It Begins: Amazon Taps Yo-Yo Ma for a 36 Episode Alexa-Powered Music Series

Should Spotify and Apple Music be very, very afraid?  Amazon is now aiming to crack Spotify and Apple’s lead in music streaming through a new marketing blitz featuring Alexa and famous musicians. Alongside a major advertising campaign for its Ale…

Review: Ultimate Ears UE Live With Bluetooth

Rating: 8/10 Pros: Outstanding sound quality! Bluetooth adds convenience and the battery system on the wireless is novel. Cons: The price tag. Poor microphone wind resistance makes these unusable for outdoor phone calls. The Ultimate Ears UE Live A cou…

Pandora’s Voice-Activated Streams Have Jumped 50% In 2018

Spotify is projected to surpass Pandora’s monthly active users by 2022.  But one area Pandora has the Swedish company beat is voice integration with digital assistants. Pandora just announced that its Pandora Premium subscription service now feat…

Samsung’s Hi-Fidelity Deal With Deezer Gets Totally Overshadowed by Spotify

Last week, Samsung announced a high-profile partnership with Spotify.  But there’s another streaming deal that got totally overlooked. It was another splashy deal for the high-flying streaming service.  Just last week, Spotify signed up to serve …

Sonos’ Wall Street IPO Wasn’t a Disaster — But It Does Raise Some Serious Questions

Sonos’ IPO didn’t crater — but the middling performance of the stock raises some questions concerning how well the smart speaker maker can perform against titans like Amazon and Google. Shares were priced at $15 each on Wednesday and closed…

Sonos Wants to Raise $264 Million In Its Upcoming IPO

Sonos Inc. is all set to go public on Wall Street with its upcoming initial public offering (IPO). The wireless smart speaker market is booming, but Sonos will face fierce competition from big players like Amazon, Google, and Apple.  These companies ar…

Smart Speaker Installations Will Cross 100 Million This Year Alone — and Amazon Music Can’t Wait

A new report from Canalys analytics suggests that the number of smart speakers installed in homes across the world could surpass 100 million by the end of 2018. That’s a remarkable period of growth, considering less than 50 million smart speakers…

Ultimate Ears: Continuing To Refine And Improve Their Offerings

I recently had the opportunity to hop on a call with the team behind Ultimate Ears’s Pro line and get filled in on what they have been working on. This is one of my favorite brands to work with because I really appreciate their focuses on quality…

After Acquiring Beats for $3 Billion, Apple Decides to Develop Its Own Pair of Headphones

Apple is rumored to developing a serious pair of high-end headphones.  And they won’t be branded Beats. Inspired by the success of its AirPods, Apple looks ready break into the high-end headphone market. But Apple is already in the high-end …

Can This Blockchain-Powered Smart Speaker Get Artists Paid?

Can Volareo truly spark a revolution in the music industry?  Or will it end up as yet another generic blockchain ‘solution’? Can blockchain technology truly revolutionize the music industry?  Some people think so. To tackle the music indust…