Digital Digest – September 12, 2013

iHeartRadio launches in Australia 

One of the world’s most popular apps, iHeartRadio, launches in Australia today.

The app – America’s number one radio network Clear Channel’s free digital radio service – has been downloaded by more than 210 million users in the US. The app will allow access to over a thousand live stations from Australia, NZ and the US, including a number of digital-only stations, and is available on iPhone and Android.

“iHeartRadio is a free, incredibly easy to use service and the mobile app extends this experience allowing us to be everywhere our listeners are. This is our next step in bringing the world’s leading digital music service to market”, says ARN’s CEO Ciaran Davis.

ARN’s National Director for Digital and iHeartRadio Kate Beddoe said, “We’ve made it a priority to develop the iHeartRadio app as quickly as possible so that Australian users can now access the music, stations and exclusive US content they love on their phones anywhere, anytime.”

ARN is a joint venture between Clear Channel Broadcasting and APN News & Media. – NJ

iTunes Radio to launch next week 

The much anticipated iTunes Radio service is set to launch in the US this September 18.

The announcement was made during a press conference for the new iPhone in Cupertino, California. The radio service was just one of an estimated 200 new features available with the new iOS 7 software.

The free service will distinguish itself from rivals with the inclusion of “buy” buttons, giving users the opportunity to purchase streamed songs via iTunes.

Apple has secured deals with all major record labels to ensure iTunes Radio will draw from a large catalogue of music.

“Everybody agrees it’s going to be good for the business, ” Jim Urie, President of Distribution for Universal Music, told Rolling Stone earlier this year.

Users will have access to over 200 stations including the use of personalised stations dictated by the music they currently listen to on iTunes. They will also have to bear an audio advert every 15 minutes and a video each hour, thanks to sponsorship deals with multinational companies like Pepsi and Nissan.

An announcement has yet to be made as to when the service will be available in Australia. – NB 

Neil Young says his Pono music service will launch early next year

Though details remain scarce, Young has written on Pono’s official Facebook page confirming the “high-resolution” audio service and “updated” portable player will be ready to launch early next year.

Of the project Young wrote, “The simplest way to describe what we’ve accomplished is that we’ve liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio. So it has primal power. Hearing PONO for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theater on a sun-filled day.”

Young says his service will focus on the audio quality of recorded music, telling David Letterman his service will source files directly from studio masters.

“Now we can preserve the original works of all the great artists through the years from Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway, all the way up to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan and Jay Z.”

No official date has been set for the launch as yet – NB

New illegal music download site gains traction 

Digital Music News reports a troubling new development in the crack down on piracy: a Lithuanian site MyFreeMP3, which pretty much does what it says on the tin – offering the majority of artist’s catalogues for free streaming or download – without any advertising or royalty payments to artists. Basically, it’s Napster, with a streaming function.

The site is already one of the top sits in France, and although it claims to be a Russian website, users claim it actually orginates in Lithuania.

Digital Music News hypothesise that, unlike legal streaming sites, MyFreeMP3 “probably won’t respond to anything except a forced shutdown.” – NJ

Deezer links with Fat As Butter 

Music streaming service Deezer will deliver the music content of Newcastle’s Fat As Butter festival. The service is streaming FAB’s 2013 lineup. FAB is also again the final stage to Hunter Institute of Mental Health’s Youth Rockin’ the Black Dog band comp, encouraging young people to get discussing mental health issues with friends, family and networks and to promote a range of services to support young people. – CE

Universal Music Catalogue launch Electrospective app 

Electrospective, an indepth library spanning the electronic music sphere from 1958 to 2013, has announced a Spotify app.

The app offers playlists curated by luminaries, such as Mute records founder Daniel Miller, timely playlists (a Human League set) and artist focused playlists, like one highlighting Daft Punk collaborators.

Most interesting for music buffs will be the Electrospective tab which spans 550+ seminal albums, which can be searched by decade, sub-genre or artist.

Being the work of Universal Music Catalogue, the selection is, not surprisingly, only drawn from the catalogues of Virgin, Parlophone, EMI and Mute – although this does cover the work of influential artists such as Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers.