gates, Ballmer & Sons embrace the cloud with their re-offensive on Google. First there was the highly successful revamp of the MSN Live search into the colourful Bing, and later the launch of Office 2010 web apps to try to take something back from Google Docs. Beyond that, the company has had another go at both the MSN music download store and the free offering of Microsoft Security Essentials, plus there's been some mobile movements with Microsoft too but, again, more of that later.

The real powerhouse this year though has undoubtedly been Google. The company has spread its arms even wider round the globe with its fingers now in the telephone industry with Google Voice, social location software with Google Latitude, the encyclopeadia business with Sidewiki, the energy saving push with Power Meter and, of course, the what-the-hell-is-it business with Google Wave. More recently the company has announced the smack down on TomTom and friends with the arrival of Google Maps for Navigation for Android 2.0, which may or may not make it out in time for a nomination.

Of course, Android itself has been a very big deal but leaving its mobile impact alone for now, let's not forget the OS's arrival as desktop software on products like the Archo 9 and more recently the dual booting Acer Aspire One D250. It hasn't had the traction to make any significant in-roads this year but it's certainly a space to watch for 2010.

Desktop Software

As the cloud rolls in there's a storm slowly gathering for desktop software. By no means will it ever disappear, but what we're certainly seeing is a lot less diversity in this sector. 2009 has largely been left to improvements from the old guard. Avid has put a smile on the faces of both video and music editing enthusiasts with the launch just last month of the Pinnacle and ProTools suites, Adobe has done the same for the imaging community with the more basic Photoshop Elements 8 and the photographer's friend in the free beta of Lightroom 3.0, and Roxio has thrown in a bit of everything with the company's annual release. This season's colour is Roxio Creator 10.

Antivirus has been as strong an area as ever with malware, phishing and scareware on the rise and a tonne of Christmas shopping round the corner. Symantec's new Norton 2010 product managed to block 100% of threats in independent testing - making it the first time ever for any such software but, of course, if you'd still rather not pay, then at least AVG are still helping out on that front.

Last, and more certainly not least, a certain Swedish company also happened to a make a certain popular social music streaming application that rather set the world on fire. Technically, Spotify was released in private beta in November last year, just before our 2009 awards cut off limit, but it has since gone public within the required time frame. Just to confuse matters it's in private beta once more, so I'll leave it to the judges to sort that one out.

Web Services

During the current aftermath of the eighth renaissance of the bursting of the dot com bubble, new sites have been thin on the ground - certainly ones worth mentioning anyway. The majority of developers and start ups have moved to mobile apps in search of the gold, but there have still been one or two notables over the year - all heavily on the quirky side. Wolfram Alpha provided an alternative, well-meaning but rather leftfield form of internet search; Hunch added a layer of advice to the conundrum and Invisible Hand has begun in its quest to help us find cheaper prices on the Web automatically. As with most of these things, it'll take a while for them to catch on. Twitter wasn't built in a day.

Finally here, the latest craze could be on its way with FourSquare. Like Twitter it was released at the general and social media liquorice allsort that is SXSW and it's been going great guns in the States. Now on UK shores, has it left it too late to win our coveted award or have we assessed its potential already?

Mobile Sofware

From apps to OSes it's all about mobile phones these days. We know this. Smartphones have become our windows on the world. If there's a great service on the Internet, then we want it as an app, and most of all, we want it to run like clockwork.

We've seen four significant mobile operating systems launched this year with the rebranded, reskinned and user-friendlified Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 now known as Windows Phone. We've also seen the coming of age of Android - or at least its growth into adolescence - and the launch of the superb iPhone 3.0 software with its 100 or so features. Finally, we saw a rather specific piece of software from Palm with webOS at January's Las Vegas annual tech binge, but that didn't stop it making an enormous splash and perhaps inspiring a few ideas in other mobile software developers.

