Music
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Waze and Spotify integration arrives on iOS
Google-owned navigation app Waze announced a partnership earlier this year with music streaming service Spotify to put Spotify playlists right within the Waze app, and now the team-up is extending to iOS. The new integration is rolling out today, and adds a number of direct Spotify features within Waze and vice versa. This allows Waze users to begin navigating to their destination right inside… Read More
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The Jammy is a steel string guitar that fits in a pocket
As a fan of electronic guitars — as opposed to plain-old electrics — the Jammy seems like a very interesting piece of kit. Designed to be played like a regular guitar, you fret on the top part of the neck and strum the strings on the bottom half. Because it has only five frets you change the octave by pulling the neck out from 0 to the full length of 12 inches. Read More
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The Lily drone is kind of back
Remember the Lily drone? It was the drone a person could launch by throwing it in the air and then it would follow the user gallivanting around Dolores Park. It was also the company that couldn’t live up to its crowdfunding campaign and ultimately shut down last January. It’s now available. Sort of. It’s called the Lily Next-Gen and looks much like the original with a blue… Read More
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You can now play your music across multiple Echo devices
Amazon this morning announced a new feature for its Echo devices called “multi-room music,” which allows owners with more than one Echo to control where their music is played, or even sync it across a group of Echo devices using voice commands. For example, you’ll be able to tell Alexa to play your music in the living room, play music upstairs or downstairs, or even just… Read More
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New drone perches on walls like a robotic bird
The Multimodal Autonomous Drone (S-MAD) is a fixed-wing drone that has a few bird-like tricks up its sleeve. You can, for example, fly it like a glider through a room or open space, but when it approaches a flat surface the drone quickly changes configuration and lands flat with its little spiky teeth digging in to keep it from falling. Read More
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Younger consumers use two or more apps for streaming music, mobile messaging, says Nielsen
Millennials’ reputation for a lack of brand loyalty extends to digital services, according to a new report out from Nielsen this morning. The measurement firm’s latest study looks into how the generation consisting of 18- to 34-year-olds uses communication apps and streaming music services, among other things. Read More
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Spotify arrives on Xbox One
Earlier this month, reports confirmed a Spotify app for Microsoft’s Xbox One was in internal beta testing. Today, that app is becoming publicly available. The new Spotify app for the Xbox One is now launching in 34 markets worldwide, Spotify announced, allowing gamers to play songs, albums and playlists directly from their console, including while in a gaming session. The app, which… Read More
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TabBank lets you generate instant guitar tabs
In the days before electronic music, musicians used to have to play things called “guitars.” There are very few players left among us with the skills necessary to play this seemingly lost instrument but programmer Chris Ladd hopes to resurrect the so-called “git-fiddle” with modern technology. Ladd, a former programmer for the New York Times, created TabBank, a… Read More
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Alexa can now find and play music with over 500 ‘activity phrases’
Alexa’s ability to help you find the right music got a boost this week. The virtual assistant is now able to pull up music for a wide range of activities – like music to focus to, music to nap to, to run to, to meditate to, to cook to, and much more – just by asking. The feature works with Amazon’s free-with-Prime streaming service Prime Music as well as Amazon… Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Snap is in talks to buy Chinese selfie drone maker Zero Zero Robotics for $150M-$200M
It looks like Snap is enlisting outside help to advance its expansion into new hardware projects. The U.S. company is in talks with China-based drone maker Zero Zero Robotics over an acquisition, according to a source with knowledge of discussions. The deal, which was first reported by The Information, is in the range of $150 million-$200 million, the source told TechCrunch. That price… Read More
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Elon Musk says Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of the future of AI is ‘limited’
It’s fascinating to imagine the conversations that happen behind closed doors between the world’s richest and most powerful, so when they occur in the open — and over topics that impact the future of the world — it’s hard to do anything but grab the popcorn and watch intensely. Billionaire business icon Elon Musk — of Tesla, SpaceX and more fame —… Read More
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Google Play Music gets more personalized with New Release Radio, customized to your tastes
It’s no longer enough to simply offer on-demand music as part of the value proposition for music streaming services – you have to enable discovery of new tunes and make recommendations, too. While it’s fair to say that Spotify is leading the market in terms of its influential playlist selections, rivals are quickly following suit – including Apple Music and Google… Read More
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The ‘Beat Shazam’ TV show allows viewers to play along at home
Beat Shazam is one of those TV game shows that you don’t just watch — you can play along at home, using the Shazam app. In fact, the company recently added the ability to sync your gameplay to recorded footage of the show. Let’s back up a second, for people who haven’t watched: Beat Shazam is hosted by Jamie Foxx and premiered on May 25, on Fox. During each episode… Read More
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SoundCloud, the ‘YouTube for audio’, cuts 173 jobs, closes San Francisco, London offices
Some rough news today for SoundCloud, the audio streaming site whose content is largely based around uploads from its 175 million users in 190 countries. The company has announced that it is laying off 173 employees, and it is closing offices in San Francisco and London. The moves are being described as cost cutting measures “to ensure our path to long-term, independent success,”… Read More
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Apple Music’s first new personalized playlist wants you to Chill
This week Apple is beginning to roll out the first new personalized playlist under Apple Music’s “For You” section. The playlist, entitled “Chill,” is muxed based on editorial curation and algorithmic interpretation of your musical tastes. Read More
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Pandora CEO Tim Westergren is officially out amid company shakeup
Following rumblings of a shakeup over the weekend, Pandora confirmed today that co-founder Tim Westergren is stepping down from his role as CEO. Naveen Chopra, who stepped in as the company’s CFO back in February, will be filling in the top spot as interim CEO while the board of directors looks for a permanent replacement. Read More
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Sean Parker has left Spotify’s board; Padmasree Warrior, Thomas Staggs join in lead up to IPO
As Spotify inches its way to a public listing, the streaming music company — which now has 140 million users — has made some significant changes to its board of directors. Sean Parker, the early supporter and investor who once founded digital music service Napster and helped usher Facebook into the world, has left Spotify’s board of directors, along with Klaus Hommels… Read More
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Pandora raises $480M from SiriusXM, sells Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200M
Troubled streaming music service Pandora has finally found a white knight of sorts to boost it with a cash injection as it looks to improve its business: SiriusXM has just announced it will be investing $480 million in cash into publicly traded Pandora. Pandora also is selling Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200 million. Read More
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Pandora adds a continuous listening mode with AutoPlay, while considering a Sirius XM investment
Pandora today is rolling out a new feature to its Premium tier that will allow subscribers to continue to listen to music, uninterrupted, when their current track, album or playlist ends. Called, simply, “AutoPlay,” the feature works by shifting users to a personalized radio station based on whatever it is you were listening to before. Read More
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