If you've ever sighed in frustration at not being able to leap straight from discovering a song to playing it ad-nauseum on Spotify or Rdio, here's a heads-up. Shazam's iPad-focused iOS update integrates both streaming services with its discovery software in addition to a new look home screen and an auto-tagging mode that'll passively observe any music in the background. The mapping service has also been tweaked, letting you search and see what songs are being tagged in your neighborhood (or anyone else's, for that matter) and if you'd like to see it in action, head on past the break.

Update: Shazam's been in touch to clarify that Rdio is available for all users, but if you want Spotify integration, you'll have to upgrade to the paid version.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, HD, Mobile, Apple

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Taking a page out of Billboard's playbook, Spotify is using its listener data to determine the most popular music in a particular country. Available on the website or as embeddable widgets, the weekly updated charts will reveal which tracks are most listened to for the Spotify 50. The Social 50 list will contain the tracks most often actively shared by the service's users, including via Facebook and Twitter. Another new addition is the ability to see play counts for an artist's top tracks, tracking global plays since October 2008. That's rolling out to desktop clients first and will pop up elsewhere later, while the charts will update every week at noon ET. Hit the link below for this week's list topped by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Daft Punk, although we'll know if it's really taking off when we see a green record on someone's wall in a future episode of Cribs.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Spotify Top Tracks

First of all: that name. Google Play Music All Access. Perhaps Google's presenters realized, as they were driving to the I/O keynote, that they had forgotten to name the new music-streaming service, and came up with that clunker backstage.

Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up.

Jump to the keynote, where Chris Yerga described All Access as "a uniquely Google approach to a subscription service," and remarked, "Here's where the magic starts." Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up. Prosaic and useful, yes; unique and magical, no. All Access is nowhere near an innovation. The major ecosystem companies, each of which started with groundbreaking technical development, now seem to fashion their business destinies on buttressing their networks with products innovated elsewhere, plugging holes to sway existing users from drifting out of the system. It's not a new story, but always a sad one.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Software, Google

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After years of fighting against the digital tide, the RIAA announced it'll now factor online audio and video streams when considering tracks for its Digital Single Award. The certification has heretofore been given to digital tracks that have gone Gold or Platinum, but only for downloads: 500,000 for Gold, 1,000,000 for Platinum and 2 million-plus for multi-Platinum. But under its new policy, 100 streams count as one download, meaning that it could reach those thresholds with a mix of streams and downloads, not just the latter. The new approach is "an approximate barometer of comparative consumer activity; the financial value of streams and downloads were not factored into the equation."

All told, these include streams from services like MOG, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify and Rdio along with video sites like VEVO, YouTube and MTV.com. Under the new system, 56 titles have already gone Gold and beyond, with 11 receiving their first ever digital song cert. A couple of first-timers include Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" which went Platinum and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" that went multi-Platinum. While we can't say if music services will make everyone happy, it's clear streaming's here to stay. Hear that, iTunes?

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Verge

Source: RIAA

This is why we can't have nice things. Spotify's web player has been rolling out to more users since its closed beta launch late last year, but today an extension popped up in the Google Chrome store (it's already been pulled) allowing users to download songs as MP3 files. According to the notes left by its author, the company wasn't using any encryption on its HTML5 player, making it a pretty simple project to put together. We're waiting to hear back from Spotify about the breach, and while Google appears to have been quick on the ball to remove the extension -- in a similar manner to how it's treated YouTube download tools in the Chrome Web Store -- hopefully this won't give others pause on distributing premium content using HTML5.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Verge

Source: Tweakers.net

Denon's just added to its lineup of network-capable AV receivers with new IN-command models that bring 4K, streaming and surround sound options aplenty. The flagship model is the $1,300 AVR-X4000, which supports 4K passthrough for the few lucky owners of such sets, along with HDTV to 4K upscaling, Spotify, AirPlay and DNLA 1.5. Other features include 7.2 surround sound output with Audyssey DSX, Dolby Pro Logic IIz or DTS Neo:X encoding, 125 watts of power per channel, seven HDMI inputs and three outputs, a remote control app for iOS, Android or web browsers, home automation compatibility, multi-room control and MP3 audio restoration. The $900 AVR-X3000 and $650 AVR-X2000 pack similar features but dial back the watts, surround sound and decoding capability, while the $450 AVR-X1000 is limited to 1080p output and carries the smallest amp. All the models are now up for grabs, while the copious list of specs can be found at the source.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: HDTV Space

Source: Denon