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Gracenote taps Musicmetric to help identify new artists before they go mainstream

Mar05
by on March 5, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Livemusic 520x245 Gracenote taps Musicmetric to help identify new artists before they go mainstream

Gracenote has announced that it’s reeling in social analytics data from Musicmetric to its Gracenote Rhythm platform.

Gracenote has established itself at the forefront of the media metadata industry and, back in January, we reported on the company’s new Rhythm API. The platform gives developers access to a new set of music suggestion algorithms, which can then be weaved into apps and services that offer radio stations, or infinite playlists based on a specific artist, album, track or genre. It’s all about enabling music discovery and accurate recommendations in third-party services.

Musicmetric, on the other hand, is a platform from UK-based startup Semetric, that delivers data about musicians’ popularity online, covering every cranny from Twitter to BitTorrent. This latest deal will see Gracenote take Musicmetric’s data to help it identify new and emerging artists before they hit the mainstream.

Back in January, we reported that Gracenote was also incorporating Next Big Sound’s real-time music consumption and trending data into its products. Similar to Musicmetric, Next Big Sound is an online analytics platform that measures the popularity of bands across the Web, covering music-streaming services, social networks and radio. So today’s news is basically helping Gracenote double-down on this front.

Read Next

– Tribune acquires Gracenote from Sony to create a media metadata powerhouse
– Musicmetric wants to help the entertainment industry dig even deeper into music data and fan sentiment

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Twitch unveils new SDK to support live broadcasting, capturing and archiving in mobile games

Mar05
by on March 5, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

152826339 520x245 Twitch unveils new SDK to support live broadcasting, capturing and archiving in mobile games

Twitch today announced a mobile software development kit (SDK) that will enable developers to add live broadcasting, capturing and archiving features to their smartphone and tablet games.

While the streaming service continues to grow, most of the games being broadcast at the moment are from traditional consoles and PCs. That’s because the set up required to stream a mobile game has always been more complex than PC titles; consoles used to be just as difficult, although the new PlayStation 4 integration and fast-approaching Xbox One app has made an impact.

Given the popularity of smartphone and tablet games, it should come as no surprise that Twitch wants to target these platforms next. The mobile SDK will, if developers choose to support it, allow players to capture and broadcast their gameplay, in addition to video from the front-facing camera and audio from an internal or external microphone.

Depending on their connection, broadcasters can also tweak the quality of their streams and archive their sessions so they can be viewed at any time by the rest of the Twitch community. Given the PlayStation 4 integration doesn’t support video archiving just yet, it’s clear that Twitch sees mobile games, broadcasting and streaming as crucial factors for its long-term growth.

Today, Twitch also announced that its official iOS and Android apps have surpassed 10 million installs combined. While viewing and broadcasting are certainly different, it further highlights the growing interest and community around mobile games. TwitchPlaysPokemon, a social experiment that allows millions of people to control the same single player game by submitting commands in the chat window, is a perfect example.

A release date for the mobile SDK hasn’t been given just yet. When it’s available for developers, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Read Next: Xbox One to get Twitch game streaming on March 11, just in time for Titanfall / Justin.tv, owner of video game streaming service Twitch, changes its name to Twitch Interactive

➤ Twitch

Image Credit: VESA MOILANEN/AFP/GettyImages

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Twitch unveils new SDK to support live broadcasting, capturing and archiving in mobile games

Mar05
by on March 5, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

152826339 520x245 Twitch unveils new SDK to support live broadcasting, capturing and archiving in mobile games

Twitch today announced a mobile software development kit (SDK) that will enable developers to add live broadcasting, capturing and archiving features to their smartphone and tablet games.

While the streaming service continues to grow, most of the games being broadcast at the moment are from traditional consoles and PCs. That’s because the set up required to stream a mobile game has always been more complex than PC titles; consoles used to be just as difficult, although the new PlayStation 4 integration and fast-approaching Xbox One app has made an impact.

