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How Endel and Toro y Moi are shaping the future of music and digital wellness
Playlists to focus, sleep, and relax are booming on streaming platforms. Similarly, a host of smart home products aim to affect your wellbeing in similar ways. Endel has a vision to unify these in a way that's always unique to you. Companies like Apple and Warner Music, as well as Toro y Moi see it too.
Pandora revamps its mobile apps with more personalization and unique content
Pandora has a new mobile app experience for iOS and Android that puts a heavier emphasis on personalization, discovery, and the company's unique content and features. It leans heavily on its podcasts and SiriusXM shows while giving users new ways to tweak what they hear on the app's Stations.
Spotify now lets you mix tunes and talk with podcast playlists
Playlists have always been a big part of Spotify, and now they're set to become even bigger with the ability to create podcast-based playlists. It's a mobile-only feature for now, but users can create huge lists of podcast episodes for listening on-the-go, or they can add podcasts to existing playlists.
YouTube Music replaces Google Play Music as default app for tunes in Android 10
Google has announced that YouTube Music will now come pre-installed on Android 10, essentially replacing Google Play Music as the default music-streaming app on Android. The service will also now come pre-installed on new devices sold with Android 9.
Dolby Atmos Music will make its streaming debut on Amazon Music HD
Dolby Labs has been telling us that its Atmos Music is going to revolutionize music for years. But with precious few ways to experience it, it was hard to get excited. A new partnership with Amazon Music changes everything as Atmos Music will finally be able to be streamed.
Spotify’s new personalized playlists deliver your favorite tunes with one tap
In the streaming music wars, Spotify is still the king, and its music discovery playlists are a big reason why. Its latest playlists go in the other direction, mining users' play history on the service to dig up the most-listened-to tracks from both the last 30 days as well as the less recent past.
Amazon Music HD offers hi-res streaming for a lot less than Tidal
Amazon has added a high-quality tier to its music streaming service called Amazon Music HD. It will offer over 50 million tracks in lossless CD-quality, and many of these will also be available in hi-res format, which has better-than-CD-quality. Prime members get it for as little as $13 per month.
Spotify family plan members required to prove they live at the same address
Spotify now requires members of a family plan to prove that they live in the same address to limit the practice of friends availing themselves of the cheaper subscription price. The music streaming service said that it will request location data from time to time, raising privacy concerns.
Spotify’s improved family plan features now available to new subscribers
Spotify has added a feature that has long been on parents' wish lists: The ability to filter explicit content on the sub-accounts of Spotify family plans. For some, the lack of such a feature has been a reason to join services like Apple Music, which makes the new controls an important addition.
Apple Music rolls out New Music Daily to keep you updated with the latest songs
Apple Music rolled out New Music Daily, which looks to keep subscribers updated with the new songs released by popular artists around the world. The playlist, which replaces Best of the Week, will feature different lead artists in the artwork as its contents are updated every day.
How to upload music to Spotify
Ever wondered if you can add your private music collection to your Spotify account, so you can listen to it on-the-go? It's possible, using a feature called Local Files. It works differently than uploading music to other streaming services, but we've got a step-by-step how-to for those who want to make it happen.
Apple Music takes a peek at what people are Shazaming for new weekly playlist
Taking on Spotify isn't easy, but Apple Music is making great strides, especially in the U.S. Now the streaming giant is hitting Spotify where its users live: A new weekly chart/playlist has been added to Apple Music and it's powered by the company's Shazam music identification app. Will it attract even more users?
Spotify may be considering higher prices for its music plans
Spotify is the world's most popular music streaming service. But would that still be the case if it raised its prices? That's something the company is reportedly thinking of testing on its home turf of Scandinavia, where it enjoys a healthy lead over its streaming music competitors.
Apple’s not-hi-res hi-res music is now called something else because iTunes died
Apple has announced a new name for its old initiative to make songs sound better. The Mastered for iTunes initiative, which has long been acclaimed for providing lossless-sounding audio in a compressed AAC format, is now called Apple Digital Masters, and it's something Apple Music subscribers should enjoy.
AT&T subscribers can now get Spotify Premium for free — here’s how
So you want free Spotify Premium, huh? Well, you're in luck — if you're an AT&T customer, that is. That's because it's offering a free Premium subscription to all its customers on select plans, as well as a six-month trial to those who aren't. Here's everything you need to know to redeem this hot deal.
Amazon Music Unlimited is fastest growing music streaming service, report says
Amazon Music Unlimited is the fastest growing music streaming service, ahead of both Spotify and Apple Music, according to a new report by Midia Research published in the Financial Times. Amazon Music Unlimited has been booming recently, with a massive 70% growth in the last year.
Amazon’s biggest sale just got even bigger with a Taylor Swift Prime Day concert
Amazon will celebrate this year's 48-hour long Prime Day sale with a concert headlined by pop music icon Taylor Swift. The Amazon Prime Day Concert will stream live on Amazon Prime Video on July 10 beginning at 6 p.m. PT, and will also feature Dua Lipa, SZA and Becky G.
