The music wars are starting to heat up between Apple/iTunes and Spotify. Last week Apple added (without your permission) the new album Songs of Innocence to every iTunes account in the world. Some people weren't happy with either the free music… or the part about Apple adding it without telling anyone what they were doing. So Apple has created a free tool to remove all of the tracks if you don't want them.
From a marketing perspective this was very cool. In one day something like half a billion iTunes users had the songs in their possession, making this the largest ever album launch in history.
Except this has effectively locked this album out from Spotify and Deezer, neither of which have access to these tracks. One article said Apple paid U2 $100 million > I don't know about you, but I'd grant Apple an exclusive for that amount of zeros.
But you can add them to a Spotify or Deezer playlist 🙂
In iTunes go to your Library and if you search by date added you'll see the list of tracks from Songs of Innocence, but they'll be light grey because they aren't actually downloaded. What you are seeing are just links to the Apple iCloud. You'll need to click the little cloud icon next to each track to download it to your computer.
In Spotify or Deezer you'll see all your new U2 tracks listed in the Local Files section.
A Playlist of offline video could make for a cool class 🙂
The word out is that YouTube is planning to launch a streaming service, similar to Spotify and Deezer, for music videos. The premium version would be advertisment free which would be very cool.
I realise that in the past we (and others) have pointed out that playing YouTube videos in a commercial setting (your class) is against YouTube's terms and conditions that prohibit displaying their videos in a club, bar or studio. iTunes, Spotify, Deezer and every other music service has nearly the exact T's&C's – no commercial use. Many of us are using these services to deliver our class music and your club or studio should be paying ASCAP and/or BMI for a commercial use license. My view* is that that license should cover your playing of music videos, just as it does for the audio versions of the songs. Or maybe there's a different license required for videos? If this becomes real I'll dig in and find out more.
Here's the basic rundown – YouTube is set to launch a service called YouTube Music Key, and Google is set to rebrand Google Play Music All Access to Google Play Music Key.
Specifically, it looks like YouTube Music Key will offer ad-free music, audio-only playback (for background or screen-off listening), and offline playback…
Of course, one of Music Key's major value propositions is that users will have access not just to official discographies, but to concert footage, covers, and remixes. Play Music already houses remixes and covers, but YouTube as a platform is significantly more open and workable for derivative content – the platform is much easier to add content to, and user discoverability is substantially different from Play Music. YouTube Music Key also promises to make suggestions for what to watch/listen to based on the other things you watch/listen to on YouTube.
Of course all of this is speculation / rumors – except that screenshot looks pretty legit > so we'll have to wait and see if/when it launches. Also if this will be available as an iPad app, or will it just be for android?
While we continue to wait for Deezer to make it here in the USA (which was promised for sometime in 2014) the potential that there could be an advert free, music video service that would play off a portable device means there's lots to look forward to 🙂
Does showing a playlist of music videos sound exciting to you?
*I'm not an attorney, so proceed at your own risk. If you have questions or concerns, seek competent legal representation.
I find it fascinating to watch all the posturing going on in the digital music delivery business. It all started with iTunes – who ruled the legal, digital download space for years. Multiple services (ZUNE, Rhapsody, Napster, etc…) have tried, and failed to take more than a tiny amount of market share from Apple.
But that's all changing because of Spotify, Deezer and a little company called Google. The article below opened my eyes to why.
In an interesting turn of events, Apple is reportedly considering opening up and launching their own streaming music service to compete with the likes of similar services like Spotify and the newly released Beats music. In addition to this they are apparently considering launching an Android app for the streaming service to go along with the launch of the service itself, all in an effort to attack the declining sales of US iTunes music downloads according to sources that are close to the matter. People still use iTunes? All jokes aside, it has been difficult for apple to compete with services that offer streaming music at a low price, as the music libraries are competitively similar in size, and listening is unlimited, all for a small monthly fee. Downloading the same number of songs through iTunes that you would have at your disposal with a service like Spotify would take massive amounts of money, even with most songs on iTunes being available as singles with most as low as $0.99 a hit.
It’s interesting to hear these possibilities as Apple and iTunes have always been known to be a partnered exclusive company and service. While Google’s popular Google Play Music is available on multiple platforms including Mac, Windows, Android and iOS, Apple’s iTunes is only accessible to those who use iOS devices or Mac computers. They have effectively closed themselves off from other possibilities for quite some time, and it used to work for them when they were the dominating force in digital music. With the iPod reaching its end of life though, and a myriad of subscription based music services available on virtually any platform you can think of, Apple will have to find a way to take the once reigning king of music services and transform it if they want to compete.
So I did some quick research to see how Apple's iOS competes with Google's Android market share for portable device sales.
