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Spotify

590 'Spotify' stories December 2010 - August 2014
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Spotify Podcasts on iPad

Spotify is a music streaming service that debuted in late 2008. It’s the most popular music streaming service in the world with over 200 million users (as of January 2019).

The free version allows users to stream songs for free with ads (mobile version only allows for shuffling). Paid users can have full access to the entire library for listening. Pricing is $9.99 per month for individual users and $14.99 per month for families (up to six people). There are additional plans for students that include bundled with Hulu. Apps are available for iPhone, iPad, macOS, and the web.

In early 2019, it purchased Gimlet Media and Anchor as a transition to becoming an “audio company” vs a music-only company.

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Spotify iOS app adds enhancements for managing albums, Finnish language support

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Aug 25 2014 - 6:31 am PT
1 Comment

Spotify updated its iOS app today for iPhone and iPad and with it brings a couple of handy enhancements for managing albums.

The updated app now includes the ability to “save whole albums to Your Music directly from the album page.” Users will also now be able to get quick access to an album’s release year or total play time by swiping any given album’s header.

In addition, version 1.6.0 of the app brings Finnish language support, a feature recently rolled out to the Spotify app on other platforms. 

The updated Spotify app for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now.

What’s New in Version 1.6.0

New: Save whole albums to Your Music directly from the album page. Check out release year and total play time by swiping the album header.
New: Spotify now speaks Finnish.
Fictitious: This app was designed by David Hasselhoff.

Beats Music “Listen Now” feature starts rolling out to Shazam iOS app

Avatar for Mark Gurman Aug 13 2014 - 10:42 am PT
2 Comments
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Users of the Shazam iOS application have begun noticing that Shazam is testing a new “Listen Now” feature with the Apple-owned Beats Music streaming service. Like it does with iTunes Radio, Spotify, and Rdio, this feature allows a user to tag a song with Shazam and then instantly play it in Beats Music. We tested the feature this morning and it works as advertised. You’ll need a Beats Music subscription or a 14-day free trial in order to make use of the feature. With Beats now under Apple’s wing and Shazam a key partner for Siri in iOS 8, it makes sense that the trio would integrate in a fashion such as the new Listen Now button in the Shazam app. You’ll need the latest Shazam update to make use of the feature.


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Google begins displaying “Listen Now” ads for streaming music services (including Beats) in search results

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2014 - 1:27 pm PT
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Google appears to be experimenting with new “Listen Now” ads in search results for streaming music services including its own Google Play Music and competitors like Apple’s Beats Music. The Wall Street Journal first noticed the ads and confirmed the new format with Google:

The ads appear in searches on personal computers as well as mobile devices and are performing well for some advertisers, according to one person familiar with the results. Music services previously could have bought similar ads, but the grouping, display and labeling are new. “We’re happy to help users quickly find legitimate sources for their favorite movies, music and more via Google search,” a Google spokesman said.

Google also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the music services pay per click just like traditional ads it displays in search. Along with its own Google Play service and Apple’s Beats Music, the Listen Now section is also currently showing ads from Rhapsody and Spotify. 

Google has experimented with other types of links for content in search results including “Watch Now” links for movies and tv that direct users to its Google Play service. It also recently laucnhed app indexing on Android, which displays a button for users to quickly launch apps from search results. 

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Spotify starts sending invites for users to try service in Canada

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2014 - 11:34 am PT
4 Comments

After revealing plans to finally bring Spotify to Canada last month, users in the country have now started receiving invites to try the streaming music service. A reader sent in the image above and others have received their invite over the last 24 hours,.

Congratulations — you’re in!

You’ve been chosen to try Spotify in Canada before everyone else!

Millions of songs are now waiting for you. The artists you love, the latest hits and new discoveries— all for free on mobile, tablet and desktop. Happy listening!

The company initially announced last month that the service would launch in the coming months, but now seems to be launching a test of the service with select users that signed-up here. Spotify is currently available in a long list of countries around the world, but it doesn’t yet list Canada on its website.

The company appears to be offering the service in trial mode for free but doesn’t mention pricing for a premium service for Canadians. Users that receive a code can access the service here.

(Thanks Josh!)

Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers to also lead iTunes Radio at Apple, according to report

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Aug 1 2014 - 12:20 pm PT
6 Comments
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Ian Rogers, the head of Beats Music, will now also lead iTunes Radio following the Apple acquisition. Apple wants to increase collaboration between both Beats Music and iTunes Radio by having both streaming services led by Rogers. Up to now, iTunes Radio has been headed by Jeff Robin’s team, best known for creating the software that became iTunes.

