Amazon has quietly been developing Amazon Prime Music, which now offers more than one million songs to subscribers of its $99-per-year Prime membership program. While that is only a fraction of the tracks offered by services such as Spotify and Apple Music, and the service does not feature current hits from many of today’s top acts, “the company has begun to establish itself by focusing on what may be a vast part of the audience for streaming music: casual listeners and families,” notes The New York Times. “This part of the market, analysts say, may not mind the absence of a few current hits, especially considering that they can also receive the shipping discounts and streaming video offerings.”

Amazon debuted its restaurant delivery service through the Prime Now app in Seattle this September, added support for Portland last month, and has now made it available in Los Angeles. Amazon plans to eventually offer restaurant delivery everywhere Prime Now is available. “Prime Now, which offers free, two-hour delivery in major metros, as well as 1-hour delivery for $7.99, is live today in a number of cities across the U.S.,” reports TechCrunch. The service is ultimately about generating more Amazon Prime memberships. “The $99 per year program offers free, two-day shipping on more than 20 million items, and now makes more than a million of those items available for free, same-day delivery” in major U.S. cities.

Pandora has largely been focused on Internet radio since its inception, but has also been increasingly competing with on-demand music services such as Spotify and Apple Music. The company announced yesterday that it plans to spend $75 million for the assets of struggling online service Rdio, which is filing for bankruptcy. The move could help Pandora significantly expand the way it delivers music. While the company presently touts 78 million customers, most of them listen for free, and the current Pandora model involves a feed of songs based on a user’s tastes, but with limited control. Rdio’s tech could offer Pandora users more control over their selections. Continue reading Pandora Media to Acquire Rdio Assets Following Bankruptcy

Shopify — known for helping small businesses create e-commerce websites — has launched a new mobile app called Sello that joins a crowded field of peer-to-peer commerce efforts. Sello resembles Instagram and provides easy-to-use functionality for individuals and small businesses to sell products online. It is free to list items, but the Sello app collects a 3 percent fee for each transaction. Sellers simply post a product photo and description, list payment and shipping options, and specify a choice of social platforms, such as Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Continue reading Shopify’s New Mobile App is Like Instagram for Classified Ads

Fashion watchmaker Fossil will acquire Misfit, maker of activity-tracking wearable devices, for $260 million. The move is part of a larger Fossil initiative as it makes a push into the smartwatch arena. “Misfit makes a variety of wearable devices, such as fitness and sleep-tracking wristlets and a clip-on smart button that tracks activities,” reports Bloomberg. “Fossil singled out Misfit’s battery-life tech as a particularly appealing component.” Fossil, which makes watches for designer labels such as Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Tory Burch, reportedly plans to use Misfit’s tech across 16 of its brands and expand its connected device offerings.

Comcast and Time Warner are the latest major media players to invest in the emerging virtual reality space, as the companies recently joined a $30.5 million funding round for NextVR, a startup that specializes in broadcasting live events in VR. “Last month, NextVR offered virtual-reality broadcasts of a Democratic presidential debate and the National Basketball Association’s season-opening game,” reports The Wall Street Journal. VR “has become a popular bet for traditional media companies seeking to hold and expand their audiences as viewers cut pay-TV subscriptions in favor of content delivered via the Internet.” Jaunt and AltspaceVR are among other VR startups that have received funding from media companies.

Apple acquired Beats Electronics for $3 billion in May 2014. While it was expected that the Beats Music streaming service would be folded into iTunes Radio to take on Spotify and similar offerings, Apple Music was launched more than a year later. Now, Apple has announced that it plans to officially shutter Beats Music on November 30. A statement on the Beats Music site encourages subscribers to check out Apple’s new service: “Your subscription will be cancelled, but you can move your picks and preferences over to Apple Music right now.” Continue reading Beats Music to Close Now That Apple Music is Live on Android

