Spotify US Launch Today

Spotify has launched in the US today! It's been a long wait to try and use this awesome service that has been available in other countries for a while. They are doing a controlled launch so be sure to head over and request an invite. If you use Klout you may be eligible to get in with the Spotify Klout Perk today without waiting. The crew at TNW wrote a great Beginners Guide to Spotify to get you started. Time to use Spotify!

Psonar Closes their Cloud Music Service

Psonar Cloud is closing on August 10, 2011 and has already turned off the music uploading piece. Under pressure from Google Music Beta, Amazon Cloud Player, and Apple's soon to launch service they are no longer able to compete. Instead they will focus their efforts on Psonar Pay Per Play which is set to launch in public beta this August. Current users have 30 days to save their songs from the cloud.

Their message:

One of the principles we promised to respect when you signed up for the service was keeping you fully informed of what we're planning to do - and letting you know of changes as early as possible.

Over the past 22 months we've stored over 2,000,000 tracks for people and have had over 15,000 users sign up to the service worldwide.

Nonetheless, as a small entrepreneurial business we have to react to changes in our market and two significant changes have led us to change the focus of the Psonar service:

The launch of cloud music storage services by Amazon, Apple and Google
The increasing interest in, and demand for, Psonar Pay Per Play
The impact of these leads us to re-focus all our effort on Psonar Pay Per Play. In consequence, we've turned off the music uploading component of the Psonar Cloud service and, from 10 August 2011, we'll be closing down the storage servers as well. This gives users at least 30 days in which to download any music they want to save locally or to transfer to Amazon, Apple or Google.

Since we would not be where we are without the loyalty and encouragement of our users, we'd like to offer everyone 100 complimentary plays on the Psonar Pay Per Play platform once the public beta goes live in August.

What was Psonar Cloud?

Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Johnny Cash "Hurt" is one of the best performances ever. Cash is amazing and there is so much emotion in this song; I tear up every time I hear it. We miss you Johnny! He led a hard life for which we are all the better for knowing and learning from him. He and his music has left a lasting impression on all of us.



Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails wrote the amazing original (below), but Johnny put a life worth of pain behind it.