All posts tagged: Spotify

I turned off a few default Spotify settings and my battery life noticeably improved

I turned off a few default Spotify settings and my battery life noticeably improved

Published by skeptic

Spotify is my favorite music player for listening on the go. For anyone who remembers going off to college with a bag full of CDs and a clunky Discman, having 110 million songs in your pocket at all times is nothing short of a miracle. However, one common problem remains today: conserving battery life. After noticing my phone was draining faster than usual during long listening sessions, I realized that some of Spotify’s default settings prioritize convenience, visuals, and continuous connectivity over battery efficiency. Turning off a handful of these features made a noticeable difference to my battery life, and the best part is that it didn’t negatively affect my listening experience in the slightest. Related Spotify’s latest updates are actually useful for once Back to basics — in a good way Turn off Canvas The looping animations look nice, but they drain resources Spotify’s Canvas feature displays short looping videos behind many tracks while they’re playing. The effect might look great, especially when discovering new music, but it also requires your phone’s display and …

Inside Madonna’s Horny, Full-Throttle Grindr Takeover

Inside Madonna’s Horny, Full-Throttle Grindr Takeover

Published by skeptic

As tourists in Times Square made their way to The Lion King or Olive Garden on Thursday, they may have noticed the notoriously crowded area was more dense than usual. When the Grindr logo flashed in pink, the reason became clear: Mutha was here. The “mutha” in question was Madonna. Since April, she’s been the new face of the app. The partnership culminated in a 20-minute concert featuring songs from her upcoming album Confessions on a Dancefloor: Part II, complete with a flash mob of dancers in the crowd. Madonna emerged from one of the giant screens, singing and dancing on a spinning stage from a suspended balcony; in addition to new music, she launched into a trio of hits from 2005’s Confessions on a Dancefloor, including the megahit “Hung Up.” Courtesy of Madonna; Photographed by Ricardo Gomes For Grindr users, the advertising for Madonna’s 15th album has been hard to miss. When users opened the app on April 24, Madonna’s voice greeted them with “Hello, it’s mother.” The app’s homepage perpetually has a banner …

Phoebe Bridgers Ditched the Internet to Hype Up Her New Music. It’s Working

Phoebe Bridgers Ditched the Internet to Hype Up Her New Music. It’s Working

Published by skeptic

For six years, I have found myself randomly wondering, “Is this the year Phoebe Bridgers finally puts out a new album?” The answer has always been a resounding “no.” That changed on May 8, when mysterious flyers appeared in Roswell, New Mexico, announcing a show that same day at the Liberty, a venue that holds a few hundred people. Equally small pop-ups announced by flyer have followed in places ranging from Lubbock, Texas, to Macon, Georgia. On Thursday, another pop-up—also announced via flyer—is happening at a decidedly bigger venue: Madison Square Garden, where Tidal is a sponsor and tickets are $1. Yet despite her run of nearly 20 shows, I haven’t heard a single note of new music. No recording is allowed, with concertgoers required to put their phones in Yondr pouches. The dearth of information has turned fans into investigators trying to determine where the next show will be and if—or when—a new album is coming. When there’s a “firehose of music and content, scarcity becomes a powerful tool,” says Jesse Sachs, a culture …

4 Android Auto apps I highly recommend for your next road trip – beyond Maps and Spotify

4 Android Auto apps I highly recommend for your next road trip – beyond Maps and Spotify

Published by skeptic

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. Thanks to Android Auto, your phone can be one of your most useful road trip tools, handling your navigation, your entertainment along the way, and more. Apps like Google Maps and Spotify get most of the attention, but they’re far from the only apps you need for your next road trip. Some of these will save you money, some will save you time, some just make your drive a little easier, but all of them will have you wondering how you ever road-tripped without them. Also: Does Android Auto make your phone overheat? Try these 8 ways to cool it down Here’s a look at the four best Android Auto apps for your next road trip, plus a bonus recommendation that’s not Android Auto-compatible but is absolutely worth a download.  Artie Beaty/ZDNET MyRadar: You probably have your favorite weather app, and it might give you pretty reliable forecasts. But nothing slows down a road trip like stormy weather, and MyRadar is one of my favorite …

Google goes for the glitter with disco-ball icons: ‘Are y’all sure you still want this?’

Google goes for the glitter with disco-ball icons: ‘Are y’all sure you still want this?’

