Google is currently offering “millions” of music singles for $0.49/track or $4.99/album. Usually this type of music sale is just a bunch of unwanted tracks but so far the selection for this sale is far and wide! The music is all DRM-free and can be used on any device including Apple devices (iPod, iPad, etc). To download the music, you can either do a browser download (limited to 2 times) or use Google Music Manager. The nice thing is that it appears the music will always be available in your Google Music Library and you can stream it anytime and/or download it to your device.

A warning: you will spend a lot of time browsing the millions of songs on the deal. From what I can tell, the songs on sale include every genre of music and seems to include all of today’s top hits.

Some of the artists/songs include (the whole albums are available too):

• Nirvana – Smells like Teen Spirit
• Hanukkah Music – this cd has 25 tracks so buy the cd for $4.99 – includes popular hits Dreidel and Dayenu
• Katy Perry – Last Friday Night
• Beastie Boys – No Sleep Til Brooklyn
• Rachel Stevens – Negotiate With Love
• LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
• Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
• Other artists include: Guns ‘n Roses, Elton John and every other artist you could imagine

I am not sure how long this deal will be running for so make sure you grab the songs that interest you asap.

Find more stories about: Android, Google, mp3, music

The Interactive portion of the SXSW conference ends tomorrow and the Music portion of the conference begins. This is my first year in-town during the music festival. If you are planning to remain in Austin for the next week but don’t plan on purchasing a music badge, here are a few ways you can still get in on the action.

The Auditorium Shores Stage Concert Series will take place this weekend and will feature a variety of bands. The concerts are open to the public although badge holders receive vip seating. Saturday is made up of bands that are family friendly. Make sure you read the notes on the schedule page as there are serious restrictions about what you can bring into the arena.

If you aren’t staying in Austin for the Music portion of SXSW, you can download a large number of songs from artists playing at the various events around the city.

• XRT Radio has a list of 140 songs that can be downloaded individually or in batches
• Amazon has a 12-track Don’t Mess With Texas SXSW music sampler

While I haven’t heard of any of the bands and artists playing at the SXSW events, I am looking forward to hearing some new music around the city over the next week.

Find more stories about: Conferences, music, sxsw, SXSW 2011

We initially covered Vienna-based Tunesbag in April 2008 when they launched their private beta. Today the company announced that they have received funding and support from the INiTS incubator based in Vienna, Austria.

From the announcement post, “INiTS offers funding, coaching and networking and aims at young professionals who want to start up their own company in the fields of technology, biotech and lifescience.”

The INiTS incubator looks similar to the startup incubators we have in the U.S. It sure seems like incubators are hot in 2010!

I will attempt to get the amount of funding that TunesBag received from founder Hansjoerg Posch and will update the post once I get confirmation.

Find more stories about: austria, Europe, music, Tunesbag

Yesterday we took a look at the new 2011 Ford Edge which has the Ford MyTouch software. Today’s video will show how Ford wants to interact with developers. The program is named Sync Mobile App Connectivity and will allow mobile app developers the ability to interact with the Sync interface inside Ford cars.

In the video below, the Ford rep shows us how the Sync Mobile App Connectivity works with Pandora. Basically you can control the Pandora iPhone app using your voice inside the car. The music is played through the car speakers and when you want to change the station you hit the speak button and say, “play station Justin Bieber”. Pandora has built the Ford Sync SDK into their general application available in the iTunes app store.

We also tried to take a look at a Twitter application built with the Sync SDK but it didn’t load correctly. Had it worked, the app would read the Twitter messages in your stream and/or your replies and direct messages. How exciting would it be to travel to grandma for Thanksgiving and be able to listen to this:

• I just ate a bologna sandwich – Peter R 7240
• I am the mayor of Taco Bell – MaryLou14
• In reply to PinkFluff24 – yes

I wonder if the apps will be able to use the 8″ display on some of the Ford cars for display.

In all seriousness, I think it’s a smart move for Ford to go after developers. Going after developers is one of the things that’s made the iPhone a hit (it might be the only thing) and I imagine that Ford will provide some incentives to developers to build the Ford Sync SDK into their apps.

The Ford developer website will be available later this month.

Find more stories about: Ford, iphone, mobile, music, online video, Pandora, social media, Video, videos

The textbooks market is really heating up over the past few months. The startup in the space, Chegg, recently raised $57 million in venture capital. Earlier this month Amazon launched a textbook trade-in service.

Today Barnes & Noble launched a program to attempt to woo students over to their side of the field. The program offers students 10 free music downloads when they purchase their textbooks on bn.com. And if the student is willing to spam their friends, they will get a bonus 10 music downloads.

