Posts tagged with "music"

Pioneer Introduces AppRadio with Powerful iOS Integration

Initially surfaced last month through some FCC filings and rumored to be the first in-car radio to sport full iOS integration with iPhone apps and iPod out music controls, Pioneer officially announced the AppRadio today, with a dedicated iPhone app already available on the App Store for free. With a 800 x 400 6.1-inch multitouch capacitive display, Bluetooth connectivity and possibility to plug directly into an iPhone or iPod touch 4th gen running Pioneer’s software, the AppRadio will not only get usual access to your music library with album artwork and song information visualized on screen (BMW apparently already does that), it will also be capable of letting you interact with iOS calendars, maps, contacts and photos using the touchscreen device. It seems like Pioneer went all out to enable deep iOS integration, so much that certain applications available on the App Store, like Pandora and Rdio, have already announced AppRadio-specific versions with controls meant for the bigger display. On top of that, the AppRadio features a nice digital clock, an on-screen week calendar, a mic, external GPS antenna and a price tag below $500 when it goes on sale at the end of June.

From the press release:

Pioneer is rethinking connectivity by tapping into the power of the smartphone, while simultaneously providing a solution that safely merges the consumer’s connected lifestyle into the vehicle,” said Ted Cardenas, director of marketing for the car electronics division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “AppRadio fully embraces the iPhone, which has become the window to our mobile connectivity and provides a comprehensive and safer way to use apps in the car.

There’s more: the AppRadio recognizes multitouch gestures like swipes, pinch and zoom, and the companion iPhone app will alert you of new AppRadio-compatible 3rd party apps as they’re released. iOS 4.2 or later will be required for the AppRadio to work with an iPhone or iPod touch. [via Engadget]

Apple Faces Licensing Challenges With Music Publishers

In just a matter of weeks, Apple is expected to reveal their cloud-music service at WWDC. With rumors suggesting Apple is actively co-operating with the music publishers, CNet today published an interesting article that highlighted the potential stumbling blocks that Apple faces in tying up a deal. There are four major record companies and it is widely believed Apple has finalised agreements with three of them: EMI Music, Warner Music and Sony Music, furthermore, Universal, the current holdout may reach an agreement with Apple this week. Yet this is only half the battle, as CNet points out, because Apple still needs publishing rights – the big labels only own the recording rights, not the publishing rights.

For the publishing rights, Apple must negotiate with the large music publishers individually. With only two weeks till WWDC it really doesn’t leave Apple with much time at all to sort this out. But what are publishing rights? As CNet explains, when Apple sells a song, such as the Beatles “Twist and Shout”, it must pay both EMI and Apple Records (representing the Beatles) for the sound recording. However it then has to pay the publishing company that represents the writers of the song and words (in this example it is the company representing Phil Medley and Bert Russel). However if Apple then wants to sell a cover version of the song, such as The Isley Brothers version, it again has to pay Medley and Russell again.

The complication with this is that whilst there is a set rate for those licenses in terms of CDs and digital downloads – there is no precedent or guidance for a cloud-based music service that Apple is reportedly developing. As CNet suggests, there is very little money that separates Apple and the publishers on this issue, but it will nonetheless be the sticky point of negotiations. What muddies the water even more is that because Apple has inked deals with 3 the labels already, they “have soaked up most of the money that Apple is prepared to pay” – leaving little for deals with the publishers.

A source from the recorded-music side said that the labels who have licensed Apple have negotiated only what their songs are worth and if Apple is unwilling to pay the publishers’ price, the publishers don’t have to provide licensing. The source suggested that this is a negotiating ploy and that Apple is trying to pit the labels and publishers against each other.

[Via CNet]

Apple Also Negotiating with Music Publishers for Cloud Service

Following last night’s report on Apple signing a deal with the third music label, Sony, over the launch of the rumored iTunes cloud service after inking similar agreements with EMI and Warner Music Group, Peter Kafka at All Things Digital reports negotiations won’t be over once Apple also signs Universal, the biggest music label in the United States; whilst Apple is clearly in advantage when compared to Google and Amazon thanks to its music deals, the company still has to finalize agreements with music publishers, which own different rights on songs and albums than labels. As Kafka explains, publishers are different entities, usually shared within the same label but still residing in separate buildings, that own rights to the songs’ compositions, as opposed to the labels who own rights to the recordings. Once music is distributed either physically or online, both get paid with different fees and terms; once example is the Beatles music catalogue, with recordings owned by EMI and compositions by publisher Sony/ATV.

Kafka claims Apple simply started negotiating with the labels first, and deals with publishers are currently being worked on ahead of a rumored WWDC launch.

