Music Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Rockstar shares the Grand Theft Auto soundtracks on iTunes and Spotify

by Mike Schramm (Apr 12th, 2013)

Rockstar, the developers of the very popular Grand Theft Auto series, has kindly set up playlists for every one of the series' radio stations, for use in both iTunes and Spotify. The GTA series is well-known for its music, and when Rockstar ported both GTA3 and GTA: Vice City over to iOS, we ...

Bump removes ability to share iTunes tracks in latest update

by Mike Schramm (Apr 11th, 2013)

We see tons of app updates come through the App Store every single day, but it's very rare that one of those updates removes functionality rather than adds it. The latest update for Bump for iPhone does exactly that, unfortunately. Bump is an app that came out very early in the App Store's ...

Turntable.fm releases Piki app, for music recommendations and streaming

by Mike Schramm (Apr 11th, 2013)

Turntable.fm is one of the many social streaming music sites out there -- it allows you and your friends to stream music and even listen in together to your favorite albums and songs. The company already has its own standalone app for the App Store, but it's trying a new tactic now to grab ...

Better Ears: A music theory and ear training app for Mac

by Matt Tinsley (Apr 10th, 2013)

Better Ears (US$24.99) is a new Mac app that teaches you music theory while enhancing your hearing through training exercises. Do you know your intervals? Your minor second, fifth or major seventh from a given root note? Or a major harmonic scale from a mixolydian chordal mode? Not only can you ...

Amazon AutoRip for Vinyl Records gives customers free MP3 copies

by Steven Sande (Apr 3rd, 2013)

Vinyl record fans don't have to rip their own digital recordings any more. Amazon today announced AutoRip for Vinyl Records, which gives customers who have purchased vinyl records from the company since 1998 a free MP3 version of those albums. This expands on the AutoRip CD program announced in ...

Streaming radio may be the next frontier for Apple's music efforts

by Yoni Heisler (Apr 1st, 2013)

In a rather interesting article last week detailing music service Pandora's ongoing struggle with record labels' streaming fees, The Verge says that "iRadio," Apple's rumored Pandora competitor, is being primed for a launch this Summer. "Much has been written about Apple's plan to launch a ...

Karaoke software kJams goes beta

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Mar 25th, 2013)

If you're a karaoke fan, or it's a requirement for that nightclub you've always wanted to run, Kjams for Mac has reached the beta for version 1.0. The karaoke software has everything you need to get the party going, and what few reviews are out there say it's easy to use, extremely robust, and ...

Couch Music Player for iPad can take control of your music listening

by Mel Martin (Mar 21st, 2013)

Couch Music Player (US$1.99) works seamlessly with your iPad and iTunes but creates a better, and more fluid experience at managing and listening to your music. The iPad built-in music player has always seemed pretty basic to me, and Couch Music Player seeks to fix that. The strength of the ...

Belkin's Thunderstorm case cranks your iPad to 11

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Mar 19th, 2013)

In my office I tend to rock out to a 300-watt stereo system. When I go to wash dishes and have to use my iPad's native speaker, well, there's no comparison. Belkin's Thunderstorm case won't crank up to the level of a really large stereo, but it is loud enough to punch through very noisy ...

Amazon's Cloud Player now supports iPad natively

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 27th, 2013)

If you're an Amazon Cloud Player user and you have an iPad, you had best go and check your iOS updates. Amazon has updated its Cloud Player app to 2.0, and it now supports the iPad natively. The update brings a tweaked look to the app as well as new settings to manage the cache size for ...

Senzari becomes Wahwah, loses web service to go mobile-first

by Mike Schramm (Feb 26th, 2013)

Senzari is a Pandora-like Internet radio service, that allows you to listen to streaming music centered around an artist or genre of your choice. For a little while now, the company has hosted the service on its website, but it recently picked up another service called wahwah.fm, and now is ...

Guitar Pro for iOS helps you practice guitar by reading tab, and more

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 22nd, 2013)

Guitar Pro (US$7.99, universal) is a tablature player and editor with some fantastic features. In essence, Guitar Pro is a library of songs in tablature score, which reads the score in audio, while helping you play along. When learning to play guitar, there are usually three things you need. ...

Review: ChordMate for Mac, a powerful tool for guitarists

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 21st, 2013)

ChordMate for Mac, available from the Mac App Store for US$51.99, is a guitar chord library that makes learning, identifying and building custom chords to play on the guitar easy. If you already play guitar, ChordMate will encourage you to learn and play new and different chord voicings and ...

Practice Timer keeps track of how long you practice your instrument

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 14th, 2013)

Continuing in the theme of iOS apps that help you practice with your instrument to become a better musician, Practice Timer keeps a log of how many seconds, minutes and hours you've spent practicing. It is said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master of something. Practice ...

Getting your music outta a tight Jam

by Erica Sadun (Feb 14th, 2013)

Jam (free) is one of those little apps that has found great traction over here at TUAW. From a pair of charming Australian developers, it helps you create silly, but engaging auto-tuned tracks in a variety of styles. It does have, as we discovered, one major flaw. It expects you to use and ...