HBO To Offer Stand Alone Streaming
Americans will soon be able to subscribe to HBO without subscribing to cable, satellite or IPTV services according to The Wall Street Journal.
The chief executive of HBO informed Time Warner investors today that this service will be made available next year and I suspect many other networks will follow suit. But Canadians will of course be forced to wait for these services as the CRTC decides the future of television.
I certainly hope HBO will choose to bypass the Canadian oligopoly and offer services directly to individuals over the internet like Netflix.
Spotify Is Up And Running
Spotify is now available to Canadians.
This advertisement supported service enables its members to stream music to their devices, including Android and iOS powered tablets and cell phones.
An advertisement free service is available for $9.99 CAD + tax per month, payable via credit card or Paypal. Gift cards for the service will likely make their way into the major retailers shortly.
Competition for Bose ?
The creators of The Core compact wireless bluetooth speaker are 15 days away from the end of their campaign and have already surpassed their $48,000 goal at Indiegogo by almost US330,000.
This device is 6 inches wide and deep, 4 inches tall, and can operate either plugged to a wall outlet or on a battery for 12 hours.
Spotify Coming Soon
Spotify is now taking requests for invites from Canadians.
This Swedish advertisement funded music streaming service will be available on most devices and platforms shortly in Canada.
U2 Removal Tool
Just thought you iTunes users would like to know that a removal tool was released for the latest U2 album : Click here to use the tool.
I’m a U2 fan so I will probably keep it.
Goodbye CD Warehouse
My favourite independent music retailer has announced that they will be closing their doors permanently next spring after 25 years of operation.
CD Warehouse had at one time been a major source for compact discs and DVDs in Ottawa with three stores in the Ottawa area and another in Kingston, Ontario. But sales of compact discs have of course dropped significantly since the commercialization of music downloads on the internet and although the retailer has started selling vinyl and renting DVDs/Blurays, the reduction in stores and the closing of the chain was an eventuality.
The chain’s online counterpart, MyMusic.ca, also faltered and failed to gain traction against the major music retailers online. And unfortunately the industry has not provided enough new releases or re-releases to keep customers like me going to the store.
This closure will unfortunately result in the loss of yet another source for vinyl in my city. And now residents of the city will need to either go downtown for their used and new LPs or order these albums online.