While Apple came to terms with Warner Music and EMI Music weeks ago, and has now struck a deal with Sony Music, industry sources tell me the company doesn’t have agreements with labels’ associated publishing companies — Warner/Chappell, EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV. The deal Apple is about to sign with Universal, also won’t include publishing, I’m told.

Music industry sources I talk to think Apple wants to launch, or at least announce, the cloud service at its developers’ conference in early June. And if the hang-up is truly just about money, then that still gives dealmakers time to hammer things out. But remember that this is the music business, and simple things always take longer than they should.

As reported several times in the past few weeks, Apple’s upcoming cloud-based music service is rumored to offer both uploads of a user’s music collection and access to songs not previously purchased, but available for streaming through a subscription system.

Apple Reaches Deal with Sony Over Cloud Music

As work on the rumored cloud music service nears finalization for an official WWDC announcement, Bloomberg reported last night Apple has reached a deal with Sony Music Entertainment, following reports that the company managed to sign the Warner Music Group and EMI. This leaves Universal, the biggest label of all four in the United States, out of the equation, but according to the rumors Apple’s Eddy Cue is actively focused on closing all the remaining paperwork with music labels by next week.

Apple has reached licensing accords with Sony Corp. (6758)’s music division, EMI Group and Warner Music Group, the people said. Universal Music Group, the largest recording company, is close to a deal, another person said. The company also would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels.

Apple’s cloud music service is said to be part of a major MobileMe revamp the company has been working on for the past two years, which will include several new functionalities and a new price point with basic features offered for free. As for the music service, it’s unclear whether Apple will adopt an upload system like Google and Amazon or a subscription-based delivery with songs coming from the iTunes Store, but a patent surfaced yesterday seems to suggest Apple’s implementation will go as far as allowing users to upload their own songs, and stream others they don’t own from a larger “content source” like the iTunes Store.

Patent Reveals How Apple’s New Music Service Could Work

A new patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week and discovered by AppleInsider today seems to provide some details about Apple’s rumored cloud-based music service, and how iTunes on the desktop and mobile devices like an iPhone could manage to improve streaming quality and speed by locally syncing snippets of songs. The patent, entitled “Local Storage of a Portion of Streamed Media Items”, notes how most streaming services allow users to access an online library of music and cache contents locally on device to enable playback when an Internet connection is not available. This happens in popular service Spotify, which enables users to keep a local cache of albums and songs so they won’t be forced to always be connected to the Internet to listen to music. Whilst Spotify’s cache action has to be triggered manually by the user, other cloud music services automatically cache a song in the background once a user starts listening to it. Apple’s proposed solution is different, and it involves a new menu in iTunes (for the desktop) that syncs via USB “partial music” to an iOS device – that is, small snippets of a song, with the remaining parts available online.

Unlike cache, partial local sync has the advantage of letting users start listening to music immediately without waiting times. Because cache in other services is still obtained with an Internet connection, users have to wait for the caching process to finish before they can start playback. And if the song is not cached, users have to wait for the remote server to begin streaming – when quickly jumping between artists and songs (as most users do on iPods and iPhones), having to wait a few seconds for streaming to begin can be annoying. Assuming a user is syncing music that’s available both locally (on a Mac or PC) and in the cloud (the music service), Apple’s proposed solution skips cache and waiting times entirely by saving locally a first snippet of a song, and then fetching the rest remotely. This way, iTunes doesn’t have to sync full content (thus cutting syncing times) and a mobile device doesn’t have to stream the first seconds of a song. The benefit for users is that playback will start immediately regardless of how fast they’ll switch between songs; the obvious downside is that something will still have to be synced locally. AppleInsider also posts more details from the patent:

The application suggests that the remotely stored content could be a user’s own library, which they have streamed from a home computer or a remote server. Or, it could be streamed from a large “content source,” such as the iTunes Music Store. The described system would also utilize authentication methods, such as with an iTunes account username and password, to ensure that the user has purchased the items and has the right to stream them.

If this patent is of any indication, it could lend some credence to the reports that claimed Apple’s cloud music service was being set up in a way that users could both stream their own music libraries (by uploading them first) and music they didn’t purchase, with a subscription model similar to Spotify. The method described above would clearly require an update to the iTunes application, and it’s unclear whether Apple could also provide a way to “always stream”, avoiding partial sync and relying exclusively on a remote connection. Apple is expected to unveil iOS 5 with new cloud-based features at the WWDC, which kicks off in San Francisco on June 6.

