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Tag: streaming

  • Spotify now lets users share music on Facebook Stories

    Spotify now lets users share music on Facebook Stories

    Spotify has just made it possible for people listening to music to share it on Facebook Stories. If you want your friends and followers to know what songs you like, you can now share it on Facebook Stories and viewers will hear a 15-second preview before tapping to listen.

    Here is how you can do that: tap “Share” when viewing the track on Spotify, select Facebook, customize your Story, and post it to your followers. As mentioned earlier, your followers will get a 15-second preview that they can listen to, but they can also tap “Play on Spotify” if they want to hear more.

    The new feature is a logical step forward and an upgrade from the similar option that artists and their teams have been using for quite a while to promote their tracks, albums, playlists, podcasts, and more.

    For the time being, the preview feature will only play when a single track is shared to Stories. However, if you want to share other content like albums, playlists, or your profile, your followers will have the option to tap directly into that content on Spotify, but they won’t hear a preview.

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  • Google’s popular YouTube Kids app is getting a ‘Preschool’ filter and web version

    Google’s popular YouTube Kids app is getting a ‘Preschool’ filter and web version

    Back when Google unveiled the YouTube Kids app for Android and iOS devices in 2015, its goal was pretty simple and so was the execution of the product itself. Roughly four and a half years later, the children-friendly, parentally controlled video platform naturally looks far more mature and versatile, meeting the specific needs of more age groups and user categories than ever.

    After expanding its functionality to distinguish between “older” and “younger” users last year, YouTube Kids is now getting a third option to ensure even younger children can be kept protected from content deemed unsuitable for their age. We’re talking preschoolers aged 4 and under here, which will be served with videos that “promote creativity, playfulness, learning, & exploration” if their parents so choose.
    Of course, just like before, you’ll still also be able to select an “approved content only” option under which the search feature will be blocked and your child will merely get access to videos, channels, and collections hand-picked and green-lighted by yourself. Speaking of, you should continue to keep in mind that not all YouTube Kids content is manually reviewed and carefully grouped in the right age category, so if you end up activating the “preschool”, “younger”, or “older” setting, you’ll definitely need to keep an eye out for inappropriate videos and immediately report them as such.
    In other news, you might be happy to hear that after crossing 100 million installs through the Play Store alone, YouTube Kids will finally become available on the web as well. The app’s browser version is gearing up for an official launch “later this week”, although no further details are available at the moment.
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  • Disney+ will offer 4K video, four simultaneous streams and more for only $6.99 per month

    Disney+ will offer 4K video, four simultaneous streams and more for only $6.99 per month

    Disney+, the beloved entertainment company’s new streaming service, will launch on November 12th priced at $6.99 per month. During the D23 Expo held in Anaheim, the company revealed some additional information about the Netflix competitor. For example, instead of dropping a whole season of an original show at one time, Disney will release them on a weekly basis. And the House of Mouse will allow Disney+ subscribers to stream content to as many as four devices at the same time and will not charge extra for 4K video streams. Subscribers will also be able to create up to seven different user profiles.

    Netflix, on the other hand, is known for releasing entire seasons of new shows at one time, encouraging the binge-watching crowd to watch a complete season of a show in one sitting. While it allows up to five profiles to be created, Netflix subscribers must pay more ($15.99 per month) for 4K resolution and to stream on four devices simultaneously. This is a strange position for Disney to be in, as many fans of its theme parks will attest to (a one-day ticket to one park is a princely $109). But there is plenty of competition for your subscription dollars and Disney+ needs to bring in some revenue before it can even think about matching Netflix in terms of cost.

    “With less than three months until launch, Disney+ will soon entertain and inspire audiences of all ages for generations to come, and we’re excited to preview some of the amazing original content being created for the service exclusively from our world-class brands today at the D23 Expo. Storytelling is the cornerstone of The Walt Disney Company and we’re thrilled to unveil a new slate of original shows from the Star Wars and Marvel cinematic universes, along with popular television franchises set to return with all-new series streaming only on Disney+.”-Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-to-Consumer & International segment, Disney.

