iTunes is still the most popular way to buy music online

via digitaltrends.com

If you’re someone who actually purchases music online for download as opposed to opting for a streaming service, a new report suggests that you’re probably using Apple’s iTunes to do it. The study, released on Tuesday by the NPD Group, revealed that Apple’s music service continues to dominate the digital music download space for the final quarter of 2012.

The NPD study shows that iTunes had an impressive 63 percent marketshare for the final three months of last year, meaning that more than six in every ten music downloads were made through Apple’s storefront. That puts it significantly ahead of perpetual runner-up Amazon, which ranked second with 22 percent of the market.

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Twitter #Music Is Great For Artists; Less So For Fans

via readwrite.com

Twitter put months of speculation to rest this morning when it launched its own music-focused service for iOS and the Web. Twitter #Music is a standalone app for discovering, following and listening to artists that draws its intelligence from Twitter's own user activity data. At first glance, it's a win for artists, but the value it adds for fans remains to be seen.

First and foremost, Twitter #Music is undoubtedly good for Twitter. The app takes something that is hugely popular among consumers — music — and intimately ties it to its own service. It also integrates with Spotify and Rdio so tracks can be streamed in their entirety from within Twitter #Music. That feature, the company is betting, will keep listeners glued to the app, where much of what they do is tied to Twitter's core functionality: tweeting songs and following artists.

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Mixing Techniques for Dj’s – 5 Creative Tempo Changes

via djtechtools.com

Have you ever wanted to mix in a greater variety of tempos into a set but were to afraid to screw up the mix? That is the case for many DJs, new and experienced alike. Dropping songs of different styles and tempos can be scary territory but potentially rich with reward. Now with digital technology we have a wide variety of tools. many of which can help bridge the gap between songs of various tempos while keeping the blend smooth and natural. In today’s article I will cover 5 mix techniques that will help you do just that!

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How do you follow up 'Gangnam Style'? Psy's new single hits 32 million views in one day

via theverge.com

Can Psy pelvic thrust his way back to "Gangnam Style" success? That seems to be the strategy behind the South Korean singer's followup video, "Gentleman," which has gathered 32 million views on YouTube since Saturday. It once again features Psy dancing and wreaking havoc across South Korea, and thrives off of the singer's dance moves and goofy charisma. That blend of humor and catchy beats helped "Gangnam Style" become the first video to pass 1 billion views on YouTube, and played a major part in bringing K-Pop to the US.

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Twitter Tweets Hint At A Future In Music

via readwrite.com

Is Twitter moving on to bigger and better things? Maybe louder, more musical ventures? That's what it sounds like as the seven-year-old San Francisco micro blogging site confirmed Thursday that sometime last year it had acquired We Are Hunted, a music discovery service.

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Twitter acquires We Are Hunted, readies standalone music app

via news.cnet.com

Twitter acquired the music discovery service We Are Hunted last year and is using its technology to build a standalone music app, CNET has learned.

The app, to be called Twitter Music, could be released on iOS by the end of this month, according to a person familiar with the matter. Twitter Music suggests artists and songs to listen to based on a variety of signals, and is personalized based on which accounts a user follows on Twitter. Songs are streamed to the app via SoundCloud.

Twitter Music, which is set to arrive in the wake of key competitor Facebook overhauling the music section of its News Feed, shows Twitter taking new steps into becoming a full-fledged media company. The app acknowledges the key role music has played in drawing new users to the service -- particularly younger, mainstream users. Pop stars have some of Twitter's most popular accounts, with followings in the tens of millions. The TwitterMusic account has 2.3 million followers -- not a bad perch from which to launch an eponymous app...

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7 Essential Books For DJs and Producers

via djtechtools.com

Festival season is just around the corner, which means significantly more downtime for DJs and and music fans alike while en route to the show. When you’re waiting in bus stations, trains, airports, and cars to get to the next big event, having a book to read is great – and you could be expanding your DJing and production knowledge while staying entertained. We’ve put together a great list of seven essential reads for DJs and producers, read on!

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Best Music Apps for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone

via digitaltrends.com

If you lump them all together, there are probably no fewer than a zillion different music apps on Google Play, the App Store, and Windows Phone Store combined. Those aren’t exact figures, but based on Digital Trends’ own independent research, we estimate that the number is somewhere between a zillion and a jillion. So as a smartphone user, you have access to just about any type of music program imaginable, from internet radio apps to guitar tuners and everything in-between. But unfortunately your smartphone has a limited amount of space, so you’ve got to be choosy. You can’t download the entire zillion apps (yet), so we’ve dug up the best music apps available for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.

It should be noted, however, that the number of music apps available varies greatly from store to store. Apple’s App Store easily has the most, followed closely by Google Play – but the Windows Store is currently anemic when it comes to music apps. As such, you’ll find that the following list features proportionately more iOS and Android apps than those for Windows Phone. We’ll update the list as the Windows store grows, but for now it’s rather short on options.

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Marvel Project Gamma: Comic Books Just Got Their Own Soundtracks

via gizmodo.com

Marvel's new Project Gamma is the answer to a pretty simple question: What if comics had their own soundtracks?

Simply, Project Gamma adds music to comics. But not like a standard soundtrack (Marvel calls it "adaptive audio" and compares it to a score, actually). It adds musical elements and occasionally sound effects as you turn panel to panel or page to page, and it does it dynamically, instead of looping the audio. That means that if you flip to the next panel mid-bar, the software will wait to transition until the next bar. It sounds really smooth as you use it, even as you go backwards through panels and the audio is rolled back. There will be two mix types—for panel viewing and full-page—but we didn't get to hear the full page version.

