SiriusXM, which offers satellite and online radio listening, confirmed that it’ll acquire Pandora. The deal between these two companies is valued at around $3.5 billion, and it’s an all-stock transaction. SiriusXM and Pandora are on a path to create the world’s largest audio entertainment business. It’s a moniker that both sides mentioned in blog posts while discussing the advantages...
Pandora is taking on Spotify and Apple Music with a new $15 family plan, which gives up to six users unlimited music streaming. The new plan matches the family plans offered by the two other big-time streaming services in pricing and number of users. Currently, Pandora boasts 80 million listeners, but that's only for its free tier. The introduction of the new plan is the company's...
I couldn’t help but laugh when Amazon first announced Prime Music. Did the the company really think it could take on streaming giants like Spotify and Pandora with a smaller library and nothing less than six months old? The answer seemed like a pretty obvious no, and I left it at that. Then, in October, my free Apple Music trial ended and I was left scrambling for a new service. I had...
Before Apple and any other big name company jumps into the busy music streaming world, Google introduced its own service at I/O on Wednesday. The platform, called Google Play Music All Access, is a Spotify clone that allows users to pick and choose precisely what music they want to listen to. Everything plugs in to the search giant’s already growing music catalog—and your own—with some...
The HTC Sense user interface is one of the most popular skins for Android, and one of the main reasons why Android users become attached to HTC devices. Sense 3.5 works wonderfully under the Gingerbread operating system, providing users with a seamless link to all of their favorite features directly from their home screen. So it's no wonder fans are anticipating HTC Sense 4.0. And...
It’s been another blockbuster year for the seminal iPhone. Even after enduring a longer than normal product cycle, demand for the device is still at an all time high. According to Reuters, Apple was on pace to sell around 28 million iPhones during 2011’s final quarter alone – a 70 percent jump from a year ago. Whether you’re filling up a brand new device or looking to bolster the...
There’s no argument that anywhere-anytime digital music streaming is a huge benefit in these modern times. But even so, some of us can’t help but fondly recall the old days, when music sharing hinged on something a bit more tangible, personal and soulful — the mixtape. Well-executed ones were able to take listeners on a journey that traversed mournful landscapes, rage-filled quests...
As rumored, reported, and otherwise wished-upon-a-star for, Sonos recently debuted their smallest, lowest-cost receiver to date, the Play:3. Part of a brand makeover, Play:3 slots in alongside the Play:5 (formerly S5) as the company's two self-contained wireless receiver/speaker/amplifier products. In a nutshell, Sonos is a networked music system that lets you stream local or Web-based...
After what seems like an eternity, Spotify, the music service that took Europe by storm, has finally launched in the United States. There were rumors, false starts and dashed hopes aplenty when it came to if this music service would ever come to the United States, and there was even an extended exclusive private beta for a select few people, but it never seemed assured there would be...
This weekend I finally got around to checking out Turntable.fm—and I’m totally addicted. I’m a huge Pandora nut, just because I like listening to and discovering new music that I might not otherwise. Turntable is in many ways just a manually run version of Pandora. The site is broken up into a variety of different rooms where DJs play music. You can go hang out in a room playing music...