GeekSugar

Pandora's CES Product Domination

Kelly Schwarze — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:39:29 PST

Despite an uptick in competition (ahem, Spotify) Pandora isn't budging in its quest for online radio domination, as seen in the dozens of products they're embedded in at CES this year. Cars are the theme this year, as they announced 23 automotive partnerships for 2012. Can we expect a Pandora system in every new car sold now? Just about.

Look to BMW, Mini, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Acura, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Toyota, and Scion for Pandora embedded in the car, using voice commands or dashboard controls. Car stereo manufacturers like Alpine Electronics, Audiovox, Kenwood, and others throughout the year will roll out in-dash receivers featuring the streaming music provider.

Pandora's also integrating beyond smart TVs, with Sony's new line of WiFi-enabled Blu-ray players. Don't forget there's also the Samsung refrigerator we saw at last year's show, so you'll never have to be without streaming music again.

Source: BMW and Kenwood

Your Holiday Digital Music DJ Guide

Kelly Schwarze — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:30:56 PST

To save ourselves from listening to our mom's record collection on repeat during this weekend's family gathering, we're taking on DJ duties. Forget flipping discs on a boombox; hook some powerful speakers up to a laptop and sign into these online music services to keep the party moving with new and unexpected tunes.

Pandora - A classic, Pandora keeps us going through the work day with our curated stations. Due to copyright licensing, listening to songs by the same artist is limited, but the service does allow you to skip over song fails.
Turntable.fm - We're taken with discovering new music through this new online digital music service. Hop into a crowd-friendly room; the "I <3 the 80s" room is a good choice.
8tracks - Mixtapes make a comeback on 8tracks, which lets users listen to mixtapes created by the community. Listen to playlists based on artist or genre and follow users whose mixes you love.
Spotify - Check out what your friends are listening to and discover new tunes with this free music service. You can pay for upgraded and premium services to get wireless streaming on your iPhone too, which makes it easy to plug and play to whatever iPod dock your parents have lying around.

Click through for three more online music resources.

Best of 2011: Streaming Music

Kelly Schwarze — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:21:25 PST

There were more music sources available in 2011 than we had time to listen to them all. With the amount of streaming music options available on the Internet, there's virtually no way to go without tunes every day. Which of these services and apps were your favorite music option of the year?

Get the Halloween Party Started With Frightfully Festive Halloween Stations

Kelly Schwarze — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:04:21 PDT

Start prepping for a your Halloween party and switch to the eight Halloween stations now available on Pandora. Ghoulish station choices include ambient sounds, instrumental melodies, silly, kid-friendly tunes, and even soulful songs for seasonal gatherings or at-work listening.

Search these Pandora stations for your favorite mix: Halloween, Halloween Party, Industrial, Spooky Symphonies, Goth, Children's Halloween, Witch House, Ghostly Grooves. When in doubt remember, "The Monster Mash" always gets the party started this time of year.

Spotify Goes Pandora With New App

Kelly Schwarze — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:41:17 PDT

A common complaint of Spotify loyalists is that the music streaming service doesn't have the ability to discover new music like with Pandora. That's all in the past as a new app called Echofi adds an artist radio function to the popular music source.

Sign in to your account through Echofi, tell it which artist you want to hear, and it will play similar music. There are some reported quirks to the functionality, but with the ability to "love" or "ban" certain songs and take the guesswork out of new music choices, we're in.

Website of the Day: Turntable.fm

GeekSugar — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:11:41 PDT

Add one more website to your daily tech addiction - Turntable.fm, a digital music site with a seriously social premise. While adding a social element to services has become ubiquitous, the social side of Turntable.fm is simple, and the reason for its popularity - share good music with friends and strangers in real time.

Sign up for Turntable.fm via Facebook friends already in on the service. Choose which music room to have your avatar enter based on the room's name; think of it as a virtual nightclub without strangers spilling drinks on your shirt. If nothing sounds appealing, create a room of your own and invite friends. Each room has from one to five DJs spinning, while the rest of the room's listeners "stand" in the crowd voting whether songs are awesome/lame, talking in a sidebar chat room, or queuing up songs from Turntable.fm's large music collection or their computer's music library. If you deem a song awesome, the DJ will earn points, which can be used to change the avatar, and most importantly, up the user's music credibility. About 140,000 users have signed up in the first month since Turntable.fm launched.

Everything about the service, so far, is free. Like Pandora, the site is able to legally function under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with a limit on the number of songs that can be played by one artist in the same hour. For the time being, international users can't access Turntable.fm, but for those located in America, hop in a room and discover new tunes.

6 Online Music-Streaming Options

GeekSugar — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:10:48 PST

We're still waiting for iTunes in the cloud and Spotify to hit the US, but the good news is, we can enjoy some tunes on the web thanks to these six streaming services that are piping hot and available for consumption now. Check them out in this slideshow!

Use TweetLouder to Find Your Favorite Bands on Twitter

Kristen Hawley — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:10:36 PST

Part of the fun of Twitter is being able to connect with people that otherwise seem inaccessible: actors, authors, musicians, and other typically-out-of-reach people often manage their own Twitter accounts, allowing fans an otherwise hidden glimpse into their world. And if you're a music fan, a new service from SonicLiving makes it easy to find bands that you love on Twitter.

TweetLouder uses your iTunes, Pandora, Last.fm, or SonicLiving information to determine your favorite bands, and then finds them on Twitter, prompting you to follow them. If SonicLiving has tour information for the bands, there's a quick link to view upcoming shows, too.

The service is extremely simple and easy to use, and it's fast - you can find most of your favorite bands in under a minute and quickly follow them. Or, if you're worried about too many musicians crowding your feed, create a dedicated Twitter List to keep them all in one place.

Get Your Groove On With Free Valentine's Day Playlists

Kristy Korcz — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:00:46 PST

There's nothing like a personalized mixtape to bring back those retro butterflies, but let's face it - you got rid of your dual deck many moons ago. If you're planning on staying in this Valentine's Day (to play a few games, perhaps?), create the right mood with a sweet playlist. The good news for busy bees: Amazon and Pandora have come through with some preset playlists for love - Amazon with a popular music mix, and Pandora with a rad '80s love collection - so you can just sit back and enjoy the day instead of sweating it out over iTunes.

Of course, if you still love the idea of gifting a mixtape, you can always snag this cool Mix Tape card set from Etsy ($13), or one like it at your local paper store.

Pandora Debuts "Love Stinks" Station Just in Time For Valentine's Day

Kristen Hawley — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:30:44 PST

Generally, Valentine's Day can go one of two ways: good, or bad. For those who aren't counting the minutes until the most romantic day of the year, Pandora has created its own "Love Stinks" station featuring popular breakup tracks and songs that are anything but lovey-dovey.

The station is part of the timely Valentine's Day genre, which also includes V-Day-friendly stations like "80s Love Songs," "Alternative Indie Love Songs," and "Pop Love Songs."

If you're one of the many who are avoiding Valentine's Day this year for one reason or another, this station is worth a listen.