Phone, Tablet Owners Willing to Pay for Media Subscription Services

With rumors floating around about Apple’s upcoming cloud music service (especially after last night’s report on the company signing a deal with EMI) and others like Google and Amazon moving forward on the streaming bandwagon with products to upload and stream music at any time with smartphones, tablets and desktop web browsers, subscription-based payment systems are often seen as the only feasible solution to guarantee a continuos cloud service without interruptions, always available anywhere you go. Just like Spotify and Rdio let users stream large collections of music they don’t necessarily own by paying a monthly or annual fee, Apple is rumored to extend the iTunes subscription system it created for magazines to music, movies, and a combination of both for the ultimate iTunes Store cloud experience. But just how much are phone and tablet people willing to pay for these new cloud services based on subscriptions? That’s what research firm Nielsen takes a look at in its latest survey, asking users of “connected devices” how much they would pay for media subscriptions that would give them access to a variety of content on their mobile devices.

It turns out, music, movies, magazines, books and TV shows are something people would pay for – sure, there are different results, but take a look at the graph above and you’ll see that these 5 categories are the ones with less orange, which stands for “not willing to pay.” On the other side, sports content, streaming radio and news are something people would be less prone to subscribe to. Overall, the sweet spot for subscriptions seems to be around $4.99 - $9.99 per month, which is what most cloud services ask for these days. There’s an interesting difference about music, however: people would pay for “downloaded music”, and not for “streaming radio.” Assuming “downloaded music” stands for “music you own”, and people care about having online access to music that’s ultimately theirs, services like Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music Beta should be exactly what people are looking for, as they let you upload your own music to the cloud. Also assuming Apple is working on a similar solution, this survey suggests the company should allow for both uploads and Spotify-like streaming, enabling users to lock their own collections in the cloud, and get access to stuff they didn’t buy as well. Maybe that’s what these deals with music labels are all about.

Tablet and smartphone owners with proper Internet access on the go are willing to pay for online media available through apps, and if that’s their own media, there’s an incentive to subscribe. A report in the past weeks suggested Apple was considering offering a free initial trial for its new cloud music service, with a $20 yearly subscription once the demo is over.

Apple Inks Deal with EMI, Cloud Music Almost Finalized

Cnet reports tonight Apple has inked a deal with EMI over the upcoming launch of the rumored cloud music service that is expected to be unveiled at the WWDC in June. Cnet also claims the last two remaining deals with Sony and Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group (Warner Music Group reportedly signed a deal last month) could be signed as early as next week.

Apple has signed a cloud-music licensing agreement with EMI Music and is very near to completing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, multiple music industry sources told CNET.

The negotiations between Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group could be wrapped up as early as next week, the sources said. What this means is that signed contracts with all four of the top four record companies will be in Apple’s hip pocket on June 6 when Apple kicks off the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The sources who spoke with CNET did not know when Apple would announce the deals or roll out the cloud service.

With Apple signing the four major music labels in the United States, the cloud music service the company has been working on might include a subscription-based system where users simply stream music they don’t actually own (like in Spotify), the possibility to automatically beam to the cloud purchases from the iTunes Store or then again, as many suggest, Apple may be simply looking to having full support from the music industry in order to avoid possible lawsuits and debates surrounding cloud products from Google and Amazon, also recently launched.

Cloud is rumored to be a big part of iOS 5 and OS X Lion, set to be previewed on June 6 at the WWDC.

Digital Downloads Drive A Music Industry Recovery

Well it looks as though things may be looking up for the music industry again, after its decade long slide in sales. A Nielsen Soundscan report yesterday said that US music sales (by unit) have increased by 1.6% over the course of this year.

The report gives the credit for the rise, unsurprisingly, to digital music sales, which in terms of albums was up 16.8% and in terms of individual tracks was up 9.6%. As for physical media, CDs were down by 8.8%, but Vinyl increased by 37%, although they only account for 1.2% of sales.

No one is exactly sure why digital is up dramatically this year, although Nielsen interestingly suggests the arrival of the Beatles on iTunes as a key reason, pointing to a dramatic increase starting from when it was released on iTunes (see graph above) – although this seems a bit of a stretch. That said, catalogue music sales have been on the rise by 5.4%, whilst current music is down 7%. As for the most popular genre’s, Rock had the greatest market share in album sales whilst Pop was the most popular for digital tracks.

[Via AllThingsD]

Angry Birds’ Theme Song Recreated with Real Instruments [Video]

Sure, you can play Angry Birds on multiple devices, install all the possible versions and spin-offs from the App Store – heck, I’ll even go on to say it’s fine if you bought some of those shady guides to get the most out of the game. But can you play the official theme song like those indie Pomplamoose folks did? As noted by TUAW, the duo seems to enjoy the world of Angry Birds quite a lot, and even if there’s some Samsung advertising weirdness going on in the video, the overall result for your viewing pleasure is undoubtedly nice.

Video is embedded below. As for anyone else willing to recreate his own version of the Birds’ song, I’m pretty sure GarageBand for iPad has a share button somewhere. [via YouTube]
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