Via Scoop.it – Social Music Gaming

The Echo Nest’s Evolver.fm blog has launched a new directory of music apps, covering iPhone, Android, iPad and web-apps. The directory currently lists more than 1,700 apps, grouped into categories including Listen, Play, Discover and Create. These are then split into further sub-categories, from Songwriting and Instruments through to Atmospheric/Relaxation and Augmented Reality. The site appears to be aimed at two audiences: the industry and consumers. App developers whose apps aren’t listed are being invited to submit their details for inclusion. Evolver.fm was launched in 2010 by former CNET and Wired writer Eliot Van Buskirk, and the site is funded by The Echo Nest.
Link – http://evolver.fm/appdb/
Via evolver.fm

Via Scoop.it – Social Music Gaming

Dancing games have steadily marched up the charts of top-selling games, in some months outdoing big-budget bestsellers such as Madden NFL 12 and Gears of War 3. In October, sales of dancing titles such as Just Dance 3, Everybody Dance, Dance Central and the first installment of Zumba leaped 135% over October 2010, according to NPD Group Inc., a market research firm. Overall game sales rose only 3% over the same period. Total sales for the year are expected to stay flat, at best. The dancing genre — like the exercise craze that drove videocassette sales in the 1980s — branched out of the popularity of fitness games beginning in 2008 with Nintendo Co.’s Wii Fit, which reintroduced the aerobic step platform in high-tech fashion to millions of living rooms around the world.
Via www.latimes.com

November 22, 2011 at 10:59 amby Eliot Van Buskirk
What’s Next For Spotify? Powering Music AppsFor whatever reason, some of the neatest announcements in digital music history have been surrounded by an air of mystery. Call it the iPod effect. The latest player in this game: Spotify, which is summoning reporters to a Nov. 30 “Global Press Conference” with the tantalizing teaser, “What’s next for Spotify?”People are talking, which is of course the point. All Things Digital thinks Spotify will announce a digital music store. PC Magazine doesn’t know. VentureBeat agrees with All Things Digital: Spotify plans to launch an MP3 store.We respectfully disagree, because we think we’ve already broken this story.If our theory is correct, Spotify will announce a commercial API (application programming interface) on November 30 that lets app developers for iOS, Android, and other platforms build — and sell — music apps that draw on Spotify’s catalog of 15-million-plus songs.That last bit is crucial. Developers can already build apps on top of Spotify – they just can’t sell them, removing a substantial incentive for making cool stuff, especially when so many other app developers have struck gold on the app stores.Spotify will make its API available to commercial developers — even one-person operations operating on shoestring budgets — and we suspect that it will also announce big improvements to that API development tool.Our guess: These “special guests” will be third-party app developers making stuff out of Spotify’s music
Via evolver.fm

Michael Jackson fans who are also CityVille players (app. on Facebook) are in for a treat! Swing by CityVille starting this week, where players will be able get closer to the King of Pop with a visit from Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour!!Players over level six can celebrate from now until November 25th, as Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour makes a stop in Cityville. Complete your quest and unlock an exclusive video from the show, and for the first time, players and fans who choose to purchase the IMMORTAL album or tickets to Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour in Las Vegas will also get a special limited edition virtual good for their city – only available as part of this celebration!!
Via www.legendarymichaeljackson.nl