Just a little over a year after Apple’s acquisition of Beats Electronics, the Cupertino-based company is now shutting down Beats’ online music streaming service in favor of its own Music streaming app – Apple Music.

In a post published on Beats Music’s website, the company has announced that it will be shutting down come November 30, which automatically signifies the closing down of all current subscriptions, though it promises that all picks and preferences of current subscribers will be moved to Apple Music.

To be fair, we already saw it coming ever since Apple announced its streaming service on WWDC. On the plus side, the transitioning of Beats Music to Apple Music provides a number of benefits to subscribers, primarily the ability to connect to artists for exclusive content – a feature that was absent in Beats Music. 

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites
    

Music streaming services like Spotify has definitely changed how people listen to music and so it goes without saying that companies are wanting to get a piece of that success. Apple is no exception and at this year’s WWDC in San Francisco, the company announced its answer to Sweden – Apple Music.

The service is brought about by the acquisition of Beats last year and naturally, Apple is relying heavily on the former’s expertise in the music industry to get its own music streaming service out in the market with a bang. 

The app will put all of a user’s music content in a single place – that includes album purchases, a streaming service and even a 24-hour live radio curated by real humans just like Beats Music. The app will also give users access to over 30 million songs on iTunes for streaming.

Apple Music just like Spotify will also take into consideration a user’s listening habits and create suggestions based on these information. The app also has a feature called “Connect” that will allow artists to post exclusive content into the platform giving them a direct link to their fans.

 

Furthermore, Apple has decided to integrate Siri into the app allowing users to listen to music by simply giving voice commands to their devices. The service will be available for free (at least for the first three months) by the end of the month. After the trial period expires, users are expected to pay $10 per month. 

There’s also going to be a $15 family bundle justs like Spotify, Rdio and other streaming services. The feature will of course initially be available on iOS but will eventually reach Android and Apple TV in the following months.

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites       

The era of the iPod might have already ended, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to say goodbye to audio-centric smart devices altogether. Sony for instance has just announced a new Walkman model at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – the Walkman ZX2.

The ZX2 is sporting a 4-inch FWVGA (480 x 854) display with Sony’s Triluminos display technology. The device connects to other devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and micro-USB. The new Walkman runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with access to Google Play enabling users to install different apps.

The new Walkman NWZ-ZX2 will be marketed as a device for audiophiles offering high-quality audio in different formats. As such, the device is capable of playing a multitude of formats including Apple’s Lossless and aiff format. Other notable features of the ZX2 include ClearAudio+, Clear Bass, DSEE HX, and VPT to name a few.

The new Walkman has a very specific target niche and consequently comes with a hefty price tag - $1200 to be exact. Surprisingly, it doesn’t come with bundled headphones, so if you’re planning to get one, you should also consider in your budget getting complimentary performance headsets.

The Smartwatch 3 has also received some goodies this week. On one hand, there’s now a stainless steel edition. The watch will have identical features as the ordinary Smartwatch 3 albeit the metallic strap. On the other hand, Sony also unveiled a holder for the smartwatch that will be available in the first half of the year.

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites
     

YouTube is slowly finding other means to earn revenue apart from its traditional pre-roll ad-delivery system. The Google-owned video streaming service is already offering paid subscriptions since May of last year for videos, but this week, it’s expanding its paid-subscription service into music with Music Key.

Just like its main competitor – Spotify, Music Key will eliminate ads in a user’s playlist and allows for background music playback, offline music and endless playlists. Those who are subscribed to Google Play Music will automatically get free passes to Music Key. The service will also make music recommendations based on what a user listens to on YouTube.

Unfortunately, Music Key is currently on a beta invite-only stage in certain countries including the United States, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland and the UK. Subscription fee is at $10 per month for the said markets with an international launch slated next year.

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites
     

Google has just purchased streaming app Songza for an undisclosed amount, giving the search giant a fighting chance against the Beats Electronics and Apple partnership.

Just like Beats Music, Songza uses algorithms and a team of DJs, musicians and music critics to curate playlists based on certain information such as weather and users’ activities. Possible applications of Songza’s technology include improvement of Google’s Play Music and the company’s upcoming paid subscription service for YouTube.

For now, Google is letting Songza continue with its operations independently, but it might not take long before the company integrates the app into a number of its services. The details of the deal aren’t public yet, but previous rumours peg the acquisition at around $15 million.

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites
     

Amazon has been doing some catch-up these past few months in terms of recent tech trends that a lot of consumers are now embracing. Aside from a long-rumoured smartphone, the e-retailing giant is reportedly planning to launch its own music streaming service as early as tomorrow.

But unlike the service offered by Spotify, Rdio or Beats Music, Amazon’s would serve as an add-on feature for its Prime subscribers rather than a full service for everyone. Because of this, the service is not as full-featured as those from its competitors. For starters it will only offer a limited number of songs and will not include new releases and new tracks from Universal Music Group.

According to a report by The New York times, the restrictions on the service was caused by Amazon’s and Univeral’s licensing terms, which according to the latter were too low. Currently, Amazon claims that they have over 20 million Prime subscribers, so even though the service isn’t quite at par with Spotify or Beats Music, there is still money to be made here. For now, we’ll just have to wait for an official announcement from Amazon.

UPDATE: Amazon has just launched Prime Music. The service is available for free to existing Amazon Prime subscribers who paid the $79 to $119 subscription.

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites
     

Online music streaming services are quite a thing these days. Aside from veteran services like Pandora and Last.fm, the selection of companies that are bringing cloud-based music subscription services have grown significantly in the past couple of years.

Presently, the most prominent players in the industry include Spotify, Rdio, Google Play and the recently announced Beats Music. This week, Korean tech giant Samsung is entering the arena with its Milk Music app.

The app is now available in the US Google Play Store but is only compatible with select Galaxy handsets including the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 2 and variants of the Galaxy S4 including the S4 Active and S4 Mini. It will also be compatible with the upcoming Galaxy S5 once it reaches stores worldwide.

The app will host up to 200 genre stations or approximately over 13 million songs curated with the help of Slacker Radio. The app’s user interface features a large dial at the center surrounded by nine different genre stations (15 stations are available). There’s also a Spotlight station that showcases the current trending songs and Milk Music exclusives.

Users are also given the ability to build their own station based on the particular artists or songs they listen to. The app is currently running ad-free but Samsung reps did mention that this is just temporary and that they will soon serve ads, but at what time this will be implemented remains unknown. 

Connect with The Techie Lifestyle on your favorite social networking sites