The Journal says that Rogers’ leadership will increase ‘cohesion’ between the services, which currently offer a lot of app in their end-user experiences. It is still unclear whether Apple has plans to consolidate the brands.


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European Commission approves Apple’s acquisition of Beats

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Jul 28 2014 - 5:10 am PT
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The European Commission has today approved Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music. The commission said that the buyout passes merger regulations. The commission concluded that Apple and Beats’ combined marketshare in both the streaming music and headphones markets is low, so an acquisition did not materially affect competition.

In headphones, the EU says that Apple/Beats exists in a global market with numerous other brands, including Bose, Sennheiser and Sony. For streaming music, companies like Spotify and Deezer offered a similar safety buffer. As the EU commission cares only for European operations, the fact that iTunes Radio and Beats Music do not currently operate in European countries also helped the deal go through smoothly.


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Spotify CEO: Apple becoming a lifestyle company in all verticals, Beats deal not primarily for streaming service

Avatar for Zac Hall Jul 21 2014 - 8:28 am PT
7 Comments
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In the weeks between the Apple-Beats acquisition first being reported as being in final talks and the two companies both officially announcing the deal, Billboard interviewed Daniel Ek, the CEO and co-founder of the streaming music giant Spotify, asking about his take on Apple becoming a subscription streaming music competitor through Beats Music.

At the time, Ek was reserved in saying too much about the proposition. “I don’t like speculating about things that haven’t happened,” Ek stated. He did, however, say that he always believed Apple would enter the streaming music space and doubled down saying Spotify is focused on “building the best possible product” while noting the service’s 40 million users with 10 million paid customers.

The Spotify CEO was interviewed last week at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference and once again asked about the Apple-Beats deal, this time with the acquisition being official:
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Google Play Music for iOS updated w/ gapless playback, ability to download subscribed playlists, more

Avatar for Chance Miller Jul 7 2014 - 11:28 am PT
5 Comments

Google this afternoon started rolling out an update to its Play Music app on iOS with a handful of new features. The update bumps the app to version 1.3.0.2190. Firstly, the update finally adds support for gapless playback, which means that there is no pause between the end of one song and the beginning of another. The update also adds the ability to download subscribed playlists in one tap, allowing you to listen to them without a data connection.


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Decline of music downloads continues as on-demand streaming audio up 50 percent

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jul 4 2014 - 4:18 am PT
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Apple’s presumed plans for an on-demand music service as part of its Beats acquisition is looking increasingly well-timed as Nielsen data shows that U.S. on-demand music consumption climbed 50.1 percent year-on-year, while music downloads fell by 12 percent in the same timeframe.

“With On-Demand streams surpassing 70 billion songs in the first six months of 2014, streaming continues to be an increasingly significant portion of the music industry,” says David Bakula, SVP Nielsen Entertainment …


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iTunes Radio streaming is now free on T-Mobile, other services also included

Avatar for Mike Beasley Jun 18 2014 - 6:43 pm PT
13 Comments
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T-Mobile has just announced at its “Uncarrier 5.0” event (which apparently double as the Uncarrier 6.0 event) that all streaming music services will now be free to stream on T-Mobile, including iTunes Radio. This also applies to Pandora, iHeartRadio, Slacker Radio, and Spotify.

Any streaming you do will always be done over the company’s fastest available network, and won’t count towards your high-speed data limit.

Customers can visit T-Mobile’s website to request new services to be added to the “music freedom” selection. As streaming services gain votes, they will be added to the program.


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How-to: Unofficial tool allows you to import iTunes and Rdio Playlists to Beats Music

Avatar for Mark Gurman Jun 13 2014 - 12:00 pm PT
11 Comments
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While Beats Music will soon be owned by Apple, the music service does not easily integrate with iTunes. For instance, there is no official Beats tool to link your iTunes library for streaming from Beats Music. However, an unofficial tool called Beats Importer is a temporary solution that seems to work well for adding iTunes and Rdio Playlists to your Beats Music library. We’ve compiled a tutorial for importing your iTunes Playlists to Beats Music, below:


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Declining iTunes sales underline need for Apple to launch a subscription music service

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 28 2014 - 6:36 am PT
16 Comments
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Declining iTunes sales highlighted by Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty and reported by Fortune appear to underline the need for Apple to move beyond sales of music downloads and into the subscription music business. iTunes sales are down 24 percent year-on-year.

