Rdio now available in Australia
Posted Friday, January 13, 2012 at 5:44 pm by Jason Cartwright
Internationally successful music subscription service Rdio is now available in Australia. There’s now a rapidly growing number of music services for Aussies to choose from, including Zune, Songl, JB Hi-Fi NOW and now Rdio. So lets take a look at how it stacks up.
To begin the free trial period only lasts 7 days instead of 30 like the others, although figuring out if its going to work for you probably won’t take that long. Once that time expires, then you’re left with two subscription options – Web only or Unlimited.
The Web only streaming gives you access to millions of songs using your desktop browser for A$8.90 per month. The Unlimited plan gets you streaming from the desktop as well as mobile clients for on-the-go listening. Rdio unlimited costs A$12.90 per month.
One great part of the Ultimate plan is that those of us with SONOS music systems around the house can also use Rdio. Previously Songl was the only available subscription service available for SONOS. While not exactly common place, those who have SONOS, love it, so it is a nice inclusion, but doesn’t appear to be listed as yet.
Mobile
The mobile apps are free and available in the App Store / Market / Marketplace now. While the Windows Phone and iOS apps are similar in functionality, the Android appears to be a little light on.
Like other subscription music services, you can download music for playback offline, but would need to connect after a period of time to check your subscription is still active.
It seems you can only stream from one device at a time, attempting to play Rdio on a second or third device will stop the first from playing.
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Price
While web-only might appeal to some, I consider a music service really only a viable option if they have a mobile solution. The table below compares the premium subscriptions of all four music subscriptions. Keep in mind that price alone shouldn’t be your only decision. NOW is the cheapest and it should be, no mobile apps and less music.
| Rdio | $12.90pm |
| Songl | $12.99pm |
| Zune | $11.99pm (119.90py) |
| NOW | $8.33pm (3 months min) |
Overall
It’s great to see more choice for consumers when it comes to music services. The model is definitely here to stay at as more consumers open their minds to streaming rather than owning music, the growth curve will only continue to the top-right. Personally I’m sold on the concept, as someone who enjoys the latest music, buying never really made sense.
So how does Rdio stack up compared to other local offerings ? The app support puts it ahead of JB Hi-Fi NOW, the iOS support puts it ahead of Zune, but then again doesn’t exist on the Xbox. When the SONOS component goes live that’ll really be enticing as mentioned above the only other option was Songl.
There doesn’t appear to be any noticeable quality differences between the services, so the choice really comes down to which offering matches your needs. In terms of Catalogue, I’ve found Zune to be the best, but so far Rdio is matching it. The exact number of tracks is in the millions but isn’t listed anywhere. Check it out, see what you think the trail is free for 7 days.
The free ride is over, will you pay for JB HI-FI NOW ?
Posted Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 7:48 pm by Jason Cartwright
It’s been around a month since JB Hi-Fi launched which means the free ride is over. With the trial expiring it’s time to decide if you’re going to lay down the cash and subscribe to the service. While JB Hi-Fi has a unique web interface and some pretty great social features like mixed tape, there are some serious draw backs to their offering.
First off JB Hi-Fi NOW does not have any mobile apps, meaning its only available via the web. The expectation of most people these days is that services have a mobile version for access while you’re out and about. The lack of a mobile applications on iOS, Android and Windows Phone is a big omission.
The catalogue of music isn’t as extensive as competitor Zune, but does that matter? Its not important that they have every track in the world, but rather the tracks you want to listen too. So how have you found the trial in terms of content?
Personally I think I think NOW is a decent offering from JB Hi-Fi, particularly as this is the first serious web app they’ve built. When we first heard about the service, it was a little concerning based on their seriously pathetic website. Ultimately the web app is fantastic, but the lack of a mobile solution means I won’t be paying for it on-going.
LiveScene keeping local gigs alive in the 21st century
Posted Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 1:14 pm by Jason Cartwright
Brisbane-based tech startup LiveScene has launched today. LiveScene allows users to discover live music events in your area and allows promoters to connect with music fans. At the heart of today’s launch, is an iPhone app which is now available for free in the App Store.