    Disney+ will be a mixture of classic Disney movies and animation (don’t forget that Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox means that the service will include every episode of The Simpsons) and original shows. The company has access to quite a few popular titles that will be used to create new adventures of popular characters. As pointed out earlier this year in a report from Loup Ventures, how many times can someone watch The Lion King? More likely to drive growth for Disney+ will be new episodes using the same characters from popular Disney classic cartoon and live films.

    Disney announced yesterday that new originals are in development for Disney+ including:

    • The Mandalorian-the first live-action episodic series based on Star Wars which will follow “the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”
    • High School Musical: The Musical: The Series-based on the popular High School Musical movies, this show “follows a group of students as they countdown to opening night of their school’s first-ever production of High School Musical.”
    • Lady and the Tramp-A “retelling” of the 1955 animated cartoon, but with real animal stars and CGI.
    • Noelle-A holiday-themed movie starring Anna Kendrick and Billy Eichner.
    • Encore!-This series brings former high-school musical castmates together to recreate shows they performed many years ago.
    • The World According to Jeff Goldblum-Enough said.

    Other shows announced include the return of Hilary Duff as Lizzie McGuire in a new series, Muppets Now which will reunite Kermit and Miss Piggy, and another live-action Star Wars show. The latter will focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi and will star Ewan McGregor.

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  • Apple TV+ will allow users to download content for offline viewing

    Apple TV+ will allow users to download content for offline viewing

    A report revealed that Apple’s video streaming service will be coming our way by November of this year, starting at $9.99 a month and likely with a trial period of some sorts to kick things off. Information about the features of Apple TV+ is scarce right now, but a fresh new leak may have revealed one of them – the ability to save offline content.

    New information was discovered in macOS Catalina (the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system) that suggests that Apple TV+ will allow users to download content for offline viewing. While digging through the code of macOS Catalina, MacRumors discovered lines that refer to Apple’s upcoming TV streaming service. The code suggests that the platform will offer offline viewing, but “with limitations on the total number of downloads, downloads per show or movie, or the total number of times a show or movie can be downloaded.”

    As with most other streaming services, Apple TV+ will also have a limitation on the number of simultaneous streams. If a user attempts to stream on more than the allowed number of devices at once, they will be greeted with a notification to first stop one of the other streams.

    With TV+, Apple is entering a very crowded and competitive field, dominated by the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. It’s going to be an uphill battle for the iPhone maker, but the company has already reportedly invested around $2 billion in its streaming effort, so it evidently has faith in this endeavor.

    Sources with knowledge of the work claim that the company is considering a release model that offers “the first three episodes of some programs, followed by weekly installments,” in contrast to Netflix’s “all-at-once” strategy, where entire seasons are released on the same day for binge-watching.

    Services are among the biggest money-makers for Apple, so it comes as little surprise that the company was so eager to dive into video streaming. In fact, while Apple’s biggest cash cow is still the iPhone, services are right behind it, making Apple more money than the iPad and Mac. Apple TV+ is an integral part of the company’s drive to reach $50 billion in services sales by 2020.

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  • Google Play Music subscription gifting removed

    Google Play Music subscription gifting removed

    It looks like Google no longer allows users to gift Play Music subscriptions via Android. The move is far from being surprising as the app rarely received updates and those that were pushed out added minor improvements and very few new features.

    The messages someone gets when trying to gift a Play Music subscription reads: “Important – Google Play Music subscriptions can no longer be purchased as gifts.” However, if you really want to gift someone a Play music subscription, there’s a workaround, but it involves using an older version of the Android app or simply gifting it through the web app.

    It’s unclear whether or not Google plans to bring back the feature in some other form, so, for now, you can only use the web app or the workaround mentioned above to gift someone a Play Music subscription from an Android device.

    Reports about Google phasing out Play Music and replacing it with YouTube Remix have been running around since April, so this might be one of the first steps towards its demise.

