Category Archives: Mobile Music
Shazam behind 1 in 14 of all music downloads
Meanwhile iTunes reaches 50 billion app downloads
Figures just released by Apple show that its App Store has now reached its 50 billionth app download. That figure represents unique downloads excluding re-downloads and updates. The winner of a $10,000 App Store gift card Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, USA. He downloaded Say the Same Thing by Space Inch from here. But ITunes is about more than apps – it’s music too. As Shazam points out, it was behind the 25 billionth Apple music download back in February 2013. Continue reading
Apple’s App Store marks historic 50 billionth download
Press release
May 16th 2013. Apple has announced that customers have downloaded over 50 billion apps1 from the revolutionary App Store. Customers are downloading more than 800 apps per second at a rate of over two billion apps per month on the App Store. The 50 billionth app was Say the Same Thing by Space Inch which was downloaded by Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio USA who received a $10,000 App Store gift card to commemorate this historic milestone. Continue reading
Listen to music, TV, video in the smallest room
Someone has taken mobile in loo usage research seriously
Over the years we’ve run numerous stories reporting the heavy use of mobile phones in the loo [bathroom/toilet]. When BT carried out trials of mobile TV, it tried to bury the fact that watching in the loo was a popular pastime. Here’s a couple of good examples of loo usage … ‘Another survey finds Brits answer phone in the loo‘ plus ‘11% of iOS fans search for apps on loo‘. Now it seems that a company called Atech Flash has treated all these stats seriously and produced a set of Bluetooth speakers specifically designed to work in the loo. The product is known as the iCarta 2 and –get this – it incorporates a toilet tissue holder so that it can be easily installed in your bathroom/toilet. Continue reading
Guest Post: Apple’s iTunes turns 10 years old
by John Oswald, business design lead, with Fjord
Apple reached a milestone on Sunday [April 28th 2013] with its iTunes online service turning ten years old. Today it is so easy to forget how ‘revolutionary’ this fore-runner of the modern app store actually was. iTunes legitimised digital music in an era where MP3s were synonymous with piracy. Continue reading
USA poised to overtake South Korea in mobile streamed music
Rating: Juniper Research says impending iRadio launch will drive growth
The most significant growth in mobile music streaming has come in the USA, which is poised to overtake South Korea this year as the leading market for mobile streamed music services. That’s according to a recent report from Juniper Research, ‘ Mobile Music: Market Prospects 2013-2017‘. That trend is likely to accelerate as Apple is poised to launch its iRadio services. OTT [Over-The-Top] players like Apple are also set to challenge existing service leaders – such as Pandora and Spotify, for supremacy in the streamed music space. Continue reading
UK goes mad over Ding Dong! Witch is Dead
Rating: Don’t bother trying to download dedicated ringtone
In good old Blighty we always try to things in style. And the death of a ‘wartime’ Prime Minister is no exception. There are plenty of Brits who don’t agree that Margaret Thatcher was a good thing for the country. So they are voting against her. By purchasing the track – Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, sung by Judy Garland as a protest. The consequence is that this track will become Number One in the Official UK singles chart on Sunday [April 14th 2013]. But if you want the Witch is Dead as your ringtone, it isn’t going to be that easy. Continue reading
WorldPay extends it PAYG card payment acceptance to iOS users
Rating: Music festival traders ideal customers for wirelessly accepting payments
WorldPay has just announced extra capabilities for its Pay As You Go card acceptance service for UK small businesses. It has now been extended to include iOS compatible devices and an updated Android app means that customers have the option of printing receipts using a Bluetooth printer. WorldPay is also expanding its pilot programme, which already boasts several thousand users across the UK. The company expects to have a full roll-out of this service by Summer 2013 – just in time for the music festival season, we suspect. Continue reading
Industry reaction to demise of UK music retail chain – HMV
Rating: Is this a classic case of no ‘click & collect’ offering?
Over here in Blighty [UK] we’ve all been fond of the little do sitting next to a gramophone which symbolises HMV (His Master’s Voice). Although it enjoys an estimated 38 per cent share of physical music sales in the UK, HMV has just recently slipped into administration. Market watchers appear unanimous in their verdict that online sales have badly hit the chain’s 249 stores. What should HMV have done or do now to save itself? GoMobile News agrees with the suggestion made by Gregory Mead, Musicmetric’s CEO that it should have embraced a click & collect model. We also agree with Ovum’s Mark Little that this development might well give an unexpected boost to digital music sales. Continue reading
UK entertainment downloads pass £1bn mark for first time
UK sales of downloaded music, video and games passed the £1 billion mark for the first time last year due to the growing use of smartphones and broadband, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association.
