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The Ascender Corp font “Calibri,” first included in Google Docs a year ago, seems to have disappeared from Google Docs. Several websites report on the same issues.
It has been rumoured for a long time that Facebook and Spotify were planning an integrated music service that would extend beyond the current facility in Spotify where, using Facebook Connect, users can connect to friends on Facebook and share playlists and songs from the Spotify music library.
The project has been dubbed Facebook Music and news about the service is expected to be given at the forthcoming Facebook Developer Conference in August, the “f8”.
Forbes described notable functions of the service on their blog in May. Users in countries where Spotify have secured licenses with the record industry should eventually see a Spotify icon along with the links to their various feeds on the left hand side. Clicking the icon would install the Spotify application on Facebook, allowing users to share music and see what others are playing from within their Facebook profiles - even in real time.
The news may not come as huge surprise given the tight bonds between Facebook and Spotify. Facebook backer Digital Sky Technologies since quite recently funds Spotify as well, and the two share a bundle of other investors. Facebook’s founding president and Napster founder Sean Parker also sits on the board of Spotify.
Spotify has been struggling to move into the US market, but have now secured agreements with most of the major rights holders. The integration with Facebook should significantly boost its chance of picking up more paid-for subscribers.
But will Spotify power Facebook Music alone?
Most likely, Facebook will not place their money on one horse alone. Facebook’s musical ambitions go beyond Spotify and include other music services and applications. As Facebook will be wanting to capitalize on the social facets of music - we love to share and talk about music - they cannot rely on one provider that can only provide content to users in countries were they have obtained rights. With nearly 700 million users worldwide, Facebook will be wanting to reach out to as wide an audience as possible with their music offering. The popular business technology blog GigaOM reported Facebook also have been negotiating with online radio Pandora, the social audio hub SoundCloud, turntable.fm (invite only) and iTunes to create the social music service dubbed Facebook Music. GigaOM also talks of a Music Dashboard where you can share music, see what others are listening to and and listening rooms where users can chat about the music being streamed this very instant.
Facebook is obviously planning to become your internet media hub. So far users have shared links, photos and videos on Facebook, but there is obviously a gap in the music offering. All eyes will be on the f8 in August - will Spotify launch in the US before that?
Launched in 2008, the the social audio platform SoundCloud founded by the Swedes Alexander Jung and Eric Wahlforss just reached 5 million users. The news was made known in the SoundCloud blog on 15 June, where an infographic was posted showing the explosive growth of the cloud service.
According to Jung, 4 million of the users have signed up in the last year alone, and the user base grew from 2 million to 3 million in a span of only 97 days. The news was celebrated along with an undisclosed amount of funding from the A-Grade Fund, the venture capital fund led by actor Ashton Kutcher, artist manager/entrepreneur Guy Oseary and billionaire investor Ron Burkle. Earlier this year the company raised $10 million from Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures.
Ljung attributes the recent growth of SoundCloud to the wide variety of content on the site that extends beyond popular music. First intended for professional musicians, the service has grown to include uploads by people who share their audio tweets, bird sounds or radio shows. “On the music side, people know they can get audio, but we need the outreach to let universities know they can upload their lectures, to let politicians upload their speeches and news outlets to share broadcasts,” Ljung told The New York Times.
SoundCloud recently announced that you can now record and share on-the-fly on your tumblr blog any audio captured on your smartphone using the SoundCloud app for iOS or Android, which could guarantee the service mainstream status.
MusikMatterz on SoundCloud
(Source: musikmatterz.com)
playa-tarifa-valdevaqueros-001 on Flickr.
Looking forward to spending a few summer days down in Tarifa (Cadiz, Spain) this summer. Pure bliss!
In an article for TechCrunch (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/why-i-dont-use-twitter/), Devin Coldewey lists the reasons for why he doesn’t use Twitter. “Tweets have no value” he suggests, and continues to say that a tweet is “a quantity of data which I believe to be useless, at least in this context. What can be said in 140 characters is either trivial or abridged; in the first case it would be better not to say it at all, and in the second case it would be better to give it the space it deserves.”
What do you think?