Digital music

This fall, Microsoft will roll out a number of updates to its Zune desktop client and related music and video services, allowing more content on more devices, in more countries than ever before.

First announced during June's E3 conference, Xbox Live Gold members will soon be able to stream on-demand music from the Zune catalog of 11 million tracks directly to their consoles. This service will complement the Zune Video Marketplace service, which has been on Xbox Live for more than a year, allowing HD video rental and purchases.

The Zune music service itself will also see an international expansion, as well as a transition to a 100 percent MP3-formatted download catalog. New regions capable of making song purchases include the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Purchases can be made using Microsoft's free, PC-only Zune software, or any Windows Phone 7 device. … Read more

Slacker Radio first launched in 2007 as an intuitive online music player that let you stream a variety of preprogrammed and custom-made radio stations based on your favorite artists and songs. Since then, the service has added a continuous array of new features, from its own short-lived devices to apps for your Blackberry and iPhone to Twitter feed functionality. Tonight at an event in New York, Slacker, Inc. will show off its latest offering: Premium Radio.

Slacker Premium Radio will offer all the features of Radio Plus--no ads, no skip limits, mobile station caching--with the added benefit of on-demand functionality. … Read more

Maybe you thought Apple's latest unveiling of iPods was the best refresh the product line has seen in years. Or, perhaps you're a little burned out after a year of iPads, iOS, iPhone 4, and antenna-gate. Personally, as CNET's resident expert on all things portable audio, it was nice to get a new crop of iPods to play with and put through their paces.

Call me a geezer, but I still carry an iPod separate from my phone. One of these days, I'm sure I'll bite on a new smart phone to make my iPod … Read more

Along with a refresh to most of its iPod line, Apple's annual digital media event included a refresh to iTunes. The music and video management software revved to version 10 and is supposed to be available today for both Windows and Mac users. I followed CNET's live coverage of the event as the announcement unfolded, including participating in a chat room loaded with Buzz Out Loud viewers, and the response to the refresh was a pretty much universal "meh."

I can't help but say that I agree with that general consensus. Version 10 of iTunes … Read more

Long before the iPhone, the iPod was the device that helped transform Apple from computer company into a consumer electronics company.

But today, the ubiquitous music player has become less relevant to the company that essentially owns that product category. Apple still sells three-fourths of all MP3 players sold, but multifunction gadgets like the iPhone and iPad are getting the most attention from Apple customers, not to mention the rest of the electronics industry, and bringing in more revenue than iPods these days.

So when Apple convenes a special event in San Francisco to discuss music this Wednesday--as it has … Read more

Editors' note: Since this post was published, a representative for Pandora has informed us that the new feature will not be available until Wednesday. At that time, users will be able to fully explore the functionality at the service's genre page, which is currently under construction.

Tuesday morning, Pandora introduced a handy new feature for its online streaming service: genre-based station creation. Before now, users could use only artists, songs, or composers as "seeds," which are the basis for the mixes that are then provided via the Music Genome Project. The new capability offers listeners a way … Read more

Jukeboxes have populated local watering holes for decades, providing countless hours of entertainment for patrons. Now that nearly every place has a network connection--and just about any song you'd ever want to hear is available online--the digital jukebox is slowly replacing the traditional vinyl-spinning models (for better or worse).

One of the largest providers for pay-to-play music via digital jukeboxes is TouchTunes, which offers both the hardware and the music to go with it. Now, the company is expanding its purview to include a Web-based service called MyTouchTunes, which lets users create playlists at home and then access them later at nearly any location with a TouchTunes jukebox.

The service is straightforward enough in concept if not quite in site design. The interface isn't terrible, but it could use a little tweaking. For example, you have to search for music to add to a playlist--not the worst, but it would be nice to be able to click an add button from the playlist itself, and then be presented with a search option on just that page. Navigating is easy enough, with the myMusic button in the left nav and the location search in the right column being the most immediately useful options. There's also a Create a Playlist box on the right shoulder, and this could stand to be more prominent (I'd also like to see it integrated directly into the myMusic space).… Read more

If you're looking to get your music collection stored in the cloud, two of the best options out there are MP3tunes and mSpot.

Both services offer a free starter plan capped at 2GB. They both integrate with iTunes or can be configured to manually upload music from specific folders. You can stream over any browser, or by using their dedicated mobile apps. The two services have so much in common, actually, that it can be hard to decide which one to use.

So, if you're sick of waiting around for Google or Apple to create their own long-rumored … Read more

Music subscription service Rdio first gained attention back in June when Kazaa founders originally announced it as their latest foray into the digital music space. Now, the service has come flying out of private beta and is tempting residents of the U.S. and Canada with tiered subscription pricing that allows unlimited streaming from a catalog containing more than 7 million tracks (compared to more than 10 million for Rhapsody).

Rdio's pricing is on par with Rhapsody, although there is a lower cost option for those who don't need on-the-go use. $4.99 per month will get you … Read more