How to cancel Pandora Premium
Figuring out how to cancel Pandora Premium can be confusing, because how you cancel it all depends on how you signed up in the first place. Just a few possible ways include iTunes, Google Play, Roku and the Amazon Appstore. Once you remember where you got it, canceling your account is easy.
With U.S. launch of Stations app, Spotify aims to beat Apple to Pandora’s crown
Spotify might be the dominant music streaming service globally, but in the U.S., it still faces an uphill battle. To add another weapon to its American arsenal, it has launched its stand-alone Stations app. With a stripped-down interface and quick access to music, it's a way for Spotify to highlight one of its best features.
Digital Trends Live: Spotify launches stations in U.S., Amazon’s train kiosks
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, we discuss the trending tech stories of the day, including Spotify’s plan to launch the Stations app in the U.S., Amazon sets up kiosks in U.K. train stations, IKEA’s custom gaming accessibility products, balloon satellites, and an Xbox body wash.
Spotify’s latest experiment is designed to boost podcast discovery
Podcasting has become a rich medium, with hundreds of shows to choose from in dozens of languages. This means that finding new shows to listen to can be a challenge. Spotify is looking into how it can fix that, and a new set of human-curated podcast playlists might be the answer.
Apple Music and App Store return to normal after early morning outages
Apple Music, the iOS App Store, and the Mac Store, all experienced some pretty major outages early in the morning, only one day after Apple began seeding new operating systems to developers. The outages have since been resolved, and it's currently unclear if they had anything to do with the new software.
Spotify’s secret Social Listening feature could create global listening parties
In what appears to be a secret feature available only to internal employees, Spotify is experimenting with Social Listening, letting friends invite one another to collaborate on music queues in real time both in person or from anywhere in the world. Could this lead to synchronized music parties on a global scale?
Your Apple iTunes listening data is only worth about 8 cents, lawsuit claims
Interested in finding out vast amounts of information about what people have been listening to? Worried that someone might discover your deep love of an embarrassing band? A recent lawsuit alleges that Apple sold iTunes listener data to third parties, who in turn sell it for only eight cents.
Why you can’t buy Car Thing, Spotify’s first hardware device
After several months of rumors, it's true: Spotify has created a voice-activated, in-car device that lets you listen to music and podcasts. Unfortunately, the Car Thing, as it is known, is not for sale. Instead, the company plans to give it to a limited set of users and use the resulting data to improve its services.
Spotify hits repeat on its Premium special offer: $1 a month for 3 months
Back by popular demand it seems, or perhaps to bolster demand, Spotify is relaunching its $1 for three months of its Premium tier of service for anyone who has not previously signed up for a subscription. The offer begins on May 15 and ends on June 30.
Spotify is quietly turning itself into a storytelling platform for artists
To provide more ways for artists and creators to engage with audiences, Spotify is testing out its own version of the popular Stories format, with a new feature called Storyline. It has also launched a new online tool that vastly simplifies the creation of podcasts. Here's what you need to know.
Google has 15 million subscribers for its music-streaming services
Google is chasing its competitors in the world of music streaming services, according to subscriber numbers. It is the fourth largest paid music streaming service. Google's two paid music services, YouTube Music and Google Play Music, have reportedly passed a total of 15 million subscribers.
Looking for podcasts? Google lets you find and play them in its web search
Not content to simply have its own dedicated podcasts app, Google is now letting people find podcasts from within its web search, and play the most recent episodes inside a dedicated web-player. The move comes after the BBC recently decided to pull all of its podcasts from Google's platforms.
Digital Trends Live: Spotify vs. Apple, kamikaze drones, and more
On today’s Digital Trends Live, we discuss Spotify’s accusation that Apple monopolizes streaming music, Uber and Lyft drivers' strike, bounty hunters buying wireless location data, Volkswagen’s EV record attempt, QR codes during TV shows, kamikaze drones, a robotic farm sells produce, and more.
Spotify tests voice-enabled ads for those who prefer talking to tapping
What do you do when you hear an ad on the radio, or perhaps Spotify? Odds are, not much at all. But that may soon change: Spotify is now testing audio ads that you can respond to with your voice. The first ads only take you to other Spotify content, but it's clear: We'll soon be able to holler back at our ads.
Digital Trends Live: Spotify hits 100 million subscriptions, simulated asteroid
On the latest episode of DT Live, we talk about the latest tech news, including Spotify's subscription record, NASA's deadly asteroid prep, Amazon's tracking (and firing) of workers based on A.I. results, a flying car skyport, Samsung's wraparound screen patent, and more!
Spotify is first music service to hit 100 million paying subscribers
Though it's still in second place in the U.S., globally Spotify is on a tear. The company revealed in its Q1 2019 report that it had hit 100 million paying subscribers worldwide, making it the first streaming music company to achieve the milestone. It has also stayed profitable, though challenges remain.
Plex amps up its music offerings with tighter integration with Tidal
Plex may not be the first platform you think of for music streaming, but that may be about to change. The popular media server has added more Tidal integrations to its growing list of features, letting Plex users integrate their personal music collection with Tidal's for a unified experience.