Posts tagged ‘streaming’
Music Industry Wants $17 Billion From Streaming Site Grooveshark
Nov 23rd
The music streaming site Grooveshark is no stranger to the ire of the music industry. The service’s approach to hosting and streaming songs has resulted in a barrage of criticism from industry players, as well as a handful of lawsuits.
The latest lawsuit is actually the second one to be filed by Universal Music Group, the biggest of the major record companies. This time, UMG is suing over a claim that Grooveshark employees were required to bulk-upload music files to the service, and even got a monetary bonus for beating their upload quota. The lawsuit demands $150,000 per alleged infringement, which works out to about $17 billion, as Digital Music News points out.
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The accusation came from an anonymous blog comment left by somebody purporting to be a Grooveshark employee. “We are assigned a predetermined number of weekly uploads to the system and get a small extra bonus if we manage to go above that (not easy),” they wrote. “The assignments are assumed as direct orders from the top to the bottom.”
Pretty scandalous stuff, but it is an anonymous comment on a blog. It could have been made by anybody, including a disgruntled intern or somebody working for a competing service. Or it could be accurate, in which case Grooveshark’s legal defense had better be rock solid.
This is only the latest in a series of legal challenges faced by Grooveshark. What makes the site so controversial is the way it handles the licensing, hosting and distribution of music. Rather than taking the legally bulletproof route of companies like Apple, Google or Spotify, Grooveshark relies heavily on user-submitted audio files, which are then available to other users on the service. As a result, the content library on Grooveshark isn’t limited to commercially-released albums. Music fans can use the site to find bootlegs of concerts and other rare material.
As a consequence of the ongoing litigation, Grooveshark’s mobile presence has been hampered. Earlier this year, its app was pulled from the Android Market, although can still be accesed from the browser on Android-based phones.
Despite an HTML5 redesign, the site’s player still utilizes Flash, and thus won’t work on iOS. That normally wouldn’t be a big deal, except that Apple has pulled and banned the service’s iOS app from the App Store over the legal controversy. Users with jailbroken iPhones can still get Grooveshark from Cydia.
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How Music Cloud Lockers & Streaming Services Are Merging
Nov 15th
Yesterday we looked at the three leading “cloud locker” services for music: iTunes Match, Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music. As a preface to that post, I mentioned that there are two main battles going on in the online music market. One is between the three cloud lockers, which are competing to be the online archive for your digital music collection. The second battle is between music streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and MOG.
But while we currently think of cloud lockers as being different from streaming services, the two types will merge over time. This has begun to happen already.
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iTunes Match, for example, essentially streams music to your device when a song isn’t available locally. I say “streams,” but in fact what iTunes Match does is download the song to the device. But because it happens within a few seconds, the user experience is very similar to streaming.
On the other side of the coin, Spotify can be viewed as a type of cloud locker. It is first and foremost a music streaming service, but its premium offerings also allow you to import all of the digital music you own to its services. While Spotify must have a copy of a song on its own servers in order to play it from the cloud, you can sync local files to your various devices using the Spotify app.
Spotify Not That Different From iTunes Match
The interesting aspect of using Spotify as your cloud locker is that it enables you to route around iTunes. Unlike Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music, you don’t need to upload all of your music files to the cloud. Spotify has a catalogue north of 15 million songs, so it’s likely that a large proportion of the songs you own can be ‘matched’ by the equivalent file on Spotify’s servers. So you won’t need to upload them – similar to how iTunes Match works as a cloud locker.
In theory this can all sound a bit complicated. So let’s look at how one of ReadWriteWeb’s writers, John Paul Titlow, uses Spotify as both a streaming service and cloud locker. On my Facebook wall, John explained:
“Since signing up for Spotify (premium), I’ve more or less phased out iTunes. For me, the killer feature is the ability to merge their library with mine. In theory, iTunes can now compete with that thanks to iTunes Match, but I’d rather pay one fee for all-you-can-stream than buy tracks individually. Just so I’m not trapped in Spotify’s “cloud” (and thus without my music when I’m not online), I sync everything locally, even the stuff on Spotify’s servers.”
So Spotify allows John to not only access 15 million songs that he doesn’t necessarily own, but to send any songs he chooses onto his various devices for offline listening. He can also move songs between his devices, even if Spotify doesn’t have them on its servers. For example a song which lives on his desktop computer can be synced to his mobile phone via the Spotify app. All of this functionality is basically what iTunes Match offers, Spotify just comes at it from a different angle.
