Spotify has announced two major updates: a slew of new features coming to its Car Thing device and the launch of Canvas looping videos on its mobile app.
Both updates have begun rolling out to Spotify users. The Car Thing features will be limited to the U.S. and iOS users will get the update first. Android owners will get everything at a later date.
Canvas has a greater reach as the videos will release in beta across the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada for the Spotify mobile app.
More hands-off control
Car Thing was designed as a more convenient way to control Spotify while you drive and that core functionality is being expanded. Owners will now be able to see incoming calls on their screen where they can either answer the call or dismiss it.
Another big change is “Add to queue” which Spotify claims is one of its most requested features. It’s essentially the same feature on the mobile app where you can add songs or podcasts to a tracklist, but now you can use your voice.
There’s also going to be a new “Add to queue” icon on the touchscreen to add the song to a playlist or you can press and hold the dial to do the same thing. Other features include the ability to use your voice to ask Spotify for a personalized playlist and to control other media.
Looping recommendations
Canvas videos appear to have been inspired by Tik-Tok as a way to help people discover new types of music. Every day, Spotify will recommend you 15 Canvas loops based on the music that you like. You can scroll through the personalized selection to hear a preview and the Canvas for each song.
If you like what you see and hear, you can add the song to a playlist or follow the artist straight from the Canvas loop. The feature will also allow you to post the Canvas onto a social media app and have it loop in the background of a Story.
Canvas will be right on the mobile app’s home screen and will be created by the artists themselves to offer a sneak peek into the creative process. The full list of artists that will be in the Canvas section is unknown, but Spotify did reveal singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo as one of them.
Spotify didn’t say how long Canvas videos will be; whether it’s a 30-second loop or up to a 3-minute stream like TikTok.
Spotify has announced two major updates: a slew of new features coming to its Car Thing device and the launch of Canvas looping videos on its mobile app.
Both updates have begun rolling out to Spotify users. The Car Thing features will be limited to the U.S. and iOS users will get the update first. Android owners will get everything at a later date.
Canvas has a greater reach as the videos will release in beta across the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada for the Spotify mobile app.
More hands-off control
Car Thing was designed as a more convenient way to control Spotify while you drive and that core functionality is being expanded. Owners will now be able to see incoming calls on their screen where they can either answer the call or dismiss it.
Another big change is “Add to queue” which Spotify claims is one of its most requested features. It’s essentially the same feature on the mobile app where you can add songs or podcasts to a tracklist, but now you can use your voice.
There’s also going to be a new “Add to queue” icon on the touchscreen to add the song to a playlist or you can press and hold the dial to do the same thing. Other features include the ability to use your voice to ask Spotify for a personalized playlist and to control other media.
Looping recommendations
Canvas videos appear to have been inspired by Tik-Tok as a way to help people discover new types of music. Every day, Spotify will recommend you 15 Canvas loops based on the music that you like. You can scroll through the personalized selection to hear a preview and the Canvas for each song.
If you like what you see and hear, you can add the song to a playlist or follow the artist straight from the Canvas loop. The feature will also allow you to post the Canvas onto a social media app and have it loop in the background of a Story.
Canvas will be right on the mobile app’s home screen and will be created by the artists themselves to offer a sneak peek into the creative process. The full list of artists that will be in the Canvas section is unknown, but Spotify did reveal singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo as one of them.
Spotify didn’t say how long Canvas videos will be; whether it’s a 30-second loop or up to a 3-minute stream like TikTok.
Being great at guitar or an improvisation king on the piano is only one facet of making good music. In the modern age, being technically great isn’t required if you’re creative enough. How you put together your music is just as important as being able to make it in the first place.
The DAW, or digital audio workstation, is what you need to look at if you’re interested in production. This will allow you to record yourself, and it will actively change the way you make music. Learning to compensate for parameters or workaround systems will shape the way you go about putting everything together.
For this reason, picking the right DAW is important and you're often better off exploring around a little bit before you settle on what works for you. Unfortunately, with the time and money required to do so, this can be a bit of a challenge.
With your MacBook in hand, we will be recommending our picks of the best free music production software suites.
(Image credit: Future)
1. GarageBand
The best free app
Intuitive
Free
Great selection of tools and instruments
A little simple
If you’ve booted up a Mac before, you will be familiar with this software package from Apple. Coming pre-installed on Apple devices, this is a usable and intuitive application with lots of useful built-in features.
