music

Pop a properly manufactured CD into a CD player, and you'll hear music in a second or two. In more than 30 years of playing CDs I've never once encountered scanning, searching, or error messages; after I press "Play," the music starts. Stick a properly manufactured DVD or Blu-ray in a working player, and you always have to wait a while to start watching the movie -- or it might not play at all. You might have to do a firmware update to play the disc. With DVDs and Blu-rays, there's no such thing as … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--At an invite-only press event in San Francisco, popular streaming music service Slacker Radio last night unveiled a completely revamped brand. The company's name remains, but Slacker's look and feel have been significantly simplified.

Of course, with the rebrand, Slacker's Web site and product designs have been updated with cleaner, more modern looks as well. Gone are the dark tones, textures, and gradients that crowded Slacker's interfaces in the past. Now, Slacker's multiplatform face is made up of brighter colors, clean lines, and lots of white space, which bring it more in line with … Read more

I've always had a soft spot for the iPod Shuffle. Tiny, simple, elegant, and able to clip just about anywhere on your person, it's arguably the best MP3 player ever for the gym, the treadmill, or the open road.

It's also $49. If you don't mind a knockoff, MidnightBox has an iPod Shuffle-like clip-on MP3 player (2GB) for $7.95, plus $3.99 for shipping. That deal is good today only, and while supplies last.

Details about this no-brand, no-name player are slim, to say the least. It's available in your choice of eight colors, … Read more

It's awards season in the U.S., with the focus primarily on the upcoming Oscars and Sunday night's Grammys.

Last year, I wrote about how the Oscars missed an opportunity to use hashtags the right way on TV, and I look forward to seeing if the organizers learned anything from this year's Grammys. (Note: CNET parent company CBS owns the broadcasting rights to the Grammys, but I am writing this unprompted and on my own).

Here are six things the Grammys did right on social this year -- plus one they didn't -- and what folks … Read more

Spotify released its music-streaming app in the Windows Phone 8 store today, according to the Windows Phone blog.

The app is still in beta, which means Spotify isn't done tweaking it just yet, but people can try it out. Users can stream Spotify songs over Wi-Fi or a 2.5G or 3G connection, according to the app's description.

The app lets users make playlists, browse friends' playlists, or download songs to play later when there's no Internet connection. Plus, the phone app syncs with your PC, so your playlists will stay consistent on both. Spotify said its … Read more

Apple's AirPlay feature is a convenient technology for sending audio to various devices. If you are on the same wireless network as the device then it will be available to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad to play music via iTunes, or even be used as a general audio appliance for system sounds.

In general, AirPlay devices are hardware accessories like routers such as Apple's AirPort, or media appliances like the AppleTV. However, if you are not willing to shell out about $100 or more for a new AirPlay and you have an old Mac lying around (especially a … Read more

Moosify promises to help you "meet new people through music and places," without the actual need to go to any places to listen to music. Available as a Spotify app or for iPhone or for Android, Moosify lets you connect with people with similar tastes in music or near your vicinity. To get a sense of how the app works, I tried out Moosify on Spotify and my iPhone.

On Spotify, the app loads and forces you to log in via Facebook. After logging in, you are greeted with a grid of Moosify users. Clicking the play button … Read more

iTunes music downloads officially outnumber human beings on this planet by 3-to-1.

That's the word today from Apple, which announced that the 25 billionth song has been downloaded from the iTunes store.

Almost a decade after beginning its quest to supposedly save the music industry from the likes of nasty file-sharing meanies such as the original incarnation of Napster, Kazaa, Limewire and others, Apple's little digital music stand now claims a catalog of 26 million songs -- up from 12 million just two years ago -- available in 119 countries, not to mention the billions of dollars it … Read more

Online consumers may one day be able to sell or trade their digital items to other users, at least if a new Amazon patent comes to fruition.

Granted to the retail giant on January 29, the patent dubbed "Secondary market for digital objects" describes an electronic marketplace for swapping digital items.

You'd start off by housing your purchased music, videos, apps, and e-books in your own online storage space, just as many of us do today. When you get tired of listening to the same songs or reading the same books, you can move those items to … Read more