Hasta La Gadget!

Twitter has announced today a brand new service they’ll be offering through the web and in their brand new iOS-only app: Twitter #Music! This environment will be one in which Twitter will be showing off music shared by artists around the world using algorithms that get the rhythm straight to your face from your phone or desktop computer. Unfortunately it appears that Android users are going to be left out – at first.

The announcement was made on ABC’s Good Morning America, of all places, while up until now Twitter #Music has been virally teased by music celebrities and odds-and-ends celebrity personalities. All on Twitter, of course. You’ll find this launch to be one made by Twitter to reach the masses, not just the early adopter crowds apps are normally advertised to.

“The songs on Twitter #music currently come from three sources: iTunes, Spotify or Rdio. By default, you will hear previews from iTunes when exploring music in the app. Subscribers to Rdio and Spotify can log in to their accounts to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs. We will continue to explore and add other music service providers.” – Twitter

While the final app is not yet available to users, we’re expecting a full launch by the end of the day – stay tuned to our Twitter tag portal all day until the big blast happens!

According to the Twitter bits and pieces released on the television show today, there will be several ways you’ll be able to get into the mix. While for the most part this launch will surround the iOS app and desktop connections, you’ll still be able to get to listen to music on your Android, Windows Phone, or BlackBerry device by tapping links in Twitter and seeing (and more importantly, listening) the action in your mobile web browser.

This release should take the success Twitter has seen in their release of Vine earlier this year. While Twitter remains solidly a text-friendly app in and of itself, the Twitter brand will continue to expand through apps such as this. Have a peek at the tiny preview images released by ABC News thus far above and below and, again, stay tuned for more right here on SlashGear!

Twitter Music app launches today: iPhone first is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Surely no one was surprised when Twitter formally announced the launch of its #Music service this morning (save, perhaps, from the fact that the company used Good Morning America, of all places, to share the big news). Frankly, we’re just glad to finally get our hands on the promised big announcement, which rolled out in both browser-based and iOS formats this morning. We’ve played around with both versions, listening to Taylor Swift, so you don’t have to. Check out our impressions after the break.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile

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Source: Twitter #Music, iTunes

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BlackBerry has been hit hard by Apple and Android in the enterprise smartphone market, and now it’s making some moves to make sure that it doesn’t face the same fate in the automotive segment. QNX, BlackBerry’s operating system subsidiary that makes the new BB10 operating system, today announced that it would be adding music streaming service 7digital into its in-car entertainment and information system, QNX CAR.

The deal gives QNX more leverage against Google and its own car ambitions, as well as Apple, which has made some moves into the automotive segment, and is the world’s biggest seller of digital music today. The QNX deal will see access to 7digital’s catalog of 23 million tracks, and HTML5-based music store, via the QNX system; the music service will work across the 40 countries where 7digital already has licensing agreements. It follows on the heels of QNX deals with other music providers including Pandora, Tune In, and Slacker.

(As a point of comparison on footprint, yesterday music streaming service Spotify added several new markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe to its global coverage, and now works in 28 countries.)

QNX says that this will in turn mean that automotive OEMs and others working on in-car systems can now build customized digital music stores into QNX-based “infotainment systems.” These will link up with 7digital’s wider service across mobile and web platforms so that subscribers can access their music on all of them.

The move is another sign of how everything, including cars, are fair hardware game today. “The lines between in-car systems, mobile devices, and the web are blurring,” said Derek Kuhn, vice president of sales and marketing at QNX Software Systems, in a statement. “Our partnership with 7digital is a testament to how well digital music services can be integrated into a seamless automotive user experience.”

At the same time, digital music specifically has a huge opportunity in the next generation of cars — something companies like Spotify and Apple are also considering as they also look to integrate with new platforms.

“Connected and mobile devices have changed the way music is consumed, but one thing that hasn’t is people’s desire to listen to music in the car,” said Ben Drury, CEO of 7digital. “We’re already working with partners in the automotive sector and now, for the first time, automotive companies using the QNX CAR platform can leverage our HTML5 music store, where their customers can access the largest collection of digital music from the convenience of their vehicles.”

For 7digital, this is another way of making sure its service remains relevant for its existing subscribers. It already has a strong relationship with BlackBerry; the service is preloaded on a range of the company’s smartphones, including the newest BB10 devices. The company, based in the UK, has raised $18.5 million to date, with its named investors including Sutton Place Managers and Balderton Capital. Its last round of funding, $10 million in October 2012, came from “two public technology companies.” I’ve reached out to 7digital to ask if BlackBerry happens to be one of them.

Samsung is another strong partner of 7digital; the streaming company powers the world’s biggest smartphone maker’s Music Hub music service. 7digital also works on Pioneer’s in-car system.

For its part, QNX, which was acquired by BlackBerry in 2010 as part of its bigger drive to update its mobile platform, has been an early and strong player in in-car systems for years already, and it works with companies like Audi, Toyota, BMW, Porsche, Honda and Land Rover.

Interestingly, it has something in common with BlackBerry in that both have reputations as workhorses. “The only way to make this software malfunction is to fire a bullet into the computer running it,” an automotive customer once said of QNX.

But as the mobile industry has shown us many times, it’s not always the early movers who are the long-term winners in this space.

While QNX has built a reputation with reliable in-car navigation and other legacy car-computer systems, in the new age of connected everything, the car could well become a hot battleground, like the smartphone is already, in the bigger war of ecosystems. QNX has been, like others, developing next-generation systems to meet that demand.

There are already companies working on ways of synchronizing the apps in one’s phone with those in the car, and companies like Apple and Google, as well as automotive companies themselves, all want a piece of the action. Cars and car news featured prominently at both the CES and MWC events earlier this year.

The bigger risk for BlackBerry is that QNX goes the way of its crown jewel, the BlackBerry smartphone, which was once the default smartphone — the only smartphone in many cases — used by enterprises. These days, it’s a different picture. IDC noted last November that iPhones are bing bought “in droves” instead of BlackBerry handsets. Some of this is down to individual users bringing in their own devices; and some is down to larger corporate contracts.

Data collected from over 12,000 consumer surveys for NPD’s Annual Music Study 2012 reveals that Apple’s iTunes holds the majority 64% share in the digital music market. The study also reveals that almost 80% of people who buy music online, bought music from iTunes in the previous quarter. Trailing in second place in AmazonMP3 with just 22% market share. 44 million Americans have bought at least one song or album last year, this number is consistent with past sales, despite the fact that music streaming services such as Pandora are becoming hugely popular.

iTunes has phenomenally progressed over the past decade. At first it was just a tool for iPod users so that they could manage their music, but it slowly and gradually grew to become what it is today. Apple recently announced that iTunes sold its 25 billionth song, and just to give you an idea how iTunes has gained popularity so fast, 15 billion of these total downloads were made in last three years alone. Digital music sales around the world bring in about $5.5 billion and it can safely be said that iTunes is the source of majority of that revenue.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google ‘Would Still Really Like’ Apple To Use Its Maps, Says Eric Schmidt, California Resort Lifts Ban On Apple Imposed Back In 1983,