You only need to plug in your midi, guitar, or keyboard to create music instantly. With the quick help function, it explains everything you can see in easy-to-grasp concepts, making it a great app for those just starting out.
It has some great functions like a smart drummer, which means you don’t need to create a drum track to have a nice beat in the background. It also has some nice packs to try for midi, like great piano sounds, some orchestral sounds, and some good effects for the guitar.
If you’ve never bothered with music production before, try this before you try anything else on this list. From here, you can read the list and pick your favorite app based on what you like.
(Image credit: Future)
2. Logic Pro
Apple’s flagship application
Great selection of tools and instruments
Very powerful application
Tons of customization options and features
Can have issues with unofficial plug-ins
As the software is still making changes and adapting to the latest M1 chips, there are issues using unofficial software sometimes and it can get a little complicated to start. If you have the time to dedicate, this is one of the very best pieces of software you can find.
If you like GarageBand but just want more out of it, Logic Pro is where you should go from here. This is a great piece of software, offering more sounds to choose from, more robust features to customize your songs, and just general better usability.
It's correct to assume that GarageBand is essentially a 'lite' alternative to Logic – a solid usable app that has some noticeable drawbacks. Logic gets rid of these and adds even more functions. It has better live looping and more intricate tempo options.
It also has plenty of extra software and built-in sounds to get full and vibrant music out of your projects. Alongside this, there are much better mixing options that can give you extra options for the bass and equalizers, depending on the types of genre you're focusing on, making it great for those looking to finish a full song, ready to go on an album.
It also has great intuitive methods to export your songs onto iOS or iPadOS if you want to take your projects on the go.
(Image credit: Future)
3. Pro Tools
The industry standard
Different price tiers
Great cross-platform use
Few moment-to-moment issues
Regular fees
Steep learning curve
Pro Tools is the industry standard when it comes to DAWs and there’s a reason for that. It’s powerful, can handle pretty much anything you throw at it and it is great when using across platforms.
If you want to work on a project with someone else or want to learn the software most professionals are used to, this is a valuable application to learn.
That said, it can be a little hard to get used to. It isn’t quite as intuitive as our previous choices and is loaded with options. Pro tools can be used for free with a trial but will cost you more in the long run with monthly/yearly plans.
Pro Tools' cloud features and great plug-in options make the app a fantastic choice, albeit with a steep learning curve and high price. If you’re looking for something complex that is used by industry professionals, this is the app for you.
(Image credit: Future)
4. Ableton Live 11
For those who like to improv
Unique selling point
Great for live sessions
Some great instruments and loops
Quite expensive for the best version
UI could be better
Ableton Live is an excellent app for those who like to improvise. All of its software is based around live sessions, giving your music a raw feel. It’s much better at allowing you to just sort of jam, then fine-tune every aspect of your music.
Out of all the paid apps here, this one could be bought alongside another (if you have the cash and patience) as its unique selling point makes it worth trying regardless. There are three central price tiers for the app; the top one is rather expensive, but the cheaper options are a good start.
Its focus on live play means there are some pretty solid built-in loops and instruments to use, perfect for setting up a track. Where other apps often get lost in the weeds, figuratively speaking, Ableton Live is great for just letting you in there to mess around.
If you like the idea of composing on the fly, you should try this one out.
(Image credit: Future)
5. FL Studio
For those who like to loop
Loop-based writing leads to some interesting songs
Has some good effects
Fun to play around with
Live recording is a little limited
Can be a little confusing
Originally known as FruityLoops, FL Studio has come an incredibly long way since its release two decades ago. Its functionality is entirely based around loops, making it great for genres like EDM or trap.
You essentially build loops in a separate track and place them into your main track. This means coming up with ideas that are only used once or ever-changing songs can become a tedious process.
While it has the ability to play and record, fixing that afterward becomes a little bit of a hassle due to its architecture. The loop-focused build of this software often makes you write a little outside what you’re used to, which is great but also gets in the way of your own ideas.
This also makes learning it a little confusing but, if you can get over that learning curve, it’s a solid and versatile DAW that may make you think outside the box.
There are now so many streaming music services to choose from, it's become difficult to easily share links to songs. Sure, you can use the sharing option in Apple Music to send a friend a link to a track you love, but this is little help if they're not an Apple Music user.
And this is where MusicMatch can help. This free app makes it possible to open a shared music link you receive in whatever happens to be your favorite streaming app. So, someone could send you a link to a track on Spotify, but if you're one of the many people who has decided to move away from this particular streaming service, you can use MusicMatch to open the track in Tidal, Pandora, YouTube Music or several other alternative services.