Video downloads showed the most growth, with sales growing by more than a fifth to £97.9 million, reflecting a wider adoption of devices capable of showing high-quality graphics. Continue reading
Free music streaming for 7 days courtesy of rara.com
Rating: Rara is, of course, powered by Omnifone
Given that a large number of people will have received either a smartphone or a tablet (or both) as a Xmas present, it makes a great deal of sense for British music streaming service, rara.com, to offer a free seven day trail of its service over the Winter Break. You have until 23.59 pm 31st January 2013 to redeem this offer. [So you've got a month to sign up.] As long as you’re not an existing subscriber, of course. Here at GoMobile News we would thoroughly recommend that our readers take up this offer. The company is so generous that it promises that ads won’t be displayed during the duration of this offer. Continue reading
4G could aid musicians using the new Pono music format
Rating: 4G gives Pono a sporting chance for music downloads
Amongst music fans, it’s been long known that typical MP3 files lack the kind of audio quality that you’d expect from a good hi-fi system and vinyl records. The catch is that MP3 has established itself as the de facto standard. Well, veteran rocker Neil Young has decided to challenge the status quo (Geddit?) and produced a music playing device which support a new audio format known as ‘Pono’, He’s also reputedly planning to take on the might of Apple’s iTunes music store with his own Pono music download service. Significantly, Young claims to have signed up the three major music labels – namely Universal, Sony and Warner, for the launch of a Pono download service some time in 2013. GoMobile News decided to investigate implications and found that 4G just might save Pono. Continue reading
Mobile firms do well in Tech Track 100 league
Rating: Keep an eye on Mobilewebadz & Omnifone
Writing about the UK’s Top Twenty ‘cool’ brands today [24th September 2012], (see here) GoMobile News remembered that we hadn’t mentioned the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table which appeared on 16th September [2012]. Just like the CoolBrands survey, high tech companies which are mobile orientated in particular did really well. Two companies which definitely deserve a name check are Mobilewebadz (4th) and Omnifone (20th) which both secured high places. Continue reading
Mobile will play key role in digital music explosion
Rating:
According to Strategy Analytics‘ latest Global Recorded Music Forecast, mobile music revenues are going to grow dramatically in 2012. Globally, the market watcher expects mobile revues to grow by about 23 per cent. Some markets – such as the USA with 39 per cent growth in mobile music sales, will be ahead of the curve. The UK seems to be slightly behind with 15 per cent which is better than the EU which will only experience 7 per cent.These figures reinforce Strategy Analytics’ claims that spending on digital music could well outstrip physical by 2015. Omnifone believes that streaming will play a key part in mobile music’s growth with the research predicting that streaming revenues are set to rise by 40 per cent globally. Continue reading
Global digital music sales to top $8.6 Billion in 2012 says Strategy Analytics
Streaming revenues up 40% compared to 8.5% for downloads
Digital music sales set to exceed physical in the USA in 2012
Press release
August 15th 2012. Online streaming1 revenues will grow at almost five times the rate of download revenues in 2012, according to Strategy Analytics‘ latest Global Recorded Music2 Forecast. Streaming revenues will increase 40 per cent in 2012 – to $1.1 billion – whilst download revenues will increase by 8.5 per cent to $3.9 billion (see Chart 1). Therefore, streaming services will take over as the leading revenue growth engine for the music industry in 2012, generating an extra $311 million – $8 million more than downloads at $303 million. Continue reading
GoMo accidentally downloads ‘exclusive’ music app to HP TouchPad
Rating: Samsung had supposedly struck exclusive content deal
An exclusive deal has supposedly been struck between leading Android handset manufacturer, Samsung and mobile music specialist MusicQubed. The first handset to come with the Official Top 40 singles chart app preloaded will be Galaxy Ace II. However, this app is also available from Google Play here. When we tried to download it to a non-Galaxy phone the server said it was incompatible with all of our devices except the Cm_tenderloin. We clicked on that and suddenly realised the app had been sent to our HP TouchPad tablet running the Cyanogenmod version of Android. And, yup, it works, folks. Continue reading
