Warning: Spotify may not remember your starred songs

Some Spotify listeners are finding that the application has a short memory when it comes to remembering their favorite songs.

“I just signed up yesturday, starred 1700 tracks and now they are gone,” wrote one user a week ago. “Logging out and back in didn’t help. Fix ASAP.”

I’ve run into the issue as well. When much-hyped music service Spotify launched in the U.S. last week, I was excited to try it out. Using the … Continue Reading

More music: Turntable.fm lands big licensing agreement with BMI

Music licensing company BMI on Thursday announced it had reached an agreement with social music service Turntable.fm, which will make it possible for Turntable to get access to BMI’s more than 6.5 million creative works.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that guarantees the more than 475,000 songwriters, composers and copyright owners BMI represents receive fair compensation for their creative efforts,” said Richard Conlon, BMI Senior Vice President, in a statement. “This agreement … Continue Reading

Spotify launches in U.S. tomorrow (finally)

European music streaming service Spotify will launch in the United States on Thursday.

Individuals who signed up for an invitation on the site when the company announced it was coming to the U.S. last week will be able to access the site. Others can sign up for one of the site’s subscription services.

Spotify had been successful providing cloud-based streaming music in Europe but will face competition from larger companies working on music streaming projects … Continue Reading

Spotify to bring its online music service to the U.S.

European streaming music startup Spotify is finally about to open its service to people in the United States.

U.S. residents can now sign up on the company’s main website to receive an invitation to the online music service when it becomes available. But the company has not disclosed a specific U.S. launch date.

Spotify provides cloud-based streaming music in Europe, but will face competition from larger companies working on music streaming projects once it enters … Continue Reading

Show’s over: Pandora skids in second day of trading

Share prices of online radio service Pandora skidded in its second day of public trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), falling nearly 25 percent from its closing price on Wednesday. Shares are now trading at a price below the company’s initial public offering price of $16.

Shares were trading as high as $26 after the company made its debut on the NYSE on Wednesday. But that slowly tapered off throughout the day, and … Continue Reading

Will Pandora’s mellow IPO put fears of a tech bubble to rest?

Pandora’s trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) went well, but it wasn’t met with the same fanfare that greeted LinkedIn, a business social network went public in May.

Pandora’s lackluster first day raises questions of whether the rest of the companies planning to go public in the most recent batch of Web 2.0 companies — which also includes  group-buying web service Groupon — will continue to appeal to investors.

Shares of Pandora … Continue Reading

Pandora ups IPO price, valued nearly $2B

Online radio station Pandora increased the share price for its initial public offering today, bringing the company’s valuation to nearly $2 billion, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pandora’s shares will now debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and sell at a price between $10 and $12, up from the company’s original IPO pricing of between $7 and $9. That gave the company a valuation of $1.3 billion. … Continue Reading

Online radio Pandora claims valuation of $1.3B

Online radio station Pandora has priced its shares between $7 and $9 in its upcoming initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — giving the cloud music company a valuation of nearly $1.3 billion, according to an updated S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s nowhere near the titanic valuation of the NYSE’s recent IPO darling LinkedIn, which soared to a valuation of nearly $9 billion in its first day … Continue Reading

Spotify CEO: Still no date on U.S. launch

Daniel Ek, CEO and cofounder of online music-streaming service Spotify, has 750,000 paying subscribers, up from 320,000 in March. It now has more subscribers than any other similar service in the world, he said.

What he doesn’t have: A firm date on when the European startup will launch in the U.S.

Spotify had previously said it planned to launch by the third quarter of 2010. Then it said it would launch by the end of … Continue Reading

No more syncing: Didiom streams music to your iPhone from anywhere

With the iPhone app Didiom, syncing music files to your phone may become a thing of the past. That’s why we’re choosing Didiom as the first innovative app for VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight.

Didiom lets you stream music to your iPhone or iPod Touch (or BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile 6 phone) from your Windows PC over Wi-Fi and 3G. It’s available in two flavors: A free, or Lite, version that lets you stream up to … Continue Reading

Sony again challenges Apple for music dominance with cloud-based Qriosity

Sony, while mulling about in the shadow of Apple’s iPod and other reveals, announced its plan to launch a cloud-based music streaming service. The goal is to allow most Sony products to tap into the service and access Sony’s music library.

Sony is basically looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes platform through a different venue. iTunes has long focused on its devices and physical media — using CDs and owning actual, physical copies of songs — … Continue Reading

Why Apple's Ping is about cutting out the social middleman

This morning at a press conference in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced Ping, a social network for music that will be bundled into the next version of iTunes, its music software.

After ten iterations of iTunes, Ping marks Apple’s first step into the social realm. Jobs played it off as a simple way to discover music by following friends and artists. But he also called it a “Facebook plus Twitter for music.” With … Continue Reading

Grooveshark free-music service pulled from Apple's App Store

Just 10 days after its release, the iPhone app of music-streaming service Grooveshark has been pulled from Apple’s App Store due to a complaint received from the British arm of Universal Music Group, the app’s maker said in a blog post Tuesday.

Grooveshark, whose website promises “free Internet radio stations,” could be seen as competing with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which depends on the cooperation of major music label groups like Universal.

The app was … Continue Reading

Mobile music sales set to rise as Warner Brothers partners with Nokia

Just 10 days after its release, the iPhone app of music-streaming service Grooveshark has been pulled from Apple’s App Store due to a complaint received from the British arm of Universal Music Group, the app’s maker said in a blog post Tuesday.

Grooveshark, whose website promises “free Internet radio stations,” could be seen as competing with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which depends on the cooperation of major music label groups like Universal.

The app was … Continue Reading