… If you look at the raw numbers for sales market share between Android and iOS devices, Google seems to be dominating the space. In Q4 2013, Gartner reported that Android had 77.8% worldwide market share while iOS had only 17.8% share. One quarter prior, Android had 81.9% and iOS took second place with 12.1%. It is worth noting that, according to ComScore, iOS market share in the lucrative US market is about 40%, while Android accounts for around 50% of US sales. The problem with these numbers is that the do not take into account the fragmentation that Google has allowed with the Android platform.
What goes around…comes around
One of the legacies of Steve Jobs was his/Apple's decision to keep iTunes exclusive to iDevices (there is no iTunes App for an Android phone). While this worked to Apple's advantage for years, they now find themselves becoming uncompetitive now that Spotify and Deezer have Apps for both iOS and Android phones.
So what does this mean for you?
Choices, lots of choices for digital music coming with fewer restrictions on how you'll be able to build, share and then deliver great music to your classes. Many of us found Spotify to be revolutionary – it completely changed my views about renting vs. buying music. But now Spotify is SOP (standard operating procedure). I'm guessing that a few years from now we'll be using a music service that doesn't even exist today and we will access it using a device none of us has even seen.
And we can't wait to help you understand how you'll use it in your class 🙂
I'm hearing from Instructors outside of the USA who are switching from Spotify, over to Deezer.
Hi,
I have had Spotify for a long time now and have created lots of different playlists. I have recently just converted into using Deezer, however, it would be much easier for my Spotify playlists to be on Deezer instead!
Is this possible? If so, how do i do it?
Thanks
Cydnie.
Cyndie we created an ICI/PRO playlist conversion tool for just this occasion 🙂
Here's the steps to convert your Spotify playlist to one Deezer can play.
Step #1 Open and log in to Deezer in a new tab – clicking this link will do that for you. Note: Deezer is different from Spotify in that Deezer is a web application, vs. Spotify, which is a program that you install on your computer. Yes I know that Spotify also has a web version… I never had much luck using it and suggest you install the full program if you want to run Spotify on a laptop.
Step #2 Clicking this link will open our conversion tool in another tab. Scroll down the page and you should see that you're logged in to Deezer and a Please enter Spotify URI dialog box like this:
If you don't see this click the Log into Deezer link or refresh the conversion tool page.
Step #3 In Spotify, Right Click the playlist you want to convert and select Copy Spotify URI.
Step #4 Back at the conversion tool, Paste the URI you copied and click Convert. It will look like this:
Step #5 Success! Click the link to see your new Deezer playlist 🙂
A few notes:
Despite a lot of programming time, we weren't able to get Deezer to carry over the name of the playlist from Spotify. Renaming the Deezer playlist is a snap using the edit option shown below.
Check your new Deezer playlists for accuracy > differences between each service's music library and Meta Data = not every playlist will convert perfectly.
Any other questions?
Feel free to contact us like Cydnie did – we're happy to help.
Deezer is very close to launching here in the USA. How close? Close enough to have changed their landing page from; coming soon… to offering you an opt-in form so you'll be notified as soon as they do 🙂
Streaming service Deezer closes Canadian office
Music streaming service Deezer has closed its Canadian office as part of a consolidation under its new North American headquarters in San Francisco, but says it will continue to operate a full service in the country.
A Deezer spokesperson said Deezer has laid off a small Toronto team that included managing director Justin Erdman but “Canada remains a very important focus.
“While our local management activities are moving, Deezer will continue to provide music editorial expertise on Canadian artists, reviewing established and emerging home-grown talent for music fans in Canada and the rest of the world.,” the spokesperson said.
At first glance, Deezer seems to be a carbon copy of Spotify; same monthly costs, similar device apps, similar catalogs, etc… I have been told that Deezer is going to update their app to include a cross-fade. IMO cross-fade is a must have!
But wait to see what happens next with Deezer. The industry experts I've talked to say Deezer is a more progressive company (read open-minded) which could/should lead to more third party software providers and App developers choosing to work with them. Just maybe we'll finally see an Instructor focused device applications like ClassBuilder or the Schwinn Class Tamer running Deezer music.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. This iPad DJ mixing app called edjing runs Deezer, Soundcloud and your local iTunes MP3s. I'm dying to try it… but I can't right now because the app knows I'm in the USA.
It's “Equalizer” or “Equaliser” depending on what side of the pond your classes are held.
In a comparison of Deezer's and Spotify's iPhone Apps, I would always choose Spotify – their App includes adjustable crossfade playback. Once you have crossfade you won't want to go without it. Beyond that the IOS Apps are very similar.
A little bird notified me today that Deezer is going to release a new version of their music player App for both iPhone and Android soon… whatever that means? Based on the above graphic, the new Apps will allow higher quality 320kbps playback, crossfade and an Equalizer. I let you know when I hear more.
I know how to use crossfade effectively – OK, I just have it set at about 8 seconds and have left it there for at least a year.
But I'm going to be really curious to play with the Equalizer 🙂
Have you delivered your class music with your laptop and used the Equalizer that's in iTunes?