On the next tier down are those that have deemed their handsets too special to run the common-or-garden versions of Android and Windows Phone and have come up with their own Custom UIs. Probably the two of most note, and certainly the ones who qualify for this year's awards would be HTC Sense as seen on the Hero with its social contacts integration and Motoblur on the Dext.

Any phone can of course have its OS customised by the addition of an alternative browser. Opera has been going strong for years and supplying those on the Symbian platform with a very strong option. 2009 has brought Opera Mini 10 and for the first time, Firefox has gone to the small screen too with the currently underused Mozilla Fennec. Still both certainly well worth a shout though.

At the bottom of it all, though, and yet king of the mountain for many consumers are apps. We saw the little devils explode in 2008 with the launch of the iTunes App Store and this year has taken the trend to a sickening extreme. The world and its wife now has some kind of platform where they can pedal often highly novelty and often profitable software along with a good chunk that are seriously useful too.

It's the latter group which we'd rather you considered for this year's award but if the Mr T Soundboard ends up being the most popular, then so be it. The apps of major note in 2009 have been largely for the iPhone with the arrival of Tweetdeck, Google Lattitude and TomTom. Spotify has offered its premium service for music streaming on the move to both the Apple phone and Android and finally Facebook has got round to supporting Google's mobile OS too. But the big question is which is your favourite? Which is the app you simply can't do without? Let us know at the bottom.

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What do you think?

But these are just some of the fantastic choices our readers have had in 2009. What would you like to see held aloft as the winner of Pocket-lint Best Software/Service/App 2009? Who have we missed out? Which are your unsung heroes and of those we've already mentioned, which would get your vote? Let us know in the comments below and you can help our panel decide which make the shortlist of nominees to be announced here on Pocket-lint on 16 November. We'll have all out coverage of the Vodafone Pocket-lint awards 2009 right here. Don't miss a minute of it.

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Related links:

• Feature - Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 - laptops
• Feature - Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 - digital cameras
• Feature - Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 - car gadgets

Tags: Software Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 Pocket-lint Awards Features Apple Microsoft Google Android Mobile phone applications Operating Systems Windows 7 Spotify Symantec iPhone 3GS

Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009 - software, services, apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:23:29 +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

Orange's terms and conditions for its mobile internet ban applications like Spotify, AudioBoo, Ustream, Facebook and YouTube, something which could be of concern to those considering buying an iPhone with the mobile network.

In the company's T&Cs, it says:?"Not to be used for other activities (eg using your handset as a modem, non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing, non-Orange internet based video). Should such use be detected notice may be given and Network protection controls applied to all services which Orange does not believe constitutes mobile browsing".

That covers a whole host of different applications that are wildly popular on Apple's handheld computing platform. The company also limits its "Unlimited" plan to just 750MB per month, as Dan pointed out in his comparison feature the other day, which might be worth considering if you're planning to use these apps heavily.

The issue was spotted and pointed out to the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones, who says: "if too many power users start streaming TV and playing online games on their phones, the Orange network may buckle under the strain".

Orange has, however, commented to the BBC - saying: "We do recognise that iPhone customers will use popular streaming services such as YouTube, Spotify etc. As a result we do not intend to apply network protection controls to anyone, as long as they are within their usage allowance. The T&Cs are in place to reserve the right to restrict access should they continue to exceed our Fair Usage policy, and our other Mobile data users suffer a reduced data experience as a result".

If you don't mean it, Orange, why put it in your T&Cs?

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Tags: Phones Mobile phones Orange iPhone O2 Spotify Facebook YouTube

Orange T&Cs ban Spotify, Facebook and YouTube originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:52:50 +0000

Popular music streaming service Spotify has announced that Robbie Williams' new album will debut exclusively on the service in the UK.

From Friday 6 November, the comeback album, "Reality Killed The Video Star", will be available to listen to exclusively to all UK users in advance of the album's official launch on 9 November.

The new album features 12 brand new tracks (plus one reprise), including the singles "Bodies" and "You Know Me".