While the slack is being picked up by app sales – a trend previously noted by Asymco’s Horace Dediu – that falling blue line reflects the wider shift in consumer behaviour from purchasing downloads to subscribing to streaming services noted last year by Billboard magazine … 
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Algoriddim’s latest djay for iOS app unlocks over 20 million songs with Spotify

Avatar for Zac Hall May 22 2014 - 5:30 am PT
9 Comments
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We’ve covered Algoriddim’s djay for iOS, the popular all-in-one DJ system software, in the past including the debut of djay 2, and today djay is out with a major new feature that unlocks over 20 million songs: Spotify integration. Previously, the DJ app relied solely on songs downloaded and stored in the iPhone or iPad Music app. The latest version of djay focuses on music access and discovery and also includes set list sharing using Spotify playlists as well as more than 30 new audio effects to unlock within the app. I’ve had the opportunity to test drive the new version of djay with Spotify integration over the past week, and it’s definitely a major benefit to users of the DJ system software.
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Spotify CEO: I’ve always assumed Apple would offer a streaming service

Avatar for Zac Hall May 21 2014 - 6:53 pm PT
16 Comments
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If Apple does indeed reach a deal to acquire Beats Electronics and announce it this week as expected, the clock is once again counting down to offer up your take on the whole scenario before it’s actually official. Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson got that opportunity earlier this week thanks in part to Dan Lyons of Fake Steve Jobs fame; Isaacson told Lyons he believes the expected $3.2 billion acquisition by Apple is all about creating a world class video service led by Beats’ co-founder Jimmy Iovine.

But when you think about Beats and what the company has to offer for Apple, the subscription music service launched by the company in January earlier this year comes to mind. Spotify, of course, dominates in this space as seen by the company’s announcement today that they now have 10 million paid subscribers and 40 million active users.
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Spotify confirms it now has 10 million paying subscribers

Avatar for Jordan Kahn May 21 2014 - 7:05 am PT
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On the heels of the Beats acquisition that Apple is still yet to officially confirm, every music streaming service’s biggest competitor is today hoping to keep everyone interested: Spotify just announced it has increased its paid subscriber base to 10 million users from the 6 million users it reported earlier this year in March. Recode first posted the stats and also noted on top of paid customers Spotify now “has more than 40 million active users, in 56 markets around the world.”

Spotify of course has a big lead on Beats’ recently launched subscription music service, which as of latest reports has just around a couple hundred thousand paying subscribers. Also of note, there is some confusion over whether or not Beats subscriber numbers include those getting a free 90-day subscription through AT&T and subscribers getting access through a $14.99 group plan. However, it’s clear Beats early sub numbers aren’t that important to Apple’s long-term goals and its plan for the company and streaming service. Even Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek admitted to Recode “that the service has yet to break through to mainstream audiences in many markets, including the United States.”

iTunes Radio streaming Coldplay’s upcoming ‘Ghost Stories’ album for free on First Play

Avatar for Chance Miller May 12 2014 - 12:54 pm PT
3 Comments
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iTunes Radio has quickly become the best source for unreleased albums by huge artists, and today the service added yet another high-profile artist. Ahead of its highly anticipated release on May 19th, you can now stream Coldplay’s new album Ghost Stories in its entirety on iTunes via its First Play feature.

In the past, iTunes Radio has streamed albums by The Black Keys, Eminem, Pharrell, and Rick Ross, attempting to compete with services like Spotify and Rdio. Neither of those, however, offer any sort of early streaming capabilities like iTunes Radio.


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Opinion: What is Apple’s thinking in spending $3.2B on buying Beats?

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 9 2014 - 6:51 am PT
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Apple’s apparent purchase of Beats took everyone by surprise. I must confess that my immediate reaction was to be slightly appalled. As someone whose audio tastes run more to B&O and B+W, I’ve always viewed Beats headphones as over-bassed, over-priced fashion items. But then my tastes in music admittedly differ somewhat from those of the typical Beats customer.

Even so, it’s still a little baffling at first glance. Tim Cook himself said a year ago that Apple asks two questions when considering an acquisition:

Would it help us make a great product, and would the culture fit at Apple?

