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Google Reportedly to Launch Music Streaming at I/O Conference Today (SocialTimes)
Google will launch music streaming through YouTube and Google Play, according to reports in The Verge and the Wall Street Journal. The company, which has struggled to keep up with Apple in terms of media offerings, has reportedly signed licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, the reports said. The Verge Earlier this year, Fortune magazine reported that Google had already struck similar licensing agreements with Warner Music Group, the smallest of the top three record labels. But landing Universal Music and Sony gives Google access to the two largest record companies, home to such acts as Bob Dylan, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Rihanna and Jay-Z. The Wall Street Journal Google already has an existing music service, which it launched in 2011 and is part of its Google Play digital media store for devices powered by its Android operating system. That service only lets people buy individual songs or albums, while the new one from Google’s Android unit offers a paid subscription model to access whole libraries of songs. TechCrunch The Google streaming service has been in development for a while now, according to rumors, but negotiations have now progressed to the point where it’s ready to launch, with all three major record labels signed up. There won’t be a free option, says The New York Times, but instead there will be a paid subscription available at or around the going rate at competing services, or roughly $10 per month. The New York Times By expanding to streaming music, Google will be tapping into the most rapid growth area in digital music. Spotify, which was founded in Sweden in 2008 and came to the United States almost two years ago, now has more than 24 million regular users, six million of whom pay about $5 to $10 a month for premium service. Pandora now has more than 200 million users, the vast majority of whom use it free.
Pinterest Adds Mentions, Notifications to Mobile (Mashable)
Pinterest released on Tuesday updates to its iOS and Android apps, including new mobile features such as search suggestions, push notifications and the ability to mention friends in posts. The updates may seem small but represent the company’s larger efforts to move beyond its Web-based presence and make it easier for people to use the platform on smartphones and tablets. The Next Web The new search functionality is arguably the most useful. Simply hit the magnifying glass icon in the bottom toolbar, and enter a query in the text box at the top of the screen. Pinterest will automatically suggest relevant results based on what the user is typing; it’s a small addition, but one that significantly ramps up the speed at which users can navigate the app and discover new content. CNET People using the iOS app can also now pin from an external website inside the app. Altogether, the updates help make the inspirational social network a mobile-friendly place where people can do more than just browse through pins.
BlackBerry Plans to Beat Twitter at its Own Game, and I Just Found a Unicorn (AllTwitter)
Now we have BlackBerry making an end run to snag the “social platform” golden ring away from those slackers (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) by introducing “channels.” CNET shares that “BlackBerry wants to take on Twitter by creating its own social network through its BlackBerry Messenger service.”
Reddit’s New Multireddit Feature Brings a Massive Change to its Front Page (VentureBeat)
It’s been years since community news sharing site Reddit has made a major change to how things appear on its coveted front page of popular submissions, but Tuesday the company announced a new feature called multireddits that could do just that. The multireddit feature enables you to combine several subreddits together, which can then be subscribed to on its own.
Social Slam: Second Annual NBA Social Media Awards to Air on NBA TV (LostRemote)
The NBA recently surpassed 400 million likes and followers combined across all league, team and player pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sina and Tencent, and was the first sports league to surpass one billion video views on YouTube. On June 12, the NBA will capitalize on this success by airing on NBA TV the second annual NBA Social Media Awards presented by SAP.
With Square Stand, Jack Dorsey Brings High Design to the Point of Sale (AllThingsD)
If you’re a business, Jack Dorsey wants to make your countertop look a whole lot better than it does right now. That, in part, is the philosophy behind Square Stand, the payments startup’s new point-of-sale product unveiled on Tuesday morning.
Users Can Email Tumblr Posts from the Dashboard (SocialTimes)
Users can now email Tumblr posts directly from the homepage, or “dashboard.” Users can access the feature through a drop-down menu attached to share button that also leads them to the post’s permalink page. They then type in the email address to which they want to send the post.
LinkedIn Clarifies its Ban on Prostitutes, and Yes, There are Prostitutes on LinkedIn (The Huffington Post)
Not only is “prostitution” a tagged skill you can select on LinkedIn*, there are actually escorts who advertise their services on the professional networking site. Now LinkedIn is making sure everyone knows that the practice is not OK.
Facebook Announces Global Rollout of Sections on Timeline, Best Practices for App Developers (AllFacebook)
Facebook announced Tuesday that the application modules it introduced for Timeline in March have now been rolled out to all users, encouraging app developers in a post on its developer blog to incorporate these sections into their apps. The social network said when introducing sections in March that the modules give apps prominent placement on users’ Timelines, and the collections created by developers can help boost engagement with users.
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