There are thirty artists to pick from. Honestly I’ve never heard of any of these artists – here’s the full list: Vampire Weekend, Neko Case, Diane Birch, Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, Gossip, Devendra Banhart, Tegan And Sara, Swell Season, Tom Waits, Alec Ounsworth, Mayer Hawthorne, Polly Scattergood, Amanda Blank, White Demin, Black Lips, Au Revoir Simone, The Raveonettes, Cage, King Khan And The Shrines, Temper Trap, White Rabbits, Cage The Elephant, Jonah Sees In Color, Metric, Avett Brothers, Wale, Chester French. Built To Spill, Fanfarlo and Brandi Carlile.

Most of the songs are available on Amie Street for 34 cents to $1.29 each. Considering that next week all of the calendars will be 50-80% off, why not throw in a nice calendar when a student buys a book? I am guessing the students already have the music they want and the calendar will make sure they don’t miss their exams and B&N could have created a calendar with monthly coupons and offers.

Find more stories about: Barnes and Noble, mp3, music, textbooks

Here’s a great stocking stuffer for office gifts. Found via Fatwallet, Amazon is offering a free $3 credit towards their MP3 store.

Just add the code MP34FREE to your account and you can grab $3 in free MP3 music.

Here are the terms of the offer:

• Promotional offer valid for a limited time only and subject to change. Promotional offer is valid from November 23, 2009 12:00 AM PST through November 30, 2009 11:59 PM PST. You must redeem the code by November 30, 2009 11:59 PM PST.
• If you’ve previously entered a promotional code, clicking the “Enter Your Code” button above will show your remaining balance.
• After your purchase, you can confirm the dollar amount of the code was applied by checking your order confirmation, which will be sent to you by e-mail.

The popular songs list shows most songs at $0.99 so you could grab 3 tracks although some are priced at $1.29. If you redeem the code, leave a comment with the songs you picked up!

Find more stories about: Amazon, Fatwallet, mp3, music

Musician ecommerce widget service TheBizmo has announced their public U.S. launch today. Previously TheBizmo has been operating in private beta here in the U.S. and in full operations mode in the U.K.

TheBizmo has a NYC presence as well – David Hazan heads up their U.S. operations. You should see TheBizmo around NYC this summer as they are sponsoring a number of music conferences.

TheBizmo is described as offering, “a new embeddable e-commerce widget that enables artists to sell MP3s, videos, merchandise and more, straight to fans, from any social networking page, website, or blog.”  The service is free to setup and both the musician and TheBizmo share in the revenues. The musician earns the following:

• Music – 70% of retail
• Tickets – 100% of the face value of all tickets
• T-shirts – musician decides on the share
• All other offerings (ringtones, e-books, sheet music, etc.) - 70% of retail

After the musician creates their store, they can push it to Facebook, Ning, MySpace and other social networks. And since it’s a widget, it can be embedded anywhere. The service could be a good way for musicians to gain more visibility and new fans.

Find more stories about: London, music, startups, widgets

eBay company StubHub has announced a new partnership with AOL Music today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Basically StubHub will be integrated all over AOL Music so people can buy and sell tickets (and pay comissions to StubHub) from practically anywhere on the site. From the release, “this includes AOL’s Artist & Video pages, as well as AOL Music’s concert touring website, TourTracker. For the first time, users can also see up-to-the minute concert ticket price ranges on StubHub’s marketplace without ever leaving AOL Music. ”

“Allowing our consumers to purchase tickets to sold-out shows through StubHub will significantly enhance our user experience,” said Bill Crandall, vice president of AOL Music.

Find more stories about: AOL, music

My very close friend (and CN designer) Mark loves Elvis. He has all the albums, the Atari video games and the videos. Luckily when we speak he doesn’t sing any of Elvis’ songs to me. So it was with great excitement when I received a note about a new iPhone application launching today that is perfect for Mark.

The app is called “Elvis Mobile” and here’s a list of what’s included:

• An “Elvis Sightings” section allows fans to submit their Elvis pictures, taken with their iPhone, directly to www.elvis.com from anywhere in the world and simultaneously update their Facebook pages with the same information.
• An “Image” section will be updated weekly and will feature never-before-seen and rare pictures of the life and times of Elvis Presley.
• A “Video” section will be updated periodically with clips of Elvis and special Elvis events/happenings.
• A “News” section features the latest information on all things Elvis from www.elvis.com.
• A “Livecam” section gives fans a real-time look at Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion in Memphis, TN.
• A “Podcast” section allows users to listen to The Graceland Beat from Elvis Radio.

I don’t have an iPhone so I can’t enjoy the King as a I travel around the city. It looks like the application is free and even offers a Facebook Connect option so you can share your Elvis Sightings with your Facebook friends. Hmm, I wonder if Elvis is on Twitter?

Find more stories about: iphone, mobile, music

I’ve written about QR codes before and if you read CN, you know that I really hope the QR technology takes off in the U.S. as it has in other countries like Japan. You can see an example of a QR code (also known as 2d Barcode) on the left. Basically when you scan the code with a reader, it does something.

Today I came across, via Dean Collins, a record label using QR codes to get people offline to interact with their music. I’ve embedded a video below which describes how Lost Highway Records is using QR Codes. The video explains that they are using the codes to get people to a website where they can listen to their music, purchase full songs and find out information about upcoming concerts.