  • Spotify for Podcasters officially introduced

    Spotify for Podcasters officially introduced

    After a long period of testing, Spotify for Podcasters is finally out of beta. Described as a discovery and analytics dashboard, Spotify for Podcasters allows content creators to track many things like average listening times, episode streams, and total listeners.

    Long story short, if you’d like to obtain more details about the audience listening to your podcasts, as well as grow it based on the data received, Spotify’s new tool is the best thing it can happen to you.

    Besides demographic data and insight related to the audience, podcasters will also receive information about gender, music tastes, country data, as well as listening patterns, and more.

    With so many podcasts out there, it’s more important than ever that you have the data you need to help you understand and grow your audience. That’s exactly what your dashboard is designed to provide.
    The ultimate goal of Spotify’s new tool is to deepen the engagement between customers, as well as allow podcasters to grow their audiences and careers. Spotify for Podcasters is available for all content creators for free starting today.
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  • Apple Music app soon to receive dark mode on Android devices

    Apple Music app soon to receive dark mode on Android devices

    Unlike Google, Apple is a bit slower when it comes to adding dark mode to its Android apps, but that’s quite understandable. If you happen to use Apple Music on your Android smartphone, you’ll be pleased to know that an upcoming update will bring the long-awaited dark mode.

    If you want to try it out before Apple makes it available to everyone, you can install the beta version of the app via the Play Store. The guys at 9to5mac have recently spotted a new update to Apple Music beta, which adds not only a dark theme but also several features from iOS 13.

    Apart from dark mode, the update will also add the redesigned Now Playing UI and time-synced lyrics, which lets users follow along with their favorite music as it plays. The time-synced lyrics feature comes with appealing animations to make following along more fun, as well as some gesture controls that will allow you to jump to your favorite verse.

    Apple hasn’t yet committed to a release date for this update, but there’s a high chance that the new update will be pushed out around the same time Apple releases iOS 13 in the fall.

  • Hulu Live TV coming to Android TV in early August

    Hulu Live TV coming to Android TV in early August

    Hulu announced earlier today that its Live TV app will be available to Android TV users starting next month. The Hulu Live TV is already part of the Android 9.0 Pie update that is now rolling out to NVIDIA Shield TV units, but the app is said to be released in waves over the coming weeks.

    Anyway, starting early August, Hulu Live TV, and the updated UI will be available across a range of Android TV devices, including Sony’s Android TV, Xiaomi Mi Box, Hisense Android TVs, and, of course, NVIDIA Shield.

    In case you watch Hulu on any of these compatible devices, you’ll be able to subscribe to Hulu Live TVand gain access to live and on-demanded programming from more than 60 channels, including news, sports, and entertainment in one place.

    For the time being, the Hulu Live TV and the updated UI are compatible with the Android TV device mentioned above, as well as Apple TV (4th gen.), Amazon Fire TV devices, Amazon’s Echo Show, Roku devices, Xbox One, iOS and Android mobile devices, Nintendo Switch, select LG and Samsung TVs, VIZIO SmartCast TVs, Windows 10, Mac and PC browsers, and Chromecast.

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  • YouTube update lets users live stream directly from their Android phones

    YouTube update lets users live stream directly from their Android phones

    Google is bringing back the option to live stream gaming content directly from a smartphone, which was available since 2015 via the YouTube Gaming app. However, because the latter was killed off a few months ago, the option to live stream from a smartphone disappeared since it wasn’t included in the basic YouTube app.

    But that’s not an issue any longer, as Google has already implemented the ability to live stream a phone’s screen in YouTube 14.31.50 for Android, XDA Developers reports. The app’s support website has already been updated to reflect the new changes, so if you want to live stream directly from your phone, here is what you have to do:

    Select the capture button
    Select GO LIVE.
    At the top right of the screen, tap the phone icon to stream your phone’s screen.
    Create a title, then select a privacy setting and game title.
    Optional: select More options.