As an extra treat for Robbie fans, as part of the exclusive, Spotify says it has "had Robbie put together a playlist of some of his favourite tracks over his career and another playlist highlighting tracks from his musical heroes".

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Tags: Audio Media streaming Spotify Online Music downloads Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams' new album gets exclusive Spotify debut originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:04:13 +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

Spotify and 3 have formally announced the partnership that Pocket-lint detailed last week. As previously reported, 3 will begin selling the HTC Hero with a Premium Spotify subscription bundled in - which normally costs ?10 per month.

The tariff costs ?35 per month over 24 months, and you'll have to pay ?100 upfront too, so it's not cheap. For that, though, you get 24 months of Spotify Premium, 750 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile internet. You can also get free calls to other 3 users and to people on Skype. We presume the Spotify app will be preloaded on the handset.

There's more handsets in the works too - "Spotify Mobile will initially be available only on the HTC Hero" says the press release, the keyword being "initially". With an S60 version in the works, could we see an N97 bundled with the service in the future? Or even perhaps even an iPhone if 3 eventually makes a deal with Apple.

Want a quote about the whole thing? Of course you do.?Faisal Galaria, Global Head of Business Development at Spotify, told Pocket-lint: "This is a very exciting deal for Spotify. We're intent on offering people a high quality, simple yet powerful portable music experience at a fair price and we're thrilled to be working with 3 to bring Spotify to UK music fans".

If you're considering the deal, let us know in the comments. You might also be interested in our HTC Hero review, and our comparison of the iPhone and Android Spotify apps.

UPDATE: Spotify has blogged about the deal, but hasn't added much, except to provide a working link to the page on 3's website to "register your interest" in grabbing the handset.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Spotify 3 HTC Hero Tariffs Biz

Spotify and 3 deal confirmed originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:57:09 +0100

In order to reach out to the "tech savvy", it's been revealed the Conservatives will campaign via Spotify, the popular music streaming service.

PC Pro reports that the 40-second ads will feature the voice of the Tory party chairman, Eric Pickles, apparently criticising Labour's attempts to handle the economic crisis and urging a Conservative vote at the next General Election.

"We are always looking for new and relevant ways of engaging with people, and I think this Spotify advert adds to an already strong track record of being early adopters when it comes to online communication", says the shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

"The growth of Spotify in the UK has been phenomenal. We were particularly impressed with its advertising model and its potential for political campaigning".

It's unknown if David Cameron uses the music streaming service. He made headline news in July for his comment on Twitter stating that "too many twits make a twat" although it's unlikely the micro-blogging service will be exempt from the Tory's election campaign.

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Tags: Audio Spotify Conservatives Advertising General Election

Tories to advertise on Spotify originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:10:09 +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

3 has been announced as the first UK mobile operator partner for Spotify, following negotiations earlier in the year, and will be pushing out the music subscription service bundled with handsets before Christmas. The HTC Hero will be the first phone to come with the app pre-installed, and it'll be followed by three further handsets.

It's already possible to get Spotify on the HTC Hero (and other Android handsets) from other operators, as well as on the iPhone, but this will be the first time in the UK that the subscription service will be bundled in with your monthly mobile phone bill. It's unclear so far how much it'll cost - we reckon it won't be the full ?10 that the subscription normally costs.

The move puts Spotify in an interesting position - directly competing with fellow Scandinavians Nokia and its much-derided Comes with Music service. It'll also help Spotify break out of early-adopter circles and into less tech-savvy markets, making it more mainstream.

It's unclear yet what the other handsets on offer will be, though the lineup will almost certainly include the not-yet-detailed Spotify handset from INQ. We'll bring you more on this story as we hear it.

UPDATE: A 3 spokesperson has told Pocket-lint to "watch this space". Sounds like there'll be more news shortly.