Check out the video and then think about how you can use QR codes for you and/or your clients. While I know the easy answer is that not enough handsets support the technology, adding the codes to your ads and promotional materials is easy – so why not capture those who can read the codes?

Find more stories about: mobile, music, QR Codes, Quick News

NY-based DubFiler describes their service as, "a different kind of file management site. We are DJ’s, producers, promoters and we’re constantly slinging files around – tune ideas, so-and-so’s newest track, your new drum track. But we’re tired of sites where the files expire and we have to reupload them. We’re tired of flashing banners and typing in cryptic passwords. We’re tired of waiting 60 seconds for our downloads to begin."

The service is basically a way for musicians to share their music inside a network. DubFiler charges $5/month for 500mb of storage.

The service is very easy to use. You upload a song and then are presented with a link that you can share with others. When visitors come to DubFiler via the link, they are presented with two options: play or download. DubFiler also provides stats on how many downloads, plays have taken place for each song.

I’d like to see DubFiler add messaging options so that listeners can leave feedback for the artist. Perhaps the messaging could even allow listeners to comment on a specific portion of the music timeline similar to Viddler’s in-video-stream commenting.

Find more stories about: DubFiler, music, nextNY, NYC, Quick News, Reviews, startups

Wireless provider Cricket has launched a new mobile music program today. After reviewing the materials, I found the pricing model to be a bit confusing for the average user. It looks like songs downloaded directly to the phone are $2 or 3 for $5/month. But if you download them via the Cricket website they are $1 but to use the song on your mobile, you need to pay an additional $1.25. Cricket’s Mobile Music service is managed by LiveWire Mobile.

From the release, "Customers can search music by artist, album, song and genre to purchase tracks and download them directly to their Cricket phone for $1.99 each, or receive three download credits for a $5 monthly charge. Songs are available online at www.mycricket.com for $.99 each and customers can use Cricket’s Music Manager software to sideload the tracks to their mobile phone, or buy two copies of each song, one for their PC and one for their phone for $2.25 per song."

Why wouldn’t a Cricket customer just download the songs on their current music provider (iTunes, etc.) and then upload them to the phone? Some of Cricket’s phones support a SD card so they should be able to handle music as well. The price seems expensive at $2 when most online music sites are currently offering songs for $1.

Cricket also noted that they have partnered with Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em which allows Cricket customers to download a free two-week playable version of the artist’s latest song.

Find more stories about: Cricket, mobile, mp3, music, Quick News

Last week at the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Howard Han presented his NY-based startup GigMaven. The service is described as a way to streamline the booking process for musicians and venues. This morning I sat down with Han to learn more about GigMaven.

Basically GigMaven is a marketplace where venues list open gigs and musicians "apply" to the gigs. Once the musicians have applied, the venue selects a band to fill the gig. The venue pays a fee when they complete the process. It’s a similar business to another NY-based startup, ZocDoc.

For GigMaven to be successful, the key is to get enough venues from enough locations worldwide to always be able to fill a musician’s needs. I’d like to see them optimize their venue pages for the search engines. It would also be interesting to look at creating a destination site to help people connect with artists and to research venues. They could also work on ticketing or partner with a company who already handles the ticketing. The more they can "own" parts of the venue booking and ticketing process, the better I think they will do.

GigMaven is launching this month in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The company has raised an angel round of funding to-date.

Find more stories about: GigMaven, music, nextNY, NYC, Quick News

We initially covered Vienna-based Tunesbag last April when they launched their private beta. Today they have announced some additions and upgrades to the service they describe as an “online media hub”.

You can now listen to any public playlist using the search feature and then save it to your library if you like the songs. They have also updated the search to allow for a site-wide search which will index artists, tracks, users and playlists.

Tracks and playlists can now be shared with other tunesBag users along with the ability to share outside of tunesBag via mail, Facebook and MySpace. They have also released a new music player. 

Lastly, they plan to publicly open the service in the first half of 2009.

Find more stories about: Europe, mp3, music, Quick News, Tunesbag

Imeem has announced the launch of their mobile advertising platform today. The new advertising platform is only available on the Android platform so I can only imagine what type of reach it will see. Imeem has signed Kia Motors America to be the first sponsor of the Imeem Android application. Imeem notes that the Kia ads will have a "display presence" — but wouldn’t you need an in-stream presence to be even remotely effective? Music applications mean that the user can keep their mobile in their pocket and so the ability to view and interact with ads has to be lower than if the ads were in-stream.

Imeem has also updated their Android application to be city-sensitive. So you can get a feeling for what music is popular in different cities as you travel. That feature seems pretty interesting for travelers. They have also added artist recommendations which allow you to see similar artists to the ones you already are interested in (e.g. Christina for Britney). Lastly they have launched an exciting seasonal music station for enjoying holiday music.

Find more stories about: Android, Imeem, mobile, music, Quick News