    • Add a description
    • Schedule for later
    • Tap Advanced settings for:
    • Enable or disable live chat
    • Enable or disable age restriction for your stream
    • Indicate whether your stream contains paid promotion and add a paid promotion disclosure
    • Enable or disable monetization

    Select Next to set your thumbnail and screen orientation.

    • The default thumbnail is based on the game title you chose. Customize the thumbnail by tapping the edit button on the top right of the thumbnail.
    • Select Landscape or Portrait orientation for your recording. Once you start recording, you won’t be able to change the orientation.

    Tap Next to finish setup.
    A toolbar will show up at the top of your screen, allowing you to control the stream.
    Hit GO LIVE button to start. A 3 second countdown animation will appear before your stream starts.
    “You are live” will stick for 3s before fading off screen.

    Although you’ll be able to live stream your mobile device screen directly from the YouTube app without any additional hardware, you need to be eligible for mobile live streaming (verified channel) and own a smartphone that runs Android version 6.0 or later.

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  • Comcast tweaks Xfinity Mobile data plans

    Comcast tweaks Xfinity Mobile data plans

    Comcast announced earlier today a handful of changes to its Xfinity Mobile data plans. The most important is the addition of a $20 fee per month for subscribers who want to stream HD video with an unlimited data plan. The move isn’t a surprise since Comcast revealed plans to introduce such a fee last year when it capped video resolution on unlimited plans to 480p.

    To stream HD video with an unlimited plan, you’ll have to buy an HD Pass, which costs $20 month. The new pass will upgrade to HD video resolution on Unlimited lines (720p on phone and 1080p on tablets) and allow subscribers to access faster speeds when the network is congested.

    Also, the announcement contains information about new Xfinity Mobile customers who will be able to customize the new data options and features. The new “By the Gig Shared Data” plans will allow users to pay per gigabyte and select a minimum amount of cellular data each month shared across all lines on an account.

    Xfinity Mobile offers 1GB for $12, 3GB for $30, and 10GB for $60. With the addition of the “by the gig” plans, the 480p video resolution cap has been completely removed, as video will stream in HD if you choose any of the option mentioned above.

    Last but not least, Xfinity Mobile introduces a $10 per month per line pass, which offers customers unlimited calls to Mexico and Canada.

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  • Tesla To Soon Get Netflix, YouTube Streaming Support

    Tesla To Soon Get Netflix, YouTube Streaming Support

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that people would be soon able to stream videos on digital platforms like Netflix and YouTube in parked Tesla electric vehicles. “Ability to stream YouTube and Netflix when car is stopped coming to your Tesla soon! Has an amazingly immersive, cinematic feel due to the comfy seats & surround sound audio,” Musk wrote on his Twitter handle.

    “When full self-driving is approved by regulators, we will enable video while moving,” he added.

    The desire to allow drivers and passengers to watch video is not a total surprise – Musk noted at E3 that the ability to watch YouTube was coming, The Verge said.

    Tesla has already unveiled games that drivers can play on the displays in their cars. The games also only work when the car is stationary so that the player can use the steering wheel as a controller.

    On Friday, the company announced that chess game is also coming to the Tesla Arcade.

    But there are huge concerns that come along with such features.

    Test vehicles are required to have a driver behind the wheel to take over in case something goes wrong, and even as self-driving technology improves, it’s hard to imagine that going away completely, the report said.

    In March 2017, an Uber self-driving car crashed into pedestrian in Arizona as the driver was watching The Voice on content streaming platform Hulu and lost track of the road.

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  • Apple Music trial may shrink from three months to just one

    Apple Music trial may shrink from three months to just one

    One way for music streaming services to expand their subscribers base is through trials. Offering their services for free for a limited is a great way to convince potential subscribers whether or not a service suits their needs.

    Apple is one of the not so many companies that offer a generous 3-month trial to those who want to try out its music streaming service. However, the situation might change.

