Hasta La Gadget!

The release of iOS 7 is undoubtedly the big Apple news of the day, but there’s another new product rolling out with it as well: iTunes Radio. The Spotify-like feature, which was announced during Apple’s iPhone event last week, is part of the new iTunes 11.1 and allows users to create custom radio stations based on their personal music libraries or musical proclivities (e.g., genre, artists, track, etc.). Naturally, the service, like its competitors, is freemium, so you’ll have to pony up $25/year for iTunes Match in order to keep the hits coming sans advertisements. The update should be hitting all Macs running OS X 10.6.8 and up now, so while you’re frantically hitting refresh on that iOS update, you may as well check for this — or head to the source below for the download link.

Filed under: Desktops, Software, Apple

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Source: Apple

To date, Sonos owners have had to use iOS to stream music directly from a mobile device. They’ll have a little more choice as of today: Sonos has updated its Android app to support direct streaming. If a device has a local audio library, the controller software can send tracks, albums, playlists and podcasts to any Sonos-equipped speaker in the home. Listeners with the most recent Sonos firmware just need to grab the updated Android app from the source link to start playing.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: Sonos Blog

Source: Google Play

We’ve seen a few attempts at shared audio streaming, but many of these depend on specialized apps or hardware. Microsoft and Nokia could clear that hurdle with their newly launched Nokia Music Mix Party, which leans on what many of us have at home. Xbox 360 owners with an Xbox Live Gold subscription just have to visit a website that starts an artist-based streaming playlist with a custom QR code; after that, anyone in the room with a mobile device can scan the code and vote on which songs should play next. The service is free to use during July, although we don’t yet know if and how pricing will change afterward. Is Mix Party simple? You bet — but it could keep guests happy at future shindigs, even if they don’t care for our tastes in music.

Filed under: Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Nokia Music Mix Party, Exploring IE

Music licensors didn’t waste any time in characterizing Pandora’s acquisition of an FM radio station as an underhanded attempt to cheat performers out of royalties, but the rhetoric has now hit the courtroom, as Broadcast Music Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the streaming service in the New York federal system. Key to the action — which casts Pandora’s move as “an open and brazen effort to artificially drive down its license fees” — BMI asks for a blanket determination of licensing rates for all music broadcast by Pandora. According to BMI logic, the lower royalty rates that terrestrial providers enjoy shouldn’t apply to the online segment of Pandora’s business. As the flip side to that argument, however, Pandora argues that it deserves equal footing with online competitors such as Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio service, which pays the terrestrial rates. It’s a murky decision, for sure. Hopefully the judge has a good supply of Advil.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Verge

Source: Billboard, BMI

Pandora has complained for years that royalties for internet-only radio stations are too steep. It may have found an end run around the problem, however: it just bought an FM radio station in South Dakota. The company’s Chris Harrison argues that the deal will make ASCAP and music labels offer Pandora the same songwriting licenses that they do to rivals like iHeartRadio, which allegedly gets better terms through its traditional broadcasting roots. Opponents argue that Pandora is simply trying to dodge fair compensation through the buyout, although the streaming service claims to have been forced into more than one unfair rate hike with current licensing. Whatever the truth, Pandora is racing against the clock — competition won’t get any easier when built-in services like iTunes Radio are on the way.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet

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Source: The Hill (1), (2)