Category Archives: Music
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
No #2 Witch is Dead; No #35 I Love Maggie
Rating: Political protests go over UK mobile industry’s head
You didn’t have to been some kind of wizard (of Oz) to predict which musical number could have reached Number One in today’s [April 14th 2012's] Official UK Singles Chart. Actually Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead from the OZ movie and officially credited to Judy Garland reached Number Two. But what shocked us here @ GoMo News Towers was what we discerned as a complete lack of reaction to this phenomenon from the UK’s mobile industry. We strongly suspect that most of the purchasers will have been youngsters who view online and the digital media in particular as a way to express themselves. Continue reading
Completely wrong advice given to festival goers
Rating: You don’t want a Nokia 105 – an N73 maybe
As experienced music festival goers, GoMo News could not help but comment on an article which has just appeared in the UK’s London Evening Standard here. One of the main recommendations made by writer, Jasmine Gardner, is to swap your smartphone for a low cost, SIM-free PAYG handset. And the Nokia 105 was singled out as a classic option because it only costs about £13 (as announced @ MWC 2013 Barcelona). Frankly this completely the wrong advice. For starters you don’t need a handset that lasts for 35 days without charge. Most festivals last a max of five days. No. Get yourself a secondhand smartphone – like the N73, perhaps. Continue reading
Shazam forms exclusive new partnership with Saavn for the best Indian music Discovery Experience
Bollywood’s massive and growing fan base now has a new way to discover, buy and share their favourite songs
Press release
April 3 rd 2013. Shazam, the world’s leading media engagement company, has announced an exclusive new partnership with Saavn, the world’s largest Indian music streaming service. The new partnership gives music fans a great new way to discover the latest tracks from their favourite South Asian artists in Bollywood and beyond, with popular genres such as bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop, and more; and music in regional languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, and Bhojpuri. Continue reading
WOMAD Charlton Park
[ July 25, 2013 9:00 am to July 28, 2013 11:00 pm. ] Organisers: WOMAD
Venue: Charlton Park
Location: Malmesbury, UK
Web: www.womad.org
Tickets available from here.
Festival of WOrld Music Arts and Dance Continue reading
MusicQubed to build on success with O2 Tracks
Rating: Talking to other MNOs about whitelabelling music service
After years in the doldrums, the music industry is finally beginning to pick up again – chiefly fuelled by digital music sales. One person hoping to capitalise on this is Chris Gorman from MusicQubed. He told GoMo News that he believes he’s found a niche which is lucrative for both the MNOs (Mobile Network Operators) and the music industry labels. Gorman says that rival services [eg Spotify] focus on the music enthusiasts who are prepared to pay to get want they want. By contrast, MusicQubed’s aim is to entertain the masses and that’s what it has just done as the power behind O2’s recently launched O2 Tracks music service. Continue reading
GoMo tries MusicQubed’s O2 Tracks on Windows Phone
Rating: O2′s site thought that we were using an iPhone not WP7.5
Having just chatted to Chris Gorman who’s in charge of MusicQubed, the company that created the technology and service behind O2 Tracks on iOS, Android and Blackberry, we thought it best to try out the service. Especially since the company has only just announced availability of the app for Windows Phone which you can find here. It is already available via other devices’ app stores: - Android, BlackBerry, and iOS. We had a bit of fun and games downloading the WP7.8 version, of course. 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
Intel hooks up with ITV & Shazam for interactive ad
Rating: Get ready to Shazamduring X Factor final
Here in Blighty (UK), it seems that Intel has been looking at some creative ways to promote its new range of Ultrabook Convertible tablets on the run up to Xmas. It just so happens that ITV has an exclusive partnership to distribute Shazam‘s functionality in UK broadcast advertising sector. So – thanks to OMD UK, a specially modified version of the Intel ad will be aired during the show which will be able to feature user-generated content (UGC) thanks to Shazam’s technology. Of course, this isn’t the first time the Shazam app has been deployed in British broadcasting. ITV aired a Shazam enabled ad back in May [2012] during a Britain’s Got Talent TV finale. (See our previous report here). Continue reading
Shazam launches Windows 8 version of it music discover app
Rating: Perhaps Jim’ll fix my RAZR i version for me
Somehow we don’t see a rush of desktop PC, laptop, netbook and tablets owners installing Shazam so they can hold their device up to a pub’s loudspeakers. Just because Shazam has launched a Microsoft Windows 8 version of its popular music discovery app. However, GoMobile News suspects this has a lot to do with its imminent Windows Phone 8 (Apollo) version. Shazam is, of course, the leading music recognition app but it only recognises commercial tracks. So there’s little point trying to get it to recognise what old rock number the band is currently slaughtering. We reckon that Windows 8 Users will utilise this version of Shazam for viewing tags saved by their mobile phone. If it works on their smartphone, of course. It doesn’t work on our Motorola RAZR i, though. Continue reading
rara.com music streaming apps come to iPhone, iPad and Windows 8
Press release
October 23rd 2012. British based rara.com has announced a major expansion to its streaming music service, 10 months after launching, with new apps for Windows 8, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch as well as an updated Android app and web service. rara.com is switching on seven new countries today, increasing its global footprint to 27 markets and increasing its catalogue of licensed music to 18 million tracks with thousands of Independent labels signed up through global rights agency Merlin and leading independent digital distributors The Orchard, INgrooves Fontana, Believe Digital and VidZone Digital Media. 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
RIM provides kit to bloggers @ WOMAD UK festival
Rating: GoMo makes a guest appearance on Guardian site
Here’s an interesting piece of branding. The WOMAD (World Of Music And Dance) festival held over the last weekend [27th – 29th July 2012] had as its media partner, the UK national newspapers – the Guardian and the Observer [Sunday only]. Now the editors say they “are committed to an ‘Open’ form of journalism. So they invited readers to join in by contributing to its web site with their music reviews and festival observations. But it just so happens that the Guardian festivals are sponsored by BlackBerry. Notice how RIM at least acknowledges that the public only recognises its brand. Anyway, as a consequence RIM provided the full kit to enable bloggers to write directly from the event. Continue reading
