Spotify drops efforts to buy SoundCloud in prep for IPO plans - report: "Although the two companies were in negotiations for months, any chance of a deal is said to have died in the past week, a source told TechCrunch on Thursday. Spotify was allegedly worried that buying SoundCloud would hurt its preparations for a stock IPO, which has been rumored for 2017."

IPO now, buy later?

Labels: soundcloud, spotify

Why can’t the Estonian president buy a song off iTunes for his Latvian wife? | Ars Technica: "PALO ALTO, Calif.—I don’t usually dress up for interviews, but I also don’t usually interview heads of state, either."

Me three, either.

Labels: itunes, spotify, streaming

Apple confirms reports of iTunes music deletion issue, 'safeguards' coming next week: "Earlier this month media outlets latched onto a blog post from freelance composer James Pinkstone, who claimed iTunes deleted some 122GB of music from his laptop, including original works. After speaking with Apple support representatives, Pinkstone came to the conclusion that the mishap had roots in the way Apple Music and iTunes handles music files. "

Did we say "never"? What we meant was "sometimes".

Labels: spotify

Apple confirms reports of iTunes music deletion issue, 'safeguards' coming next week: "Earlier this month media outlets latched onto a blog post from freelance composer James Pinkstone, who claimed iTunes deleted some 122GB of music from his laptop, including original works. After speaking with Apple support representatives, Pinkstone came to the conclusion that the mishap had roots in the way Apple Music and iTunes handles music files. "

Probably be best for everyone if Apple Music was a completely separate app from iTunes. No, wait! Let's put every music playback function that's ever been designed into one application. We'll call it megalomania.

Labels: spotify

Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously. | vellumatlanta: "I had just explained to Amber that 122 GB of music files were missing from my laptop. I’d already visited the online forum, I said, and they were no help. "

Wow, great product design.

Labels: spotify

Musician David Lowery sues Spotify for “unlawfully” distributing music | Ars Technica "Spotify reproduces and/or distributes the Works despite its failure to identify and/or locate the owners of those compositions for payment or to provide them with notice of Spotify’s intent to reproduce and/or distribute the Works," Lowery's complaint alleges.

I'm not sure I agree with this. I'm about to buy my Plaid and Boards of Canada albums for the 3rd time because I don't like how iTunes is handling them. I want to re-rip them in ALAC now that HDDs are bigger. This despite the fact that this music is available on Spotify.

Although I have not purchased many of ZEDD's songs, I would not know about him without the auto-suggest feature of Pandora. I consider Pandora and Spotify to be music discovery services. I do worry about the day when CD versions are not available because I still think that AAC sounds like sh*t, especially at the nitrates used by streaming services.

Labels: pandora, spotify