Hasta La Gadget!

Now Windows Phone 8 has arrived with Xbox Music in tow, what’s next for Nokia Music? Well, at a press briefing this week in London, it told the assembled tech press that its still going — and Nokia’s even adding features. The music service is apparently continuing to expand, with new tracks being added weekly — Nokia’s mix radio currently houses 338 curated mixes in the UK alone, across pretty broad selection of music genres. And yep, there was a mention of K-Pop.

New functionality improvements include an immediate share-to-Facebook option, while the Gig Finder feature nestled within the music app picks up improved search skills, capable of checking specific venues and areas, along with the ability to buy tickets for — and get directions to — future gigs. The app’s new audio equalizer has 18 presets while you’ll also be able to tweak the seven-channel system to your own personal preference. On top of that, Dolby tech is also embedded in, with Dolby headphone (a signal processing upgrade) in attendance on both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. Nokia also affirmed that the upgraded app will be included on its hardware that gets bumped up to version 7.8. We’re just about to get our review model and will give the new features a full rundown as soon as we can.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile, Nokia

Nokia Music gets upgraded for Lumia 920 and Lumia 820: Equalizer, Dolby support, Facebook connectivity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the midst of all the new stuff that Google announced today were some smaller bit of news, but still pretty crucial, especially for music lovers. Google signed a deal with Warner Music Group to bring even more music to the Google Play store. This means that Google is now partnered with all of the major music labels.

Hundreds of artists will now be added to Google Play’s already large selection of music, and it’ll now include bands and musicians like Green Day, Madonna, Neil Young, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers just to name a few. Google’s Andy Rubin says that the company is “now working with all of the major record labels globally, and all the major US magazine publishers, as well as many independent labels, artists and publishers.”

Google also announced that Google Play music is coming to Europe on November 13. Listeners in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain will be able to start listening and buying music from the Google Play store, and they’ll also be able to use the free 20,000 song upload limit that other users take advantage of to get their personal music library connected to their Google account.

Warner Music Group controls about 15% of the world’s music, which is certainly a huge chunk considering how much music is actually out there. However, it seems it hasn’t been in too much of a hurry to sign deals with various online music services. It was the last label to sign with Google, and it was also the last big record label to sign a deal with Spotify.

[via New York Times]

Google partners up with Warner Music Group is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hurricane Sandy is headed for the east coast. New York City is shutting down. We’re all battening down the hatches, stocking up on nonperishables (I bought Spaghettios), and hoping for the best. And we’ve made a Spotify playlist to keep the cabin fever at bay. More »

If you’re hip to repurposing old tech for new inventions, Invisible is right up your alley. The Greensboro-based unit calls themselves a “mechanical music museum” and “a reverse engineered folk science daydream” when describing their elaborate set of sound-making contraptions and recycled video equipment. The outfit’s effort The New Obsolete was part of the Moogfest happenings this weekend, and our curiosity was immediately piqued. This particular performance is labeled as “an exploded view of the strange romance between humans and technology.”

Among all of the self-constructed instruments is the Selectric Piano: a typewriter that uses both computer and piano parts to control a keyboard. Each keystroke by the typist corresponds to a note added to collective soundscape and a mounted video camera allows the audience to keep tabs on the textual component. The project also showcases an object known as Elsewhere’s Roof. The device controls a set of drum and percussion tools with water dropping into a few rather hi-tech Mason jars. In addition to arsenal of noise makers, multi-channel video and library of collected audio (via tape decks and turntables, of course) rounds out the lot. We were able to catch one of the stellar showings, so hit the gallery below for a look at the wares while a snippet of the action awaits beyond the break.

Continue reading Invisible’s ‘The New Obsolete’ showcases self-constructed instruments, touts a typewriter-driven piano (video)

Filed under: Misc, Alt

Invisible’s ‘The New Obsolete’ showcases self-constructed instruments, touts a typewriter-driven piano (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We heard last month that Apple was planning to launch a Pandora competitor within the coming months, but according to new reports, it won’t launch until sometime in the first quarter of 2013. That could mean it’s coming in January, or it may not be until March, but if the rumors are true, we should be seeing an online music service from Apple before spring hits.

Bloomberg is reporting that negotiations with record labels has intensified, and that the goal is to launch the streaming music service sometime in the first quarter of the new year. The deal could be complete as soon as the middle of next month, with ad revenue sharing being the focus of discussion at the moment.

Rumored features that may arrive with the new service (and which Apple is negotiating for) include auto-generated playlists of what listeners have heard, and the ability to buy tracks as “music streams”, which we’re not sure what exactly that entails, but it could mean that you can purchases songs that stay in the cloud, so there wouldn’t be a need to download the file.

It’s still unclear as far as what the service will look like and what exactly it will do, but Apple is currently trying to make updated licensing deals with several labels to extend out from what the current iTunes business model consists of. Microsoft just revamped its Xbox Music service, which includes free, ad-supported streaming music. So, if Apple wants to compete, they’ll have to have a response fairly soon.

[via Bloomberg]

Apple rumored to launch online music service in 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.