After firing up the app and discovering a number of music events around your current location, it’s clear they are solving a real problem. While A-list music artists can rely on sales from large-scale services like Ticketek work great, but fail to service smaller local gigs.
Founder of LiveScene, Sean Bunton says “With live music venues losing customers to popular clubs and being forced to close, it’s clear that people are struggling to discover and support local live music. We are here to help.”
Users can access a map-view with events pinned around your GPS-located position, or choose from a list view if that’s more your style. As with any good local, mobile app, there’s also social included with Facebook integration. This means when you discover a live music event, you can share it with your friends, to find someone to go with.
Management
LiveScene also helps bands and band management by providing tools to promote their events. The iPhone app makes it easy for artists to add events to LiveScene, then share them in seconds. Events promotion Push Notifications can be purchased in batches of 50 for A$5.49. These can be used to remind fans of the artist that the event is starting soon and increase ticket sales.
Using location aware Push Notifications is a modern and highly targeted form of marketing, and LiveScene is smart and can detect how many users are near a particular venue. You can then schedule the notifications to go out 30 minutes before an event begins, or you can send them out instantly! You are much more likely to get people through the doors if they are standing right outside.
Another option is to have your event promoted in the app, which can be purchased for $0.99. The app still only displays promoted events to people in that location, which makes sense as they are the most likely to make it to the gig.
Other platforms
Right now the website’s devoted to the iPhone app download, but I’d love to see this transferred to another portal for finding local gigs, similar to Foursquare’s web version which surfaces items in your area. Some devices are starting to ship with GPS chips embedded for use with location-aware websites, until then this process has to be manual, best guessing form an IP-address doesn’t work.
Let’s hope Android and Windows Phone users also see an app for LiveScene released shortly. The goal is admirable, but only truly achievable when all platforms are supported. Now go enjoy your music!
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More information @ LiveScene
JB Hi-Fi NOW, streaming music service beta goes live
Posted Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:30 pm by Jason Cartwright
Today we get another entrant into the ultra-competitive streaming music service landscape in Australia. Music retailer JB Hi-Fi has just gone live with the beta of their offering called NOW. You can try out the service now for 1 month free, just signup using your mobile number at https://now.jbhifi.com.au. After a quick verification process, you’ll have access to over 10 million tracks and over 100,000 artists.
Design
Design wise the site is actually pretty slick, using a lot of AJAXY goodness to position content across your screen regardless of the resolution. The UI varies significantly from screen to screen, at times appearing as a cross between Metro-style and the front page of The Verge. It is however only web-based right now, but expect mobile apps to arrive shortly for iPhone and Android, as always WP7 support is a question mark.
Discovery and social
Music discovery along with social Mix Tapes is a big differentiator for NOW. If you come across a user that selects music that suits your tastes, then you can follow them to hear more. Along with standard sales charts, there’s also JB Recommendations as well as the wisdom of the crowds to choose from. There’s even a list of influential people on the service that right now looks like those that have the most followers.
Pricing
After your one month is up, you’ll need to pay for access to NOW. Prices start at $25 for 3 months ($8.33pm), up to 12 months for $80 ($6.67pm). Payment options include PayPal, Credit Card, JB Hi-Fi Gift Card or a dedicated NO Music Card. It is also important to remember there’s no option to download individual tracks to keep, this is purely streaming only.
Competition
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice these prices are cheaper than Microsoft’s Zune Pass offerings at $12pm or $120py, the reason is that NOW has a smaller catalogue. The other Aussie music service Songl is priced at $8.99pm at the entry level or $12.99 for higher quality.
While you can’t go month to month at this stage, JB-HiFi is NOW the cheapest way to get into subscription in Australia. There’s likely to be opportunities in-store to try out the catalogue or use the free trial to see it meets your needs.
The FAQ page provides some interesting insights into the issues related to putting this service together.
Why can’t I find a certain notable Artist or Song ?
