Spotify Allows Users to Stream Music to iPhone
A new app from Swedish music streaming service, Spotify, allows users who purchase a £10 subscription to listen to unlimited songs from the reportedly vast library of music the company offers. The app not only enables users to search out new music, it also allows them to store playlists on their phone for times when there are no connections available to them such as when they are on a plane or underground.
The company has been seen as a rival to Apple’s iTunes because it offers an alternative model of music sales that many in the industry believe could be a viable and competitive way to sell songs online. The Spotify music library contains millions of tracks and the company has over two million subscribers in the UK alone, with over six million subscribers having been garnered across Europe since it began only a year ago.
The Spotify app is available for free via download for Spotify Premium subscribers at the Apple App store. The company has plans in place to expand into the US by the end of 2009. It is expected that the US market will be readily open to the idea of subscribing to a music service due to the popularity of the now outlawed file sharing networks that experienced such heavy traffic due to music trading.
OurStage Radio
OurStage Radio is a new iPhone application from OurStage that can be used to find and listen to new songs by emerging and indie music artists from a wide array of music genres. OurStage radio app also allows iPhone users to evaluate the songs that they listen to, using a thumbs-up thumbs-down feature. Moreover, the app makes new song recommendations to the user based on their music preferences. OurStage Radio is a free app and is currently available at the app store.
Voice Activated Application for iPhone 3G
The iPhone is set to offer voice activated dialing and music play list navigation. These features come through the efforts of Fonix Speech. The voice activated application for the iPhone 3G is called Fonix iSpeak and will connect users simply by saying the phone number of name of the person in the contacts database. Users will also be able to navigate their music libraries and launch a song or play list by just speaking the name of the song, artist of play list. The application includes a runtime engine that will sit on the phone and allow users to interact with the personal contents of their iPhone. The software is made available directly from Fonix Speech, and through the App Store.