Audio Archives - Page 38 of 51

Pandora Lands on AT&T Handsets

Forgive me if I’m a little behind, but I’m not used to receiving two Pandora announcements in one week. In addition to beefing up their online web services, Pandora has announced a partnership with AT&T to stream personalized music selections to handsets. AT&T customers will need a supported phone, a data and to pony up $8.99/month… which makes Sprint’s $2.99/mo Pandora offering look like a bargain. It’s great to see online services expand beyond the browser, but is AT&T setting themselves up for failure?

Pandora Adds Interactivity and Community Features

Last night I heard from (free) online music provider Pandora founder Tim Westergren that his service is beginning to roll out supplemental features. “Pandora Extras” intend to compliment music with additional content, interactivity, and community features. A summary of the initial batch of Extras launched today:

Real time song and artist info with recommendations for similar content and listeners
Pandora buddy lists
100 finely tuned genre stations
“Pandora Presents” series of original audio and video programming

When I get home from NYC and have some time, I’ll give them a spin… The editorial content and pre-programmed stations look appealing, though I have no need for more online social networking. (In fact, I’d appreciate it if LinkedIn and Facebook would merge.)

The OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Giveaway

Hot on the heels of Kevin’s review, we’re giving away the OTTO Wireless MP3 Headset. It’s a basic 512MB player built into stereo headphones. Notable: OTTO does support secure WMA, so your Yahoo Music or Napster tunes should be good to go – in addition to unprotected MP3 and WMA files. You know the drill … Read more

iTunes Radio?

If you’ve been paying attention, you know I like the idea of subscription-based content services – specifically, movie rentals and all-you-can-eat music. And here we were with another rumor that Apple could be moving in this direction. According to updated AT&T iPhone data plan documentation: Consider that just 20 minutes of iTunes radio takes 20MB … Read more

OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Reviewed

Guest blogger Kevin Groppe is a digital media enthusiast, located in the DC metro area, who covers media centers and home theater computers at Floppyhead.com.

Two things I hate about exercising with my current MP3 player are how the cable from the player to earbuds constantly bounces around and how covered in sweat my MP3 player gets when I hold it. With this in mind, OTTO has developed a Wireless MP3 Player Headset.

The unique concept behind the OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Headset is that it combines an mp3 player and headphones into one compact device, eliminating the wire from earpiece to MP3 player. For most people, carrying around your entire music collection in your MP3 player is overkill. 10,000 songs in the palm of your hand is great for long vacations or business trips, but not necessary for your commute or trip to the gym. OTTO embraces this fact and has developed an MP3 player that has a useful form factor with the following specs:

Seen Around Town

I’m not much of a photographer, but that doesn’t stop me from always taking my camera with me. Here are some recent gadget shots:

The music branding and advertising at Starbucks has gone completely over the top. Above is a pic of the digital release displayed in front of the cashier. I also picked up a business-card-size promotional sheet offering a free “song of the day” by entering the download code online. Makes me wonder where Starbucks will go next. (Co-op work spaces? Theme parks?) They’re clearly more than a coffee shop these days. And what about the music distribution business? Do music studios have to sell an experience rather than just a song?

Next check out what I found at Costco and a yard sale…

Album on a Bracelet

Radiohead made the biggest splash in the music industry recently by giving away its new album online for free… or whatever you choose to pay for it. But the band certainly isn’t alone in trying to innovate and improve on an economic distribution model that is rapidly decaying. Much like in the movie biz, music artists are playing with ways to bundle digital files with tangible items. In the latest example, Matchbox Twenty has put its new album, Exile on Mainstream, on a USB bracelet, complete with 17 songs, a music video, band interviews, album art and customizable computer extras. The idea here is not just to elevate kitsch, but to add value and a legitimate revenue stream in the eternal war against digital piracy.

SanDisk Introduces Sneakernet Extender and Download Service

SanDisk has unveiled TakeTV — a new line of USB accessories (4GB @ $99, 8GB @ $149) which, when docked, allow standard definition DivX, Xvid, and MPEG4 television playback. I don’t imagine the sneakernet media extender market is very large. In fact, Iomega tried something similar (using a hard drive, as opposed to flash) last … Read more