During last week’s CES Unveiled event in New York, the newly named Consumer Technology Association (former Consumer Electronics Association) released its annual holiday purchase pattern study. According to Shawn DuBravac, CTA’s chief economist and senior research director, consumer electronics will have a strong showing this holiday season, but spending is expected to shift from high-end TVs to less expensive audio devices, mobile electronics and emerging technologies. The shift is expected to result in a drag on industry sales growth. Continue reading CTA Predicts Decline in CE Sales Growth This Holiday Season

Hulu is reportedly looking to make a deal with Time Warner that would value the video service at more than $5 billion and help bolster its efforts to compete with Netflix and Amazon. According to those familiar with the matter, Hulu is in talks with the media giant to become an equal stakeholder with Comcast, Disney and 21st Century Fox. “Such a deal would likely involve the current owners, who own one-third each, drawing down their stakes to 25 percent,” reports The Wall Street Journal. The talks, said to be in the early stages, are exploring ways for Hulu to expand content offerings as part of its long term strategy. Hulu has increased its spending on programming from $600 million last year to $1.5 billion this year.

ABC is said to be exploring a new approach to streaming original content online. Rather than launching a standalone subscription service similar to CBS All Access or NBCUniversal’s upcoming comedy offering Seeso, the network is reportedly planning to introduce new series exclusively through its WatchABC app. In addition to offering expanded original programming on an alternative platform, the Disney-owned network could also use the model as a means of trying out new concepts and talent that could eventually make their way to broadcast television. Continue reading ABC Developing Original Programming for Streaming Initiative

After a year in beta testing, YouTube Music is finally available for Android and iOS. The app — meant to compete with streaming music offerings such as Apple Music, Pandora, Rdio, Spotify and Tidal — emphasizes music videos and amateur recordings. YouTube’s catalog of 50 million songs does not mean a video for every song, since the collection mixes video, audio-only, fan covers, emerging indie artists and much more. Discovery continues to be the underlying focus, and each song is connected to an auto-generated station of related songs. YouTube Music also blends human and algorithmic curation, similar to Apple Music’s approach. Continue reading YouTube Music Aims Spotlight on Personalization, Discovery

CBS announced this week that the 28th season of “The Amazing Race” would feature social-media stars from Instagram, Vine, YouTube and podcasts. While the number of online followers for each contestant varies, they are responsible for a combined 72 million hits on social platforms. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the choice by ‘The Amazing Race’ producers to seek contestants with large followings online reflects the growing importance of social media: It’s no longer a back door to stardom, but a necessary tool to land a first interview. It’s also the latest example of how tech culture is spreading.”

Following announcements that Google is releasing its TensorFlow machine learning platform so developers can create their own artificial intelligence programs, and Nvidia has made a significant update to its Jetson TX1 supercomputer-on-a-chip, Microsoft is the latest with major AI news. The company has updated its Project Oxford suite of AI tools with powerful new features and programs designed to identify human emotions and voices, for example, that could make their way into the apps we use on a daily basis. Continue reading Microsoft Project Oxford Updates Could Bring AI to More Apps

Snapchat announced earlier this week that its recently added features and filters are beginning to pay off as snaps and videos in the popular new app are viewed more than six billion times per day. The new daily viewing figure is three times the number of views the app experienced in May. “To put that number in perspective, Facebook announced just this past week that the social network is handling over eight billion video views each day,” reports The Verge. “Facebook has recently placed extra focus on its video offerings, and that figure represents a two-times increase from April.” However, it is worth noting that Snapchat’s videos are just a few seconds in duration.

Yesterday we reported that “Singles Day” in China generated a staggering $5 billion in sales for e-commerce giant Alibaba during its first 90 minutes. The numbers are in for the day’s total sales, and Alibaba’s sites reportedly sold more than $14.3 billion worth of products, which represents a 57 percent increase over last year’s number. “To give you a sense of how big this sale is, the $14.3 billion figure is just 27 percent less than the $19.6 billion worth of goods that eBay sellers sold in July, August and September combined,” notes Re/code. “The number also dwarfs the $2 billion Americans spent on Cyber Monday desktop shopping in 2014.”