Posts Tagged ‘mp3’

If you’ve been streaming music from Amazon’s Cloud Drive to your Android phone or tablet, you may have been watching your bytes because the plan you are on (most likely 5GB for a free account or 20GB for $20 per year or if you bought an Amazon MP3 album). MP3 music purchased from Amazon is not counted against the storage limit. But, songs you upload from your own drive is… until now. Amazon is changing their rules for a “limited time.” Paid storage accounts now provide unlimited space for uploaded music too. This includes accounts that were previously upgraded through either the purchase of an MP3 album or outright storage purchase.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/

This means that you can upload as much MP3 or AAC music files as you want from your desktop or notebook computer and stream the music to your Android phone or tablet. And, oh yes, read the next blog item to learn how Apple’s iPad benefits from this too now.

In an article today for GottaBeMobile, Chuong Nguyen suggests that “iOS 5 Ushers in the End of the iPod Era.” While the title and content of the article focuses on the Apple iPod, I think the question can be more generally asked, does iCloud mark the beginning of the end of dedicated music players?
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In the U.S. we often discuss web products that are only available in this country. Spotify, however, is one worth discussing even though it is not available in the U.S. Spotify is a streaming music service that has more than 13 million songs available for listening. Their free service limits the number of times you can listen to a specific song and is supported by advertisements. There is also a paid service that remove advertisements and provides unlimited streaming. Spotify’s Premium service now lets you buy songs in a playlist for play on a non-network device like an iPod. This service can also be used with smartphones.

Spotify says hello to the iPod

The BBC News says that this new service will challenge iTunes.

Spotify aims to take market share from iTunes

However, since the service is only available in a small number of countries in Europe, this challenge will be a small one. Spotify is available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

Video courtesy of spotify

I’ve always wondered if a marketplace for “used” music digital files would fly. There are some sites out there like GrooveShark which do support a marketplace for such activity, but it isn’t necessarily the primary premise of their service. Bethesda, Maryland based Bopaboo, however, has created a service that’s dedicated to the buying and selling of “used” mp3s.

This sounds silly to some, especially when you think about the word “used.” The files aren’t really “used,” and you’re not really transferring authorization to play an mp3 to another person since you get to keep your copy of the file. But with the $5.00 credit bopaboo gave me to try out the site, I was able to get the entire 808s & Heartbreaks album, along with about 10 other songs.
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Many music recommendation engines have sprouted in the wake of Pandora’s success. None, however, have been as accurate and fool proof. Part of the reason is that Pandora relies of HUMANS to help the process along.

TechCrunch is high on Mufin, a new service that opens to the public today. Developed by the folks who invented and patented the ever-present MP3 file, the site aims to help you find music you like via “digital fingerprinting technology.” That means the system actually “listens” to music , analyzing dozens of song characteristics, including tempo and sound density. Read more