Which Set-Up is Best For You?
Both cloud lockers and streaming services enable you to sync songs across multiple devices: your PC, smartphone, tablet, iPod, TV and more. All of the services we’ve been discussing do that.
The key difference between Spotify and iTunes Match – and more generally between streaming services and cloud lockers – is in ownership of the songs. With iTunes Match, you own the songs – even if you obtained them without paying, such as by ripping a friend’s CD. With Spotify, you will end up owning less, in exchange for an all-you-can-eat monthly subscription (Spotify’s multi-device and offline features aren’t available in its free, ad-supported version).
So which method you use to sync songs between devices depends on how comfortable you are with not owning the music files. If you aren’t comfortable not owning the files, go with a cloud locker like iTunes Match or Amazon Cloud Drive. If it’s more important for you to access millions of songs, whether or not you own them, the likes of Spotify and Rdio may be your answer.
Of course you can use both; and for most people it will be more a question of degrees of use, rather than choosing one over the other. As an Apple user I’m likely to use iTunes Match to sync my digital music, but I’ll continue to listen to music I don’t own through Spotify and MOG. Let us know your personal solution in the comments.
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GeoIQ Releases Real-Time Streaming Social & Device Data & Mapping API Platform
Nov 3rd
Location data provider GeoIQ today detailed a new offering called GeoIQ Social. This is a real-time streaming API that delivers location-enabled data from Twitter, Pachube-enabled sensor hardware and other platforms into a map-friendly output format that can be updated as the data changes. Boom!
Sentiment analysis, user ranking, data from sensors and potentially much more can all be taken into account in requesting data from the API. Connectors have been built for “all sorts of databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, HBase, and MongoDB as well as an even newer types of databases and APIs like Google Fusion Tables.” Awesome.
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The company concludes its discussion of the new API by saying it intends to extend far beyond where it is today in dynamic data and dynamic mapping. “Without giving it all away,” writes Chris Helm, Head of Analytics at GeoIQ, “we’re thinking along the lines of realtime analytics, dynamic event alerting and more tools for easy collaboration.”
That sounds fabulous to me. When physical place and the real-time social web come together in the form of streaming data APIs, the possibilities for augmenting time, place, civil society and the meaning of the web are substantial.
Discuss
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Watch The LSU-Alabama Game Online & Help CBS Break A Live Streaming Record – ReelSEO Online Video News
Nov 2nd
 ReelSEO Online Video News |
Watch The LSU-Alabama Game Online & Help CBS Break A Live Streaming Record
ReelSEO Online Video News The following is an index of our more popular video search engine optimization (Video SEO, VSEO,… Many of us here at ReelSEO are still settling back into our routines following the awesome SMX West… After many hours of clean up, I am pleased to … |
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What Hollywood’s Experiments With Online Streaming Movies Means For The Future – ReelSEO Online Video News
Oct 10th
 ReelSEO Online Video News |
What Hollywood's Experiments With Online Streaming Movies Means For The Future
ReelSEO Online Video News He is also founder of The Viral Orchard (http://www.viralorchard.com), an Internet marketing firm offering content writing and development services, viral marketing consulting, and SEO services. Jeremy writes constantly, loves online video, … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
The Walking Dead Is On Netflix With Multi-Year Exclusive Streaming Agreement – ReelSEO Online Video News
Oct 7th
 ReelSEO Online Video News |
The Walking Dead Is On Netflix With Multi-Year Exclusive Streaming Agreement
ReelSEO Online Video News He is also founder of The Viral Orchard (http://www.viralorchard.com), an Internet marketing firm offering content writing and development services, viral marketing consulting, and SEO services. Jeremy writes constantly, loves online video, … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Rdio Drops Music Streaming Fee, Following MOG and Spotify
Oct 6th
It hasn’t even been three months since Spotify launched in the United States, but the freemium music streaming service is certainly having an impact on its competition. Rdio, one of those competitors, announced today that it’s taking down the paywall around its Web-based streaming service.
The move comes three weeks after MOG, another popular music service, did the same. Both Rdio and MOG still charge for unlimited access and for the ability to stream music from one’s smartphone or tablet. Listening to music in the browser, however, is free.
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Rdio’s Web listening experience doesn’t include advertisements, but there are some limitations to the new free account tier. Listeners can only a stream a limited amount of music each month. A meter located at the top of free users’ profiles will show much free music is left.