JB Hi-Fi NOW holds the license to over 10 Million Song. There are three main reasons why certain tracks or artists are not currently available on JB Hi-Fi NOW. 1. We are still loading them. The service has live over 90% of all tracks consumed digitally in Australia and we adding tens of thousands more each day 2. Some artists have chosen not to make their music available for online streaming services. We really hope that they change their minds in the future. As soon as they do, they’ll be very welcome on JB Hi-Fi NOW. 3. Some artists have divided their rights between different record labels that cover different regions. This means their music will be available in Country A but not in Country B. This will become less of an issue as we sign more deals.
Overall
There’s actually some really interesting things going on with NOW, so check it out and let me know what you think. First impression are good, but without dedicated desktop or mobile applications, it’s really hard to compare. The lack of a desktop client could have been largely mitigated had they supported IE9’s pinned sites for playback. If you’d like to follow me on NOW, you can do that NOW.
More information @ https://now.jbhifi.com.au
The other subscription music service, Songl launch a disaster
Posted Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 7:04 pm by Jason Cartwright
Update
Despite switching on the website and launching the Android app, Songl claims that it didn’t actually launch today. A tweet from them says the ‘Official launch of Songl coming soon’.
There was actually two music streaming services that launched in Australia today, although you’d hardly know it. Songl, the joint venture between Sony and Universal, is the renamed anubis.fm that we’ve covered before on techAU. Unfortunately they couldn’t have chosen a worse day for the launch.
Songl’s launch had to compete with the 500 pound gorilla – Microsoft’s Zune Music. After launching internationally a couple of years ago, there was a lot of pent up demand for Zune and actually reasonable brand recognition.
Socially, the last two days have seen twitter flooded with tweets of international attention about Zune’s Australian launch. Sadly the only tweet today about Songl, was from Songl’s own twitter account.
To make matters worse, the Songl iPhone app isn’t available on launch day for download. Instead is currently waiting approval from Apple. With mobile apps being sold as one of the new features that would make Songl better than anubis.fm, it seems like a big miss step. There is however an Android application available.
The last piece of the sad launch for Songl is its integration with Sonos. Unfortunately there’s no Sonos update to remove references to anubis.fm and replace it with Songl.
I’m not sure what kind of budget has been allocated, but I kind of feel bad for them, with this promotional video being the best marketing they can muster.
Overall the only thing that has gone right is the launch of the website, now live you existing and new users can sign in.
More info @ Songl.
Zune Music Pass now available in Australia
Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 12:48 pm by Jason Cartwright
Originally scheduled for release tomorrow (16th November 2011), it seems Microsoft have pulled the trigger early. Users can now signup for a Zune Music Pass. The three options available are 14-day free trial, 12-month subscription for $119.90 and 1 month for $11.99.
The music can be played back on the web, desktop Zune client, WP7 and soon Xbox 360. With access to over 11 million tracks, $12 seems like a pretty good deal. The biggest issue facing Zune is the lack of iPhone and Android support. Naturally Microsoft want Zune Music to drive sales of Windows Phones, but there’s likely to be plenty of people happy with their smart phones that would love to use Zune Pass.
For Windows Phone 7 users, this is the music solution that has been missing from the platform in Australia. Until now, users were forced to obtain music from other services and sync to their device. Zune Pass now makes WP7 a viable solution for music and media lovers.
Update
Looks like you’ll only be able to stream Zune music on one device at a time. It also looks like the free trial turns into $12 per month subscription after 14 days unless you opt out.
Update 2
While Zune Pass is available through the web, Zune desktop software and Xbox, it is still yet to reach Windows Phone devices.
Update 3
Zune just added a special Australian tile in the Zune desktop software to welcome Australians to the social. This confirms what we told you 6 hours ago, Zune Music is now available in Australia.
Update 4
This morning things got official, with the update of the front page at Zune.net/en-au (by the way Microsoft, please register zune.net.au). It seems Microsoft found an extra couple of million tracks in their catalogue, now number 13 million.
More info @ Zune.net/en-au
