Music Ally

Put.io describes itself as ‘online storage re-imagined’, allowing users to upload their files and then access them from any device with a browser, including smartphones and games consoles.

But here’s the thing: “We can fetch files from the bittorrent network. We also support ftp’s, direct download links, rapidshare links, basic http authenticated links”. Or, to put that another way: it can download an entire movie in five minutes and store it in your locker, ready to stream to your browser, media player or mobile device.

It’s exactly this kind of service that’s likely to cloud (ahem) the thinking when politicians are trying to draft legislation. Uploading someone’s own content to stream to their various devices is one thing, but bundling that service with the ability to fetch files from BitTorrent and Rapidshare is guaranteed to stoke the ire of the creative industries.

Put.io is in private beta. Expect to hear more about it in the months to come…

If Music 4.5 is all about the startups, then its final session should be the most sparky. Ten startups are taking the stage to pitch their services to the audience, saying what they do and why they’re The Future. Three minutes each plus short Q&As.

This post is being updated live, company by company by the way. Starting with:

BandCentral

Belle Crocker is presenting, and the company’s logo is ‘manage your band online’ – it lets them manage all their business, from tours and finances through to social networking presence. It’s the work of a team of musicians.

(more…)

Hats – and indeed everything else – off to developer Webtechies for releasing an app so marvellously titled, it may get this blog blocked by firewalls around the world.

The $1.99 app is called ‘Top 100 Sensual Love Making Sex Songs’, offering “naughty and sexy songs to set the mood for those special moments”. Although our vigorous research (i.e. looking at the sample screenshots on the App Store) tells us that the app may not be quite as sensual as it promises.

Well, unless ‘Sex On The Beach’ by the Vengaboys and ‘(I Wanna Be) Your Underwear’ by Bryan Adams gets you in a sensual mood, of course. Yikes.

US streaming music service Grooveshark has been controversial for its lack of licensing agreements, and now it’s on the wrong side of Apple too.

The company says it’s given up trying to release its iPhone app on the official App Store, due to Apple “ritually rejecting” the app for “primary selfish reasons”.

Months after submitting the app for approval, Grooveshark has now launched it instead through unofficial app store Cydia, which can only be accessed by people who’ve ‘jailbroken’ their iPhones.

TechCrunch reports that the app itself is slick, letting users stream music and save playlists offline. There’s a big base of jailbroken iPhones out there, but even so, the vast majority of the 75 million iPhones and iPod touches remain locked to the App Store – meaning it’s a big opportunity lost for Grooveshark.

If you haven’t yet got the hang of what augmented reality might mean for the way we interact with entertainment, check out Amusity. It’s a prototype for a new user interface allowing users to explore songs and music videos, metadata like artist / album / genre plus other related information such as popularity.

Amusity is based around a table onto which images and menu items (resembling stars and galaxies floating around in space) are projected. Information is sent back to the computer not with a mouse but with physical objects such as a disc or a rectangle. By moving the various real-world items around, the digital universe is affected.

In fact it’s not a million miles away from the Reactable – winner of the first Music Ally Midem Labs showcase in 2008, and demonstrated here at Sonar in Barcelona.

Digital music provider Omnifone has announced today that its MusicStation digital music service is to be made available on all Android handsets including the Google Nexus One and HTC Magic. (more…)

FundTunes is a new Canadian website that aims to let digital music buyers also donate to a range of local charities.

The site sells ‘E-Music Gift Cards’ (we sense eMusic may have something to say about this) for five or ten songs, with buyers invited to choose a charity at the point of purchase.

Universal Music Canada is already on board, with its manager of special markets & partnership marketing Lisa Sharkey saying the store “creates warm fuzzies for everyone”.

The store is working with media partners to promote itself, while signing up a host of Canadian charities. It’s certainly an inventive idea, although one that could be added to existing larger download stores fairly quickly, removing FundTunes’ USP.

UK music startup the Bizmo has launched a new Facebook application called Hit Or Not, a social game that asks its players to test their A&R skills.

They pick a musical genre, then are played tracks from theBizmo’s catalogue of independent artists. Players assign a rating out of 100 using a sliding scale, and score points according to how well their rating matches that of the wider community.

There’s also a pseudo-label gameplay element, where players win virtual cash to spend on ’signing’ artists. All the tracks an be bought too, with artists getting a 70% share of the revenues.

Cloud music site tunesBag has launched its official iPhone app, allowing people to stream their music collection to their iPhone over 3G, Wi-Fi and even the slower EDGE.

The app costs $5.99, and links into the main tunesBag service. Users who have uploaded their music library and iTunes playlists to the company’s server will now be able to access them from the iPhone – although there’s no Spotify-esque offline mode to use the app when they don’t have reception.

However, in certain countries, users can listen to their friends’ playlists using the app.

One of the more intriguing startups for 2010 is Music Mastermind, a company launched by former Virgin Records America boss Matt Serletic.

The company is aiming to make music creation “fun, easy and intuitive for everyone, regardless of musical training or ability”. Its tools will let people make music and collaborate with others.

“In 2010, we will unveil a series of evolving mobile and social gaming products that will further amplify the excitement of music creation,” says its blurb.

According to Billboard, Music Mastermind is working with Tag Strategic’s Ted Cohen on getting the word out on its plans.