Apple Approves IPhone Music App

Apple has approved a streaming music application from Spotify for use on the iPhone, even though the program will compete with Apple's own iTunes service. PC World reports.

Rumors have circled in recent weeks that the app had been denied.

Spotify is an advertising-supported music service that lets end-users stream music to their computers free of charge. The service is available in the U.K. and by invitation in countries including Sweden, Norway, Finland, France and Spain. Users can opt to pay for a version of the service without ads.

What can music teach television?

What can the television industry learn from the music business as it wakes up to the threat from file-sharing?

If you've got a popular product - whether it's Lady Gaga, Top Gear, or Heroes - it's going to be popular on all sorts of platforms. And that includes unauthorised places where fans go to share what they like.

Does that mean you end up earning less from legitimate outlets?

Maybe, though it's hard to get figures. But all that pirated material floating around and being talked about could also be seen as free marketing, sending paying customers your way.

Read full article in the BBC.

BongoTones launches free ringtones from 150 countries

Two University of Michigan grads were fed up with expensive fees for cell phone ringtones, wallpaper, games and videos.

So they created their own mobile content delivery site. The Ann Arbor entrepreneurs have developed a user-generated database of 16,000 ringtones from 150 countries under the auspices of their two-year-old company, BongoTones.com.

The firm is developing its technology platform to begin offering cell phone users the ability to download customized wallpaper, games and videos for free. The company says its downloadable content is compatible with hundreds of phones, including Apple's iPhone.

[via AnnArbor]

Signs of progress on digital music service

After a shaky start, Nokia is claiming progress with its efforts to become a leading provider of digital music on mobile phones, The Financial Times reports.

Sean Kingston album gets fans online with karaoke

Most music videos might not have the promotional impact they used to. But what about videos that make fans the star, allow them to sing with an artist and seem to pop out of the screen? Reuters reports.

The CD booklet that comes with reggae fusion singer Sean Kingston's latest album, "Tomorrow" (due September 22 on Epic), contains a special image that fans can hold up to their computers' webcams to launch an "augmented reality" karaoke session on Kingston's Web site.

That enables fans to use their computer's video camera to record themselves singing "Fire Burning," along with an animated version of Kingston called lil Sean.

Once fans finish their videos, they can post them to a social networking site, or to SeanKingston.com, where fans can vote on their favorites.

Read full article.

MySpace to acquire music service

MySpace will acquire the popular music discovery service iLike that allows users listen to and share music across social networks. The BBC reports.

iLike reportedly turned down an offer from rival Facebook, where it is the top music application.

The company has 55 million registered users and has been prominent on most social networks apart from MySpace.

Americans Tune Out Mobile Music

Only 10% of U.S. cell phone users listen to music on their cell phones, according to Forrester Research. Information Week reports.

The report, "The Future of Music On Cell Phones," said 10% of adult Americans listen to music on their phones once a month. By comparison, 27% of British adults and 70% of Chinese subscribers used their mobile handsets to play tunes.

Part of this difference is that mobile users outside of the United States are less likely to have a dedicated music player, are savvier with the advanced capabilities of their devices, and have a wider variety of music options, the report said.

For example, Nokia's Comes With Music service offers customers free, unlimited access to music on their handsets for up to a year. The service is currently available in multiple markets, and Nokia is trying to bring it to the United States.

The report also said consumers found the U.S. carriers' music plans overpriced and too restrictive.

Read full article.

Vinyl DJ iPhone app

The Vinyl DJ app is the ultimative retro music record player for Vinyl friends. It plays your iPod music files - and it sounds like exciting Vinyl music again.

You can customize the vibe of Vinyl DJ by adjusting parameters like:

-Dust
-Crackle
-Scratch
-Mechanical noise
-Hum

Vinyl DJ will display song information as well as show the cover of the song.

iTunes sells 25% of all music in the US, 69% of digital

Music sold through the iTunes Store makes up a full quarter of all music sold in the US, according to a new report from the NPD Group, reports ars technica.

