Mar 12
For almost ten years, streaming music services have come and gone. Sure, some have lasted longer than others, but so far none has ever made the business model work properly. So can it ever turn into a real, sustainable business? More »
Mar 12
Lego Bionicles drafted into Arduino-driven band with synthesizers and more (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Italian sound designer and producer Guiseppe Acito wanted to kick off his newly established blog with some fanfare. Naturally, that meant constructing a band from Lego Bionicle toys driven by an Arduino Uno and controlled by an iPad MIDI sequencer app called Nord Beat. Dubbed the Toa Mata Band, the musical group makes its tunes by beating on assorted drum pads, percussion instruments, synthesizers and even a Nintendo DS. Acito has published the ensemble’s very first music video, and it seems like there are more to come as it carries an “episode one” label. Hit the jump for the footage — which really starts cookin’ around the 1:15 mark — or hit the third source link for glamour shots of Toa Mata members and the whole setup.
Via: Make
Source: Opificio Sonico (1, translated), (2, YouTube), (3, Flickr)
Mar 11
Rdio on iPhone now shows which friends are listening, web streaming hits seven countries
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Listen enough to Rdio on the desktop and you’ll know your friends’ taste in music when they’re fellow subscribers. As of a fresh update to the iOS app, you’ll also appreciate any musical kinship while on the road. iPhone users receive an overhauled playback view that shows just which friends have listened to that favorite album or playlist. They’ll also have a more pleasing view in mid-play that blows up the album art and downplays the interface. There’s no word on similar treatments for the Android app, but the odds have increased that you’ll at least have the web fallback for social listening: Rdio has quietly added web streaming for Austria, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Mexico, bringing desktop access to a total of 24 countries.
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile
Via: Rdio Blog, The Next Web
Mar 11
iHeartRadio slips local news into streams, hopefully without the used car ads
Posted in: Today's Chili 
The advent of internet radio let many of us tune into music we never would have heard without packing our bags for a trip. However, it often keeps us isolated from events just outside our door — a disconnect that Clear Channel wants to end through its newly launched Add-Ins for iHeartRadio streams. Check the right boxes and hourly local news, traffic and weather will appear between tracks, whether for the nearest city or a manually chosen favorite. Add-Ins don’t have much mystery involved as a result, but they could keep us grounded in the real world… minus some of the all-too-real commercials.
Filed under: Internet
Source: iHeartRadio
Mar 11
If you have a fairly large house and you want your music to come with you wherever you are in the house, a multi-room system is about the best solution besides carrying around a boombox with you wherever you go. CasaTunes has you covered, as they have announced and launch a new line of multi-room music servers to provide music around your entire house.
These music servers seamlessly integrate with a handful of popular AV Receivers, including those from Harman Kardon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, and Yamaha. The CasaTunes Music Servers start out at three wired rooms and five wireless rooms, but they support up to a whopping 24 wired rooms and 10 wireless rooms, making it the perfect solution if you happen to own the Palace of Versailles.
Of course, the system allows users to install a wired-only music system, a wireless-only system, or a hybrid of the two in any combination, which makes it fairly versatile as far as where the system can be implemented. And the technology uses Apple’s AirPlay protocol to beam music wirelessly to various receivers.
Users can also listen to different playlists in different rooms, and it can all be controlled via the optional keypad (pictured above), through a web browser, or using the CasaTunes mobile app for iOS and Android. While setting up a multi-room music system isn’t cheap by any means, it’s a great way to get audio blasting all throughout your house, especially during a party.
CasaTunes announces new line of multi-room music servers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Mar 11
SoundCloud streamlines Pro plans, intros a Pro Partner tier for top streamers
Posted in: Today's Chili 
There’s been concerns that SoundCloud is shifting its attention too quickly toward listeners at the expense of the creators that gave the site its roots. While we can’t say that the audio hub is addressing every concern, it’s is determined to keep creatives involved with a much simpler Pro strategy. Instead of offering four paid plans based on storage, SoundCloud is scaling back to two: a basic Pro account hosts four hours of sound for either €3 ($4) per month or €29 ($38) per year, while stepping up to €9 ($12) per month or €99 ($129) per year takes the caps off with unlimited hosting. Quite the bargain when unlimited access previously cost €59 ($77) monthly and €500 ($650) yearly, we’d say. If SoundCloud really, truly values your work, it can also invite you to a Pro Partner level that allows custom branding and a “Moving Sound” image slideshow that syncs up with tunes. Just 10 companies have access to this upper echelon, but everyone else can spring for the more down-to-Earth Pro tiers today — and with the new discounts, that’s not a far-fetched possibility.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Next Web
Source: SoundCloud
Mar 11
The cultural significance of a city is often gauged by how talented its local symphony is. But living in a small town that can’t even round up a decent quartet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy a night at the local concert hall. Just round up 40 mice and a few music boxes. More »
Mar 10
There’s a lot of tech stuff going down at SXSW between the talking shoes and the projection-effect pool tables and whathaveyou, but at the end of the day, music is still a huge part. A 7.39 GB part. And you can go grab it all for free right now. More »
Mar 10
…if you know how to play the piano or any other chordophone you might be thinking, “All keyboards are pressure sensitive!” Which is true: the harder you strike a key on a piano, the louder the sound it makes. But the Seaboard’s keys not only let you control volume, they also let you alter a key’s pitch and timbre. In other words, you can make it sound like a string instrument even though you’re playing on keys.
The Seaboard was invented by Roland Lamb. It’s one of the first applications of Lamb’s SEA (Sensory, Elastic and Adaptive) Interface, a “three-dimensional pressure-sensing” interface. The best thing about the Seaboard is that you don’t have to know how this fancy technology works because it’s very intuitive to operate:
Dougal Shaw of BBC News recently talked with Lamb about the Seaboard (there’s a copy of this video on YouTube as well):
Lamb’s company Roli will soon be offering the first edition of the Seaboard called the Grand. Only 88 units will be sold, each named after a note on a keyboard. I also wouldn’t be surprised if each one cost 88 grand. It seems that the instrument will also come with a complementary program called SoundDial. Pre-orders for the Seaboard Grand will begin on April; you can register on Roli’s website if you want to be notified about the Grand’s availability.
Mar 08
If you’ve been following the news this week, you could be forgiven for wondering why there have been so many stories about products that don’t yet exist, namely streaming services from Google and Apple. There’ve been so many stories about …
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