The goal here is to add emotional resonance to comics—the way you tense up when ominous musical cues come up, or swell as the the-hero-is-winning-now notes hit—and to do it at your own pace, without disrupting your reading (which is why none of the music has lyrics). Audio shifts as you move scene to scene, from character to character. A heavier beat might drop as a big fight starts. Ron Perazza, who came onto Marvel for this project, says, "You might see audio cues that are associated with a specific villain foreshadow his appearance later in an issue."

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YouTube to launch music streaming service, take on Spotify

via tech.fortune.cnn.com

YouTube, the world's largest digital repository of streaming media, will launch a subscription music service later this year. The service has its own negotiating team and operating unit but will likely have some overlap with new features also rumored to be coming to Google's Android music platform, Google Play.

The two new services are defined by their respective places in the Google (GOOG) empire: Google Play for Android is a digital locker for music -- users buy, store, and sort a collection of tracks; but on YouTube's coming service, anyone can listen to tracks for free. Both services are said to be adding a subscription fee that will unlock additional features. For the YouTube-based service, this will likely mean ad-free access.

Fortune was briefed on the service by sources in the record industry and at Google who declined to be named. Through a spokesperson, YouTube issued the following statement: "While we don't comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we're looking at that."

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Google in talks with labels over streaming music service

via news.cnet.com

When your market cap is north of $263 billion and the company's stock price is hovering around the $800 level, the prevailing question du jour becomes "well, why not?"

So it is that we learn, courtesy of the Financial Times, that Google has been talking with the major music labels about a possible streaming music service. The Times report said that "it is expected that the streaming service will offer a subscription model as well as free unlimited access to songs, supported by advertising, mirroring models adopted by Spotify and Deezer."

What with everyone seemingly talking with the labels these days, this is hardly a surprise. And as the Times correctly notes, Google has operated a music download store in the U.S. which started in 2011. It has since expanded the service to five European countries.

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The Psychology of Music

via visual.ly

There’s more to why we like music than just a catchy beat or an easy karaoke tune.

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RIM Renames BlackBerry App World to BlackBerry World, Promises Music and Videos

via mashable.com

RIM has changed the name of its app store, BlackBerry App World, to BlackBerry World, promising new types of content, such as music and videos.

The change comes days before the planned launch of RIM's new mobile platform, BlackBerry 10.

The new name reflects the new kinds of content RIM will make available to the store, which will be available under "Videos" and "Music" sections, though at the time of this writing those types of content still aren't available for purchase. RIM claims the new store will be a "one-stop shop for all of your entertainment needs."

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The Best Podcasts and Livestreams For DJs

via djtechtools.com

In any artform, it’s critical to constantly be studying and observing the people at the top of their field, and DJing is no exception. Listening to well-assembled sets and watching DJs perform is one of the best practices that a DJ of any caliber can do to improve their craft. Today we’ve put together a list of the best podcasts and livestreams that every DJ should know about – read on to see our picks and suggest some of your own!

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Your Google Music Collection is About to Sound a Lot Better

via technologytell.com

Google Music users in the United States just received a new feature that will likely increase the sound quality of their library. Google has activated its scan and match system that will also make uploading songs a whole lot faster. Here’s how it works.

Every time you upload a song or album to Google Music, Google will automatically compare it against music that’s already available on its servers. If it finds a match, it will instantly add those songs to your Google Music library at quality up to 320 kbps. It doesn’t even matter if the original file was of lower quality. You’ll still get the best Google has to offer. If no match is found, the file(s) will upload as normal.

The higher quality songs will only be available in streaming form. If you decide to download the files, you’ll get the same version you originally tried to upload.

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Airport Pianist plays Viral Internet Songs

via youtube.com

At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, David Macdonald (aka “aSongScout”) shot footage of a pianist playing viral internet songs like “Never Gonna Give You Up,” the Nyan Cat theme (slow version), and more.

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Infographic: Can Google Play Beat iTunes and Amazon?

via socialtimes.com

Could social sharing through Google+ and the rise of the Android give Google Play an advantage over iTunes and Amazon?

This infographic breaks down the online music market with a side-by-side comparison of the leading app stores.

Even with 500 million members, Google’s social network is still a limited playing field for Google Play, when Amazon and iTunes both link to Facebook, which has more than one billion users.

However, Google customers can share entire tracks with their friends on Google+, while iTunes and Amazon users can only “like” a track or share a link on Facebook.

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Here Are The Most Popular Songs Of 2012, According To Spotify

via businessinsider.com

Spotify has released its list of the 100 most popular songs of 2012 throughout the entire world.

The number one most streamed song was Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." Unless you live under a rock, you've certainly heard the song.

As of November, Spotify was available in 21 countries around the world. In September, the music-streaming service reported having more than 20 million users. It's safe to say it has a pretty good pulse on what songs are popular.

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30+ Amazing Music Style Logos

via dezineguide.com

Logos are the main identity for any company. Designers work really well in communicating the main niche of the company through the artistic logo designs. The following post showcases some of the amazing examples of logo designs which are inspired by Music. Check out the entire list of 30+ Amazing Music Style Logos from below.

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HD Music Inspired Wallpapers for your Desktop

via tutoriallounge.com

Mostly people love music, and designers create music inspired designs for music lovers, music lovers can use hd music wallpapers on their gadgets, they can use hd wallpapers on their desktop screen, music inspired hd wallpapers will create rock feeling on your desktop.

So, that why, I would like to share with you a collection of HD Music Inspired Wallpapers for your Desktop, these collection related to music is very amazing or well-designed wallpapers. So, download these hd wallpapers and provide music touch to your computer screen.

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