The market research firm noted that paid digital music downloads have continued to grow since 2007 (from 20 percent to 35 percent this year) with the help of iTunes, Amazon, and Walmart's online offerings, and that digital music sales may even equal CD sales by the end of 2010.

iTunes remains in the lead for all music sold in the US at 25 percent of "music units sold," up from 21 percent last year and 14 percent in 2007.

Read full article.

iLike partners with Sony Music for iPhone app

Social music discovery service iLike announced the coming of the iLike Challenge App for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, collaborating with Sony Music Entertainment to test how quickly fans can identify clips from hitmakers spanning pop, classic rock, country and hip-hop.

According to iLike, the $2.99 app will exclusively feature questions about Sony Music acts including Elvis Presley, the Clash, Britney Spears and John Mayer.

[via FierceMobile Content]

Google Developing 'Ringback Advertising' For Google Voice

This article from Information Week is dated July 23, but somehow I missed it then.

Google has updated a patent application filed last year for "ringback advertising," a form of audio advertising that appears to be intended to work with the company's Google Voice service.

Audio ads, the patent application says, may unnecessarily annoy consumers. But providing audio ads during a time otherwise used to play a ringback tone may allow advertising without annoyance "because the consumer would have to otherwise listen to some other form of audio."

Official Ferrari ringtones

Ferrari has released five different ringtones of the Ferrari 458 Italia. Each ringtone is available for both conventional cell phones (mp3), as well as for iPhones from Apple (m4r format).

[via iCars]

Major labels preparing new digital album format

The four big record companies are to compete with Apple's forthcoming Cocktail project by developing their own format called CMX. The Guardian reports.

Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are reportedly preparing a new digital album format that will include songs, lyrics, videos, liner notes and artwork.

The news comes just weeks after reports of a similar project, Cocktail, being developed by Apple. According to the Times, Apple rejected CMX and instead began work on an in-house alternative. It is not clear how Cocktail and CMX will differ, other than ownership.

... The major labels plan to launch CMX, which is just a working title for the format, in November. It will reportedly be "soft-launched" with a few select releases.

Read full article.

[via Switched]

Downloading dips among young fans

There has been a slight drop - from 63% last year to 61% this year - in the number of young people illegally downloading music, a survey suggests, reports the BBC.

The UK Music-commissioned study, now in its second year, also found that 85% of those who downloaded illegally would pay for an unlimited download service.

UK Music is an umbrella body that represents the British music industry.

Read full article

Apple Streams First Live Concert to the iPhone

Friday night Apple produced its first-ever live event streamed to the iPhone: a concert by the electronica band Underworld.

[via NewTeeVee]

Report: US Mobile Music Revenues Hit by Reduced Ringtone Sales

Research from SNL Kagan aid ringtone sales in the U.S. mobile music market dropped from $714 in 2007 to $541 in 2008 to register a massive 24 percent crippling stat, which in turn had a cascading effect on the overall mobile music revenues across the nation because ringtones’ share of the total U.S. mobile music market fell from 80 percent in 2005 to 63 percent in 2008.

Officials also emphasized that this was the first time in the history of any U.S. Mobile Content category that revenues experience a sustained declined over an entire calendar span and also when compared with the previous years’ performances.

[via TMCnet[

Back August 8th

Off to St Petersburg and Moscow. Back on Saturday August 8th.

Verizon turns up exclusive Pearl Jam ringtones

Verizon Wireless continued its long-running collaboration with alt-rock stalwarts Pearl Jam, announcing a series of exclusive ringtones previewing songs from the band's forthcoming album Backspacer, due at retail Sept. 20. FierceMobile Content reports.

Verizon's VZW Tones service will offer one new ringtone and ringback each week leading up to the disc's release, with "The Fixer" and "Got Some" available now--"Amongst the Waves" follows on Aug. 6, with eight more ringers scheduled.

More in press release.