Spotify, which has been hugely popular in Europe for a few years, made a big splash when it launched in the United States in July. At that time, Rdio and MOG were both pay services, starting at $5 per month. Spotify, on the other hand, launched with a free, albeit somewhat limited, version of its service, forcing existing competitors to rethink their pricing plans.
The move also comes just two weeks before the release of Apple’s iCloud content sycning feature and iTunes Match, a “cloud locker” for music similar to initiatives launched by Amazon and Google. Although Apple’s new initiatives are somewhat different from the all-you-can-stream subscription services like Rdio and Spotify, the prospect of a tech giant launching a music service is something worth keeping an eye on for smaller startups, especially when that tech giant has already had a substantial impact on the music industry.
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Facebook and Music Streaming Sites: Too Close For Comfort?
Sep 27th
For several weeks prior to last week’s f8 conference, word got around that Facebook would be unveiling some kind of music initiative. Would the social networking behemoth launch its own streaming service? A cloud music locker like Google, Apple and Amazon? As details emerged it became clear that their ambitions were more modest, but still very significant: Facebook would be partnering with a handful of existing music services to more closely integrate them with the social mega-site.
That’s exactly what went live last week shortly after Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and others took the stage at f8. Services like Spotify, Rdio and Mog are now more tightly integrated into Facebook’s platform, with real-time music listening data showing up everywhere from your News Feed to the site’s new Music dashboard.
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While many are excited about the implications of this new level of social integration, some have been less enthusiastic.
Too Much Information?
First, there was the revelation that Facebook would post an update about every track you listen to via services like MOG and Spotify to the site’s real-time news feed. While this is easy to opt out of if you don’t want people to know about your Spice Girls nostalgia, it can flood your friends with more information than they really want if the feature is enabled.
Some people listen to a ton of music throughout the day. Much of that may be albums they’re listening to as background music. Some of it may be new tracks they’re previewing. Some of it may be random songs that pop up in shuffle mode. The complaint that many have is this: Just because we listen to something doesn’t mean we automatically want tell the world about it, or that the world necessarily cares.
A more measured approach might be to post an update to your profile once per day with a round-up of your most-listened to tracks and artists. This data could continue to serve a useful purpose in the new Timeline profile and on the Music dashboard, but could be aggregated without spamming your entire network that you’re checking out the 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”
Log-in-Gate: Why Do You Need a Facebook Account to Sign Up?
Yesterday, Spotify got its first real dose of bad P.R. since launching in the United States after word spread that the service now requires a Facebook account to sign up and stream music. People began tearing the company apart on its Get Satisfaction user forum, as the Next Web reported.
Spotify isn’t the only Facebook partner now requiring users to sign up using their social credentials. MOG is apparently doing the same thing.
These services could have rolled out a Facebook sign-in option like countless other sites, but instead they removed the option to sign up without Facebook entirely. This has naturally riled up many users, who don’t necessarily want to tie their Facebook account to their Spotify or MOG account. Some of them may not have a Facebook account at all.
For all the controversy its managed to stir up in the last 24 hours, Spotify’s Facebook partnership seems to be working. They’ve already seen their Facebook-integrated users increase by 1 million. Competing streaming service Rdio, who is not requiring Facebook registration, also saw an increase in usage on the social network.
What do you think about the way Facebook has integrated with these music streaming services? Is this the way of the future or a way to frustrate users? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Amazon Announces FOX Streaming Deal Before Tablet Launch
Sep 26th
Amazon.com added FOX movie and TV titles through its Prime Membership platform today in a deal that will roughly double the number of available titles to 11,000 by this Fall.
The announcement comes two days before Amazon is expected to launch one of two Kindle tablets to compete with the iPad.
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Currently, the iPad has a lock on the tablet marketplace and by doing so enjoys its corner of the streaming content market with apps like Netflix, Crackle, and Hulu+. When – if – Amazon launches a tablet on September 28, that place is expected to be challenged. Amazon will have a whole new channel open for Prime subscribers, who pay $79 per year for streaming content.
A new tablet also opens up channels for the 100,000 non-Prime titles Amazon already has in its queues.
We expect that the device will provide network channels to all sorts of content beyond movies and TV, and that it will run an Android system skinned to the Kindle theme. It should dramatically lower the entry cost for users of a tablet to around $250.
FOX titles available to Prime members will include contemporary movies such as, “Speed,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Doctor Dolittle,” “Last of the Mohicans,” as well as classics like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” FOX will also stream TV series including “24,” “The X-Files,” “NYPD Blue,” “Arrested Development,” and “The Wonder Years.”
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