Tag: "Spotify"

No one doubted that the return of Daft Punk would be huge, but I’m not sure anyone could have predicted it would be quite like this.

Daft Punk’s new single “Get Lucky” has quickly become the song to know in countries around the world. In addition to currently sitting at number in 46 countries, the track broke the Spotify streaming records for the US and UK within 24 hours of release. The previous record holders for the US and UK respectively were “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and “Pompei” by Bastille. Continue reading ‘Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” Breaks Spotify Streaming Records’

Didn’t listen to the radio over the past year? You’re not alone. Terrestrial radio listenership has been declining steadily. Listeners turn more to Internet radio, which is usually tailored to the listener’s specific tastes. Thus they don’t get the kind of broad-spectrum popular music survey represented at the Grammy Awards.

If you are among those who need (and, importantly, want) a crash course on what’s popular in music right now, Spotify has made a playlist of winners from last night’s ceremony. Check it out here.

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Amazon has announced a new service that grants users free MP3 downloads with any eligible CD that they purchase from the website. Once consumers have purchased an album that is eligible for the new AutoRip service, Amazon grants them access to an automatic digital version in Amazon’s Cloud Player that is playable from mobile devices. AutoRip will also allow users to access MP3 versions of albums bought off of Amazon since 1998 if they contain AutoRip-eligible songs. At this moment, about 50,000 songs are eligible for the AutoRip service, with more expected to be added. While AutoRip is currently only available in the United States, Amazon does plan to expand the service internationally throughout 2013.

In the past few years, most new vinyl releases have come with digital download cards as well, but the same service has been slow to take hold with CDs, as their already digital-friendly format seems to preclude the need for a corresponding digital download. With AutoRip, though, Amazon circumvents the entire ripping and syncing process, and allows users instant access from all devices. Sweet.

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Almost four years after the release of their breakout fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, French indie rockers Phoenix will finally put out a new record. Daniel Glass, of Phoenix’s Glassnote label, announced the news at a recent Spotify event where he casually mentioned that the band had finished tracking at a studio in Paris.  While more details about the highly anticipated upcoming album are unavailable, fans can check out the journal section of the band’s website to try to decipher further information regarding the release. While it seems like a difficult task for the band to surpass the runaway success of tracks like “1901″ and “Lisztomania,” which dominated both the blogosphere and the mainstream charts, Glass is confident.  After acknowledging that ”It’s very hard to beat Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” Glass added, “but this could be revolutionary.”

Check our OurStage act China Aster if you’re a fan of Phoenix.

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Last week we told you about Alexisonfire‘s newest and final EP Death Letter. Well, the album was released today, and now you can stream all 6 songs on Spotify. Be prepared though, they are all acoustic, piano, and noise-rock versions of some of your favorite AOF songs, and they are not what you might expect. Each performance is a slow and dismal trudge in a sea of dark reverb, truly signifying the end of a once great band. There is no doubt that Death Letter truly lives up to it’s name as a distant swan song for the Canadian post-hardcore outfit. R.I.P. AOF.

If you like Alexisonfire, check out OurStage’s own Actor|Observer.

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While artists have individually expressed quiet distate for the paltry royalties paid out by music streaming services such as Pandora or Spotify, a unified statement from a large group of allied musicians has been noticeably absent. At least until this past Wednesday, when over 100 notable artists signed off on a letter publicly criticizing the Internet Radio Fairness Act. The letter, publicized by the MusicFirst Coalition, a group comprised of musicians’ unions, artists, and record labels, demands that Congress refuse to “gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon” by passing the bipartisan bill, which would dramatically cut the royalty rates that streaming new media services such as Pandora are required to pay.

Continue reading ‘Musicians Rally Against Internet Radio Fairness Act’

• Jack White raps. Kind of.
• This is unapologetic.
• Of course The National is pissed about this.
• Screw you, Sandy!
• Apple wants a piece, too.
• Ne-Yo + Goo Goo Dolls + Herbie Hancock.

• Obama’s really going to miss Scott Stapp’s nomination…
• Mumford & Sons soar into the Spotify stratosphere.
• Taylor Swift really is surprised!
• Billy Corgan now smashes trees.
• Come on, really?
• Andrew WK and the Bronies.

At the beginning of August, Justin Vernon, singer/songwriter for the group Bon Iver, announced a remix contest for the band’s most recent self titled album. The stems from the record were released to the public so that fans and musicians could take a crack at making their own versions for a chance to be on the final exclusive Spotify release entitled Bon Iver, Bon Iver: Stems Project. After only a few months, the winners of this competition have finally been determined. You can now listen to all of their remixes on Spotify by clicking here.

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In an aim to increase its Buy ‘N’ Large-like dominance of the online music marketplace, Apple Inc. is reportedly developing a streaming customized online radio service similar to Pandora. Like Pandora, Apple’s custom radio will stream music suggestions generated by a specific artist or song of the user’s choosing. While Apple isn’t the first company to chip away at Pandora’s preeminent status – both Spotify and iHeartRadio sport similar services – its plan to deliver a seamless experience across all of its devices, and its custom radio, through a similar user interface indicates that the service may become a serious contender in the marketplace.

For online streaming music services, however, profit has always been the problem. Despite Pandora’s success among online music listeners, the company has yet to post a profit as a result of the escalating government-defined royalty fees that it must negotiate. Apple plans to circumvent this issue by dealing directly with record companies as well as punctuating user streaming intermittently with advertisements channeled through its iAd service. If Apple’s streaming custom radio service comes to fruition, it is not likely to be the death knell for Pandora, but it will certainly result in more options and a greater freedom of choice for the hundreds of thousands of online radio listeners who flock to such services every day.

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