In all, there's now support for seven streaming music platforms – namely Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube Music. In short, MusicMatch gives you a quick, easy and reliable way to open music links in the app of your choice.
We've already looked at the iOS version of MusicMatch as well as the web extension, but things have moved on a great deal in just two short months. We've already mentioned the newly expanded number of supported platforms. The addition of the likes of YouTube Music, Pandora and Tidal means that all of the key music streaming platforms are now covered, so whatever your preferred app is, you should be able to open links in it.
Cross-platform sharing
The idea is great, and the implementation is simple and effective. When someone sends you a link to a track, album or even an artist on a particular streaming platform, you can just copy the link to the clipboard.
Fire up MusicMatch and the app will open the link in whatever you have configured as you preferred music streaming app. It's quick and painless, and significantly less drawn out than performing a search for whatever it is you have been sent.
Even better, if you have the MusicMatch extension for Safari installed, everything is taken care of for you automatically. There is no need to manually open the MusicMatch app as everything will be handled in the background. Getting set up is simplicity itself. Grab the app from the Mac App Store, and when you launch it you can indicate which of the seven supported music services is the one your use.
The ap also lets you create universal links to the music you want to share with others. Send a MusicMatch-created link to a friend and they can choose the app they want to use to listen to the music you want them to hear.
MusicMatch for macOS is available to download from the Mac App Store and more information is available on the MusicMatch website.
If you're still longing for the days of the Nintendo Wii's Shop Channel, or you have the iconic tune stored in your music app as you walk through a shopping mall, you can experience the same track and others in your web browser thanks to a web extension.
Found on GitHub and compatible with the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers, the extension plays one of the iconic tracks whenever you're on a shopping site such as Amazon.
The extension, which adds a little shopping bag icon in the address bar, doesn't stop with Wii shop music – themes from Wii Home, Wii U eShop, DSi Shop, and 3DS eShop can all be selected instead.
However, Nintendo will most likely be looking to take this down soon, as the music is the property of the company. If you want these music tracks to play as you browse Amazon, be quick.
How to get the best out of the extension
Even though the developer states that the extension will start playing music when you're on a shopping website, you can still enable a track to play on virtually any website.
Go to the extension's shopping bag icon, and after a few seconds, the selected track will play as you're browsing Facebook or solving the latest Wordle puzzle.
(Image credit: Future)
We should mention that the extension works in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, as they run from certain web engines that help to display websites and play media content.
For Chrome it's Blink, while Firefox runs in a Gecko web engine.
But other browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Opera run on the same engine as Google Chrome, which means the Wii Shop extension will be able to work on these web browsers, even if its' not officially supported by the developer.
If you've ever felt frustrated trying to open a shared link from a music streaming service you don't use, you're not alone. But sharing the next best Holly Humberstone song doesn't have to be difficult. A new app, launching today (December 12), is making it easier than ever to share and play your favorite tracks.
MusicMatch, developed by Patrick Hardy and Arthur Van Siclen, is a free app now available on iPhones running iOS 15. The app allows music lovers to open shared song links in either Spotify or Apple Music within the app. You can also play song links utilizing a Safari extension, without opening the MusicMatch app.
While the app sounds simple enough, we spoke to Hardy and Van Siclen to find out what motivated them to develop MusicMatch. Here's what we know about this new music app.
How to use MusicMatch
MusicMatch is free in the App store and available to download for devices running iOS 15. Copy your song, album, or artist link to your clipboard and then open the MusicMatch app. Select where the link will open, whether Apple Music or Spotify.
A Safari extension will provide the same convenience, but within the Safari web browser. To enable this, go to Settings > Safari > Extensions > MusicMatch > Enable All Websites > Enable MusicMatch.
(Image credit: MusicMatch)
At this time, only links from Spotify that open in Apple Music will work with the Safari extension, but Hardy and Van Siclen are working on making Apple Music links work in Spotify on the web browser as well.
Where does MusicMatch fit on iOS?
As far as creating the app, Van Siclen handled the design and development of MusicMatch while Hardy focused on the integration of Spotify, Apple Music, and the Safari extension.
We asked them why they created the app in the first place.
“I’ve clicked so many Spotify links, found the song or artist name, then searched on Apple Music so many times. Every day.” Van Siclen explains.” Every time someone sends me a link I have to go through those steps. It’s onerous. