Who doesn't like freebies on the Internet? More so, no person with a taste for good music will pass up the opportunity to grab free copies of music albums, especially when given the chance to browse through a hundred titles under one roof. Microsoft, in another consumer-pleasing strategy, is now giving away 100 music albums for free in a deal that will last until the 15th of December this year. Sadly this deal is for the U.S. only.
Spotify is among the major players in the streaming music game, and in spite of its significant user base, the company remains squarely focused on driving up membership numbers. In its latest promotion push, Spotify is offering its 'Premium' service to users for three months for just $0.99, which costs $9.99 regularly for one full month.
What came close to the awesomeness that Rocket Raccoon was with his British Cockney accent and wits in Guardians of the Galaxy was the chart busting soundtrack of the movie, with one song in particular - "Hooked on a Feeling" - totaling over 16 million counts of streaming. As part of a run up to the holiday festivities, Google is offering the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack album entitled 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1' for free on Google Play (U.S. only), and the offer is supposedly just for a day.
Apple's close relationship with U2 has been long-standing and, from an outsider's point of view, pretty harmless. Indeed, the fact that the Irish band's latest album Songs of Innocence was to be released for free as an iTunes exclusive was clearly a win for the consumer. The move, which was announced after Apple's iPhone 6 event last week, presumably meant that U2 fans could get their fill for free - excellent - while non-U2 fans could just skip the release. Much to the surprise of just about everyone outside Apple, though, the album was pushed out to just about everyone with an iOS device, much to the bemusement of those who don't happen to like U2.
As mentioned by Tim Cook towards the close of today's big keynote event, U2's close relationship with Apple goes way back. From the Irish quartet being featured on the iconic Vertigo ad to the release of the limited edition black and red U2 iPods, Bono and his band have been an almost permanent fixture of Apple's romance with the music industry, and having performed as a special guest at the end of the Flint Center's iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch announcement, U2's new album is available to download for free on Apple's iTunes Music Store.
The importance and popularity of music is at an all-time high, thanks to companies like Apple and Google who have pioneered the use of digital infrastructure to deliver content directly to a range of devices. In an effort to promote music downloads and give back, Google is offering Prism by Katy Perry as a free-of-charge download.
Thanks to the likes of Google Play Music, accessing the content of our favorite artists and bands is now much easier than ever. Although many of us now utilize services like Spotify in order to stream music, the art of buying a song we happen to like is not completely obsolete, and in the case of Google Play Music's new freebie offer, you don't always have to stump up any money. For a presumably limited time, you can pick up full songs from artists like Katy Perry and Daft Punk completely free, and given that we don't know how long the offer's going to last, you'll want to get in quickly to avoid disappointment.
We'll readily admit to not being the most stylish group of people around, but if you don't suffer from the same inability to dress yourself properly and also happen to like your music, then you're going to want to check out this rather cool hoodie.
Sir Paul McCartney, the English singer, songwriter, composer, musician and founding member of The Beatles, has embraced the iPad to bring five of his classic albums to the iOS App Store. The musical works of art have been remastered and transformed into native iPad apps by McCartney and his record label, Concord Music Group. As well as including special remastered versions of each song from the classic albums, the individual iPad apps also offer signature content and media that has been created specifically with this project in mind.
When Apple started extending the previews of songs that were longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds back in 2010, licensing was a big factor in reason that not all songs received the updated 90 second previews at the same time. Now, Apple appears to be reducing some of those previews to just 30 seconds, no matter the length of the song, across both the desktop and mobile versions of the iTunes Store.