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Tag: Spotify Apps

  • Spotify For Android Gets NFC Support

    The Spotify app for Android was updated today, complete with new Near Field Communication (NFC) support for phones running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The announcement on the Spotify blog specifies that app users look for the option under the “Audio Effects” menu in the Settings menu. Spotify has not specified whether the NFC support still works for the newer Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, or whether that support will come in the future.

    Supposedly, the feature will allow Spotify users to share music with other phones that have the same feature. It is unknown exactly what music the app will allow users to share. Spotify has subscription options that allow users to stream music of their choice. It seems unlikely that such music can be shared through the app, though it should at least allow users to share locally-stored music.

    The mobile industry has been slowly adding support and developing the infrastructure for NFC technologies. While high-end Android-based smartphones have had support for NFC for some time now, Apple has yet to implement the technology into their iPhones. Samsung recently released programmable TecTiles NFC stickers to coincide with the launch of its Galaxy S III smartphone.

    However, rumors earlier this year that the upcoming iPhone 5 would support NFC caused credit card companies and Walmart to invest heavily in building out digital wallet services. Though more recent rumors call for an NFC-less iPhone 5, this just goes to show how much market power even rumors about an iPhone can have.

  • Spotify Gets Romantic With New Apps, Becomes More Like A Dating site

    Spotify just announced a couple of partnerships and the launch of two apps aimed at matching you with potential romantic partners based on your musical tastes. The partnerships and apps come from Tastebuds.fm and Fellody.com.

    According to Spotify, the former will match you with a partner based on the artists you’ve listened to most on Spotify, as well as your collection of playlists. The latter lets you drag and drop Spotify playlists into the app to find friends and “potential love interests” with the highest match rate.

    “Your taste in music is one of the most common topics of conversation when meeting someone, whether they are a date or just a new friend, and it’s hugely important to have compatible tastes,” says Spotify’s Director of Platform, Sten Garmark. “Harmony on Spotify might just be a great way to find new friends or start a new relationship!”

    Tastebuds on Spotify

    Tastebuds on Spotify

    Tastebuds, Spotify

    Tastebuds.fm co-founder Alex Parish says, “Spotify and Tastebuds.fm both believe that music is the most effective way of connecting people.”

    According to Parish, 43% of first messages get a reply on Tastebuds. Parish says this is “a much higher response rate than non-music based dating sites.”

    “After our successful launch with Spotify in Germany, we are now very happy to welcome all Spotify users on Fellody, where they might get more groupies with their taste in music than Robbie Williams during the 90’s,” adds Fellody fco-founder Robin Simon. “With Spotify you have the world’s music at your fingertips and Fellody gives you instant access to a worldwide community of music lovers.”

    Tastebuds, Spotify

    “Actually, since we launched, our international user base is growing very fast – music lovers from more than 70 different countries talk, discuss and flirt on Fellody already,” says Simon.

    While the Spotify app platform is still very young, it’s already been very interesting to see the kinds of things being built upon it. Between its own apps and its expanding presence on Facebook, and now the iPad, Spotify is building up some serious momentum in the online music space.

    Both new apps are available within the Spotify App Finder.

  • Boxee’s Spotify App Gets A Major Update

    Boxee’s Spotify App Gets A Major Update

    Boxee has announced a major update to the Spotify app on their all-in-one streaming media box. The new app brings quite a few new features that users have been requesting including search, an updated inbox, and improved shuffle functionality.

    The new search function makes it easier to find tracks, artists, or albums you want to hear. The major draw of Spotify’s service is the ability to listen to any song from their catalog whenever you want, and to add it to your playlists. The addition of a search function to the Boxee app makes this much easier. The updated inbox allows you to know instantly when someone shares a playlist, song, or album with you. In addition to the new inbox, the update also brings notification icons that will pop up when someone has shared something with you.

    Check out a couple screen shots of the new Spotify app’s search feature and updated inbox:

    Spotify Boxee App

    Spotify Boxee App

    As with all Spotify apps (other than the desktop app), using Spotify on your Boxee requires a Spotify Premium subscription, which costs $9.99 per month. A free trial is also available if you’re not a Spotify subscriber.

    Do you have the new Spotify channel on your Boxee Box? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

  • Spotify, Echo Nest APIs Get Integration To Make Apps More Dev-Friendly

    Spotify and The Echo Nest have a new API integration. Sure, there were plenty of app integrations between the two before, but now a combined API offering should make things easier on developers.

    “Integrating Spotify’s artist and song IDs creates an efficiency where the developer now only has to use one ID structure to have access to The Echo Nest’s rich music data platform along with the streaming music of Spotify as well as our other partners in Rosetta Stone,” Shane Tobin, Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Echo Nest tells WebProNews.

    Rosetta Stone, if you’re not familiar, is a service that translates song and artist identifiers between music content and data APIs, including Twitter, Facebook, Lycicfind, MusixMatch, 7Digital, EMI, Free Music Archive, MusicBrainz, Rdio and Seatwave. The Echo Nest says it also makes it easy to leverage its core music discovery and personalization features within a Spotify app.

    Twitter connects verified accounts to it to enable developers a way to integrate tweets from artists into their apps.

    With the new API integration, apps can play display lyrics while playing songs, for example. Tweets and Facebook updaters from artists can be displayed, as can ticket offers. There are plenty more possibilities, and they stand to make Spotify better for users, depending on the apps they use.

    Spotify revealed its third-party app platform last last year. “Spotify has called its app platform the company’s biggest announcement since it launched, and rightfully so,” a representative from The Echo Nest tells us “In the first three months that Spotify apps were available, music fans listened to over 1,500 years of music within them.”

    “Giving the best app developers the tools to create amazing music apps is one of many areas where Spotify and The Echo Nest are driving the digital music industry forward,” she adds.

    The Echo Nest believes every Spotify app that relies on playlisting, personalization or discovery can benefit from the partnership.