Published by skeptic

So bad, it’s good? Google on Friday joined in the disco ball icon fun taking place on home screens everywhere. After Spotify’s temporary new disco ball app icon, released to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, drew extensive online backlash (and a bit of praise for those who like a little kitsch!), Google decided to get in on the joke and rolled out a custom set of Android app icons sporting a similar disco ball theme. On X, Android ecosystem head Sameer Samat posted, “Your wish is our command. Disco icons available on Pixel as of today … Are y’all sure you still want this?” His post included a screenshot of a Pixel phone fully decked out with sparkly, disco-ball-inspired icons, which looks just as terrible (incredible??) as it sounds. The new icons are available through Pixel’s relatively new custom icons feature, which allows users to choose from different AI-generated styles for their app icons. Before this, users could only customize their icons by changing their colors to match the phone’s wallpaper and theme. Image Credits:screenshot of …

Spotify’s AI bet: more of everything, less of what you want

Spotify’s AI bet: more of everything, less of what you want

Published by skeptic

Spotify was a music app at one time. Then it added podcasts. Then audiobooks. Now the company is piling AI features into its app at a pace that can feel overwhelming. The latest wave, announced at its investor day, skews heavily toward using AI to generate content rather than using AI to help users find content they actually want. Until now, Spotify has been largely a platform for human-created content — music, podcasts, and audiobooks. As it adds AI-powered tools to generate all of those formats, the app is poised to look very different. That shift is also creating friction — AI can now produce music faster than Spotify can manage it. Last year, the company was criticized for not properly labeling AI music. Following that backlash, Spotify changed its policy and adopted the DDEX industry standard — a widely used labeling system for identifying AI-generated tracks — for its catalog. Now Spotify has signed a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG) that allows fans to create AI covers and remixes of existing songs. While …

Spotify’s Next Era? AI and Content Generation

Spotify’s Next Era? AI and Content Generation

Published by Daniella Wilson

Spotify is leaning further into AI as it holds to its promise of reaching 1 billion active users by 2030.  At the company’s investor day in New York Thursday, executives laid out the planned pathway for hitting that number, as well as $100 billion in annual revenue, with new features including the ability to create AI-generated personalized podcasts, user-generated covers and remixes using AI and more. Spotify also plans to continue creating more paid add-on services or subscriptions, alongside its audiobooks offering, which they say has been one of its most-engaged segments on the platform.  As co-CEO Gustav Söderström laid out, in the beginning, the company’s motto was access. Spotify then moved into personalization, with curated playlists and more. Next up is “generation,” drawing on AI tools to help create content on the platform.  “We’re entering the era of generation, where the experience isn’t just selected from a catalog. It’s shaped by each of our users, in real time, around their taste, context, and intent. Today, there is no media player for both public and …

Spotify and Universal Music strike deal allowing fan-made AI covers and remixes

Spotify and Universal Music strike deal allowing fan-made AI covers and remixes

Published by skeptic

Watch out, Suno. Spotify on Thursday announced it has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) to allow fans to use generative AI technology to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs. The tool will launch as a paid add-on available only to Spotify’s Premium subscribers and will offer a revenue share with participating artists for the AI-generated music based on their work. The company did not share pricing or a launch date for the new tool, only that the two companies had come to a licensing agreement. However, Spotify had teased its plans last year, noting that it was working with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Merlin, and Believe to develop artist-first AI products. The AI tools would be created through “upfront agreements, not by asking for forgiveness later,” Spotify said at the time, an obvious swipe at other players in the space, like Suno. Among the principles Spotify outlined: artists and rightsholders should be able to choose if and how they participate in AI tools, and if they do, …

Spotify Will Reserve Concert Tickets for Superfans

Spotify Will Reserve Concert Tickets for Superfans

Published by Daniella Wilson

Spotify is hoping it can lend a hand in getting concert tickets to an artist’s biggest fans, as the streaming service revealed “Reserved” on Thursday during its investor day, a new feature that as it sounds, sets aside tickets for premium subscribers so they have a better shot at buying them. “Getting concert tickets today can feel like a race you’re set up to lose,” Spotify wrote in a post on Thursday. “You show up at the right time, refresh endlessly, and still miss out. Too often, the experience is stressful, unpredictable, and disconnected from what should matter most: whether real fans actually get tickets. We think there’s a better way.” Spotify said that starting in the U.S. this summer, select artists will be able to use Reserved to set aside tickets for fans on the platform. The platform has partnered with Live Nation on the program as part of a multiyear agreement. The platform will use streams, shares and other types of activity to “identify an artist’s most dedicated fans and hold two tour …

I ditched Spotify for a self-hosted music server and never looked back

I ditched Spotify for a self-hosted music server and never looked back

Published by skeptic

Spotify and YouTube Music are convenient until you start noticing the cracks. Tracks disappear when licensing deals fall through, algorithms push convenience over your own preferences, and anything you download is just a temporary rental you don’t really own. If you’ve been frustrated by any of that, self-hosting your music library is worth looking into. There’s a great app that runs on surprisingly modest hardware while giving you full control over your collection, your metadata, and your listening habits. If you’re frustrated with Spotify, it’s time to switch. Related This Streaming Service Is the Best Way to Find Unique New Music If you’re done with Spotify’s lacklustre curated playlists, give this a whirl instead. The limitations of mainstream music platforms Streaming services are just a rental model that can fail at any time Shaheer Khan/MakeUseOf Music streaming was supposed to make things easier, but many people are finally hitting the walls that come with apps like Spotify or YouTube Music. These downsides show that we don’t really own the music we pay for. We’re renting …