    A new banner published on Apple’s page for accessories offers a one month free trial of Apple Music instead of the standard three-month free trial. It doesn’t look like this is a mistake, but it’s possible that Apple will start offering 1-month trials in addition to the usual 3-month trials.

    If you click on the banner, you will get the prompt for a three-month free trial in iTunes, so that’s encouraging. Also, Apple hasn’t yet officialized the move on the Apple Music website, so it remains to be seen whether or not this a mistake or the company plans to change the duration of its Apple Music trial.

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  • Apple Music grows to over 60 million monthly users worldwide

    Apple Music grows to over 60 million monthly users worldwide

    Apple Music and Spotify continue to compete for world domination, as both music streaming services claim they have many millions of subscribers. Up until now, Spotify was the supreme ruler with more than 100 million subscribers worldwide reported two months ago.

    Before that, Apple said it has amassed 56 million subscribers by December 2018. Six months later, the number didn’t increase as much as one would expect. French media (via Music Business Worldwide) reports Apple’s SVP of Services, Eddy Cue said the music platform exceeded 60 million users.

    We’re referring to them as users since Apple confirmed the number includes free trialists, so we’re not yet sure how many are actually paying for the service, although we do know they should probably be at least 56 million as Apple pointed out six months ago.

    With the latest improvements to its Music platform added in the latest iOS 13 version, such as time-synced lyrics, Apple hopes to bring even more subscribers under its umbrella in the coming months. It remains to be seen whether or not the pace at which Apple Music is adding new subscribers each month is too slow to beat Spotify for the world’s largest music streaming service title.

    It’s also worth mentioning that Apple Music has more subscribers in the US than Spotify and that the latter announced it reached more than 200 million monthly users back in April.

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  • YouTube Music update adds new Smart Downloads feature

    YouTube Music update adds new Smart Downloads feature

    Google’s music streaming service, YouTube Music is bringing users a brand new feature that will allow them to listen to their favorite songs even when they’re offline. The new feature is called Smart Downloads and will automatically download up to 500 songs that a YouTube Music user “liked.”

    That new feature will be available on Android devices first, but only for YouTube Music Premium subscribers. In order for the feature to work, you’ll have to enable Smart Downloads from the app’s menu. All downloads will happen while your phone is connected to Wi-Fi, hence the name Smart Downloads.

    Make sure that you have enough free storage though and if you don’t think your phone can take all your “liked” songs, you can select how many you want YouTube Music to download from within the settings.

    Unlike Offline Mixtape, a feature that’s available for YouTube Music users for quite some time, Smart Downloads doesn’t create a mix of songs that fit your taste profile and makes it available offline but rather downloads exactly the songs you like.

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  • Tencent launches first overseas video streaming in Thailand

    Tencent launches first overseas video streaming in Thailand

    Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd launched its first overseas video streaming service in Thailand on Friday, as it ramps up its presence outside China.

    Tencent is diversifying from its core Chinese gaming business, which has been beset by regulatory problems, pushing revenue growth to its slowest-ever in the first quarter.

    Tencent’s existing Thai user base made the country a good first target for its push into Southeast Asia, said Jeff Han, Senior Vice President of Tencent Penguin Pictures, which produces original content for the streaming business.

    “This is the market we need to first enter to try to see whether an overseas launch could be a success for us, so we can continue the challenge,” Han told reporters in a group interview in Bangkok.

    “We have our priority markets… the Chinese-speaking markets, which will be more receptive to our offerings,” he said.

    In Thailand, Tencent Video will be called WeTV and feature original Chinese content from Tencent Penguin Pictures with Thai dubbing, and content created with local partners, Han said.

    He declined to comment how much the company was investing overseas.

    WeTV adds to Tencent’s music streaming service JOOX and the mobile version of PUBG games in Thailand.

    Tencent’s video streaming subscriptions increased 43% in the first quarter of 2019 on an annual basis, contributing to a growth in digital content revenue, according to its latest results.

    Tencent Video in China claims over 89 million subscribers and more than 200 million daily active users.

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