Given the popularity of smartphone and tablet games, it should come as no surprise that Twitch wants to target these platforms next. The mobile SDK will, if developers choose to support it, allow players to capture and broadcast their gameplay, in addition to video from the front-facing camera and audio from an internal or external microphone.

Depending on their connection, broadcasters can also tweak the quality of their streams and archive their sessions so they can be viewed at any time by the rest of the Twitch community. Given the PlayStation 4 integration doesn’t support video archiving just yet, it’s clear that Twitch sees mobile games, broadcasting and streaming as crucial factors for its long-term growth.

Today, Twitch also announced that its official iOS and Android apps have surpassed 10 million installs combined. While viewing and broadcasting are certainly different, it further highlights the growing interest and community around mobile games. TwitchPlaysPokemon, a social experiment that allows millions of people to control the same single player game by submitting commands in the chat window, is a perfect example.

A release date for the mobile SDK hasn’t been given just yet. When it’s available for developers, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Read Next: Xbox One to get Twitch game streaming on March 11, just in time for Titanfall / Justin.tv, owner of video game streaming service Twitch, changes its name to Twitch Interactive

➤ Twitch

Image Credit: VESA MOILANEN/AFP/GettyImages

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WeTransfer arrives for iOS allowing you to send up to 10GB of photos or videos in one go

Mar05
by on March 5, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Launches

Photos 520x245 WeTransfer arrives for iOS allowing you to send up to 10GB of photos or videos in one go

WeTransfer, the service for sending large files across the Web, has just launched its first iOS app designed to speed up the process of sharing hi-res photo or video files from a mobile or tablet.

Initially geared just towards uploading and sharing videos and photos, the WeTransfer app will allow up to 10GB of files to be shared directly from an iPhone’s Camera Roll over either a 3G/4G or WiFi connection.

Handily, the app has no problem switching between a mobile data connection and WiFi, so if you need to pause a download part way through – or you lost connection – there should be no problem there either. Naturally, if you’re on a plan with a metered mobile data limit, you might want to save the largest uploads or downloads for when you’re connected to WiFi once again.

To make it easier to manage your files, WeTransfer has incorporated gesture controls into the app, for example, you can find images quickly by swiping with two fingers to jump between months or you can skip to the last image in a folder by swiping with three fingers.

WeTransfer WeTransfer arrives for iOS allowing you to send up to 10GB of photos or videos in one go

The app is available to download and use for free, but WeTransfer ‘Plus’ account holders can store up to 50GB of data in the company’s own cloud for accessing from any device. The Plus membership costs a flat fee of $10 per month, charged as an annual payment of $120.

From the sounds of it, this is only the first step in the company’s bid to build out a wider platform, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see this extended beyond photography and video files in the near future.

While it’s only available for iOS devices for now, WeTransfer told TNW that it is hard at work on delivering an Android version in the near future too.

➤ WeTransfer [App Store]

Featured Image Credit – Shutterstock

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MetroTwit’s Windows apps are no longer available to download, Twitter API limitations to blame

Mar05
by on March 5, 2014 at 12:14 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates

Metrotwit MetroTwits Windows apps are no longer available to download, Twitter API limitations to blame

The MetroTwit Twitter client for Windows machines is no longer available to download as the company has decided that it can’t reliably support a growing user base without Twitter easing its API restrictions.

In a blog post today, the company confirmed that the slick little desktop and Windows 8 apps are no longer available to download, but that existing users can carry on using it without issue – unless of course Twitter makes API changes in the future which cause it to stop working. At that point, given that there will be no more updates on the way, we’d assume it to be the real end of MetroTwit.

So why is probably the best Twitter app for Windows devices shutting down? It’s the pesky ‘access token limit‘ introduced in August 2012 that has led MetroTwit to the point of closure, done in a bid to “ensure the app remains usable by all current users”. And by the company’s own count, that’s about 400,000 people that still have access. For everyone else, you’ll just have to start looking for an alternative.

➤ Sunsetting MetroTwit: all good things must come to an end

Featured Image Credit – Mario Tama/Getty Images

 

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