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Tags: Phones Audio 3 Spotify HTC Hero Inq Nokia Comes with music

3 to launch Spotify phones in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:18:31 +0100

With Sky's announcement of the company's upcoming service, Sky Songs, we finally have proof that every man and his dog is getting in on the music scene. As a consumer, though, the picture just gets that little bit more complicated.

If you want all the music in the world for free, then that's still possible - just not necessarily legal. So, if you've a conscience and you're looking to listen to whatever you want and even keep it, then here's a run down of a few of the options open to you.

Sky Songs

Year launched

2009

Catalogue

4 million

Streaming

?6.49/month for ad-free, unlimited service

Downloads

Same ?6.49/?7.49 buys 10/15 tracks/month

DRM

No

Music Quality

Unknown

File available

MP3

Announced just today, the Sky service seems to have simplicity at its heart for a subscription model. There are just two options both of which provide an advert free unlimited stream of whatever music you choose plus the bonus of either 10 or 15 tracks to download and keep as MP3s each month. No mention of the level of quality but expect it to be around 256kbps with no choice on the matter.

Verdict - With all four majors on board and a low monthly payment, it's a very good option. If the catalogue can back it up, the "free" downloads act as a very nice bonus.

Spotify

Year launched

2008

Catalogue

8 million

Streaming

Free, ad-funded streaming or ?9.99/month for non-ad premium service

Downloads

courtesy of 7digital

DRM

n/a

Music Quality

160kbps (free service) 320 kbps (premium)

File available

n/a

The current people's champion, Spotify is both social and free which massive pluses to the public. Yes, the ads can be annoying, yes the catalogue does have a few gaping holes and yes, the audio quality of the basic stream is relatively low, but then you can always sign up for the ?10 per month and get it on your smartphone too.

Verdict - Still the best offering for the majority of people. Perhaps not for those looking to build a library of tracks.

eMusic

Year launched

1998

Catalogue

6 million

Streaming

No

Downloads

24/35/50 tracks for ?9.99/?13.99/?17.99 per month

DRM

No

Music Quality

192kbps on average

File available

MP3

At the other end of the spectrum eMusic provides a series of subscription packages and no music for free whatsoever. The structure is fairly rigid and unlike all good mobile phone plans of days gone by, the unused credits do not roll over to the next month. That said, it's one of the oldest, most successful services out there, has built up an excellent catalogue of independent labels and more obscure, hard to find tracks.

Verdict - Great option for collectors but the audio quality can vary quite a lot.

We7

Year launched

2007

Catalogue

3.5 million

Streaming

free, ad-funded streaming

Downloads

pay-per-track & free ad funded versions

DRM

No

Music Quality

256 & 320kbps paid; 192kbps free

File available

MP3

The most interesting thing about We7 as opposed to the others is that they do offer tracks to download and keep for free. The downside to this is that each contains a small piece of advertising, known as ablipvert, which plays every time with the track. You can pay to remove it and also for a higher bit-rate version too. A free streaming service is also available, so overall users get a lot of choice here.

Verdict - Good universal platform. Not such a large catalogue and slightly on the ad-heavy side.

7digital

Year launched

2004

Catalogue

8 million

Streaming

No

Downloads

pay-per-track

DRM

No

Music Quality

192, 256, 320kbps

File available

MP3/AAC/WMA/FLAC

7digital is a simple one on the outside - no streaming, no subscriptions, all downloads and all paid for. However, there's an excellent degree of flexibility once you start shopping. As with all the pay-per-track services, the songs are reasonably priced but what you get with 7digital is the option of how you'd like them downloaded. It's the only service which allows users to select both the audio quality and the file-type they'd like as well with the lossless FLAC, a noticeable intrigue.

Verdict - Good flexibility, good choice but could do with a few more tracks and some kind of free option too.

Amazon MP3

Year launched

2008

Catalogue

9 million

Streaming

No

Downloads

pay-per-track from 29p

DRM

No

Music Quality

256kbps

File available

MP3

With downloads starting at just 29p, a catalogue of over 9 million songs and each of them at an excellent level of audio quality, it's hard to ignore Amazon's recent step into the music world - especially as it's somewhere many of us do our online shopping in the first place.