My immediate answer to both would be “no,” so why would Apple spend $3.2B on a headphone manufacturer with a small sideline streaming music service … ? 
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9to5Toys Last Call: Airbender BT iPad mini keyboard case $25, TP-Link travel router $15, Blu-rays from $5, more

Avatar for Apr 29 2014 - 10:20 am PT
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Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed,Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last call updates:

Staples $10 off $100 or more: Amazon Fire TV $90 (10% off), more

1-year magazine subs w/ digital access: Wired $5 shipped (Reg. $60), ESPN $5 shipped (Reg. $104), more

Sony NEX-6L 16.1 MP Digital Camera w/ 16-50mm power zoom lens $525 shipped (Reg. $900)

[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/461184718550347776]

Other deals from today:

More deals still alive:

New products/useful info:

Microsoft/Google/Android:

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Sprint iPhone users can get up to 6 months of Spotify for free

Avatar for Zac Hall Apr 29 2014 - 9:14 am PT
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Sprint made a lot of news at a media event held today announcing a Harmon Kardon version of the HTC One M8 and a new promotional partnership with Spotify. Included in the announcement regarding the streaming music service is some good news for iPhone users on the carrier. Sprint customers including iPhone users can get between 3 and 6 months of free Spotify. Both promotions cover both new and existing Sprint subscribers and include a discounted rate after the free period.

  • Framily plans qualify for 6 months of Spotify
  • Non-framily plans qualify for 3 months of Spotify

If you’re an iPhone user on Sprint, check out the Spotify promotion regardless of which plan you’re using at there’s goodies to go around. Also check out 9to5Toys for the full details on the Sprint+Spotify promotion.

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Twitterrific adds tweet editing workaround as Twitter announces ad-based app installs

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 17 2014 - 6:33 am PT
3 Comments

Twitterrific for iOS gets a welcomed update today that notably brings the ability to edit tweets with a simple tap of the “more actions” icon. Of course, in order to get around the fact that Twitter doesn’t actually allow editing of tweets, what the function is really doing is quickly deleting the tweet and opening the compose window with original tweet’s text. From there you can quickly edit and share it as fast as possible.  

The app also gets a number of other bug fixes and improvements in the version 5.7.2 update available on the App Store now.

In other Twitter news, Twitter announced today on its blog that it’s launching a new mobile app promotion suite that will allow advertisers to promote mobile app installs both on and off of Twitter.

We have developed a full suite of targeting, creative and measurement tools to enable Twitter advertisers to effectively promote their mobile apps. These are being tested in a private beta, and you may have already seen some examples of these app promotions on Twitter. For marketers, this means a rich, native ad unit that combines the best of Twitter Cards and Promoted Tweets. Users can easily install and engage with apps, directly from the Twitter timeline.

While the Twitter Publisher Network will let mobile app devs run campaigns on Twitter with promoted tweets, Twitter is also teaming up with MoPub Marketplace for ads outside of its service. Twitter says MoPub is one of the biggest mobile ad exchanges in the world reaching over a 1 billion unique devices and serving “more than 130 billion ad requests inside Android and iOS applications every 30 days.”

Twitter has already been testing the new mobile app advertising suite with partners such as Spotify, HotelTonight, Kabam, and Deezer that you might have already seen in your Twitter timeline, but today it’s letting all U.S. advertisers sign up to the private beta through ads.twitter.com.

Report: Apple considering iTunes Store for Android & on-demand streaming service

Avatar for Zac Hall Mar 21 2014 - 1:44 pm PT
39 Comments
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According to a new report from Billboard, Apple is considering launching an iTunes Store app on the Android platform to combat declining music sales on the digital platform. The report also says that Apple execs are in talks with high level label executives to discuss debuting an on-demand streaming service.

Apple has opened exploratory talks with senior label executives about the possibility of launching an on-demand streaming service that would rival Spotify and Beats Music, according to three people familiar with the talks. Apple is also thinking about adding an iTunes App for Android phones, the Google rival that has been growing faster than the iPhone, these sources said.

The move to an on-demand streaming service could transform iTunes Radio from the Pandora-like radio model to the more robust on-demand model used by Spotify, Rdio, Beats Music, and others.
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iTunes Radio beats Spotify to take 3rd place in U.S. music streaming, eyes up #2 spot

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 11 2014 - 5:32 am PT
13 Comments
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iTunes Radio, launched alongside iOS 7 six months ago, has now overtaken Spotify to become the third most popular music streaming service in America – and looks set to take second place within the next quarter or two.

Reporting on listening data compiled by Edison Research, Electronista estimates that iTunes Radio’s 8 percent market share gives it around 20M listeners, and says that it is the fastest-growing of the top three services … 
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