Verdict - Very good value pick and chose option.

iTunes Store

Year launched

2003

Catalogue

10 million

Streaming

No

Downloads

pay-per-track: $0.69, $0.99, or $1.29

DRM

No

Music Quality

256kbps

File available

AAC

If AAC files are your thing, then the iTunes Store is the place to be. Over the air access via iPhones and iPod touches play a large part in its success as well as iTunes being the default music player for anyone with any kind of Apple PMP. Certainly not the cheapest but it's a tidy piece of software with a great catalogue and so much more palatable ever since they ditched the DRM.

Verdict - Expensive but very convenient.

Napster

Year launched

2003

Catalogue

8 million

Streaming

Unlimited, ad-free for ?5/month to PC or ?14.95 to portables too

Downloads

pay-per-track

DRM

No

Music Quality

128kbps streamed, 256kbps downloads

File available

MP3/WMA

So many years and so many changes, Napster will always be associated with the hay day of the Web and the way this place has changed over all these years. The new version of the service is slightly over-complicated compared to all the others, but once people get over the bitter taste that still surrounds the original site's shutdown, they might discover that the streaming service is wonderfully cheap - just not free.

Verdict - Great value streaming from a broad catalogue. Portable version much pricier.

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Related links:

• News - Sky Songs music service officially announced

Tags: Audio Software Napster Media streaming Music downloads eMusic Spotify Amazon MP3 iTunes 7digital Sky Songs We7 Features

Which is the best online music service? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:50:20 +0100

Following the news that in Sweden, music streaming service du jour Spotify is to team up with operator Telia on mobile phones and more, more info on the hardware we can expect has now been revealed.

The work-in-progress dedicated Spotify phone revealed to Pocket-lint by Telia's head of mobility services, Erik Hallberg, is to be produced by Hutchison-Whampoa-owned INQ.

So reports TechCrunch, stating "a source with knowledge of the deal tells us that London, UK based INQ is developing the Spotify-branded phone".

It's a logical step - INQ already makes handsets tailored to various Web 2.0 services, with its "Facebook phone", Skype phones and now a Twitter handset from the company that prides itself on integrating such services into phones.

Although a Telia launch seems logical as a first step, "the phone is in the design stage right now, and there are plans, we're told, to roll it out to all markets via partnerships with various carriers", says TechCrunch.

Here in the UK, INQ's press office has no comment on the news.

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Tags: Phones Inq Spotify Mobile phones Rumours Telia Audio

INQ to make Spotify phone originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:19:05 +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.

Read

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

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.

Read

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

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.

Read

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

It's been well over a year since UK broadcaster Sky officially announced plans to create an unlimited music service, and it's only now just about to go into a limited beta testing phase.

Called "Sky Songs", there's a website up and running now with a "coming soon" banner claiming it will offer "a new way to discover music" but provides no timescale as to when it will be publicly available.

Since Sky's plans were revealed in July 2008, the online music market has changed considerably with the UK launch of Spotify making streaming a more popular choice. In the same time period the similar service We7 has hit 2 million users.

Sky had previously said that for a monthly subscription fee, users would be able to download tracks to listen to later and "to own forever" with tracks said to work on any MP3-compatible device, including iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones, which suggested the songs would be DRM-free.

We do know Sky's offering will be made up of a catalogue of more than 4 million songs from all of the major labels as well as over 100 independents.

How much Sky plans to charge, how usable the site is, and just how unlimited those unlimited claims turn out to be will all be crucial to the success of Sky Songs, especially considering its delayed entry to the market. We will keep you posted.

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• News - Sky announces plans for unlimited music download site

Tags: Audio Sky Sky Songs Music downloads Websites Spotify We7 Media streaming

Unlimited music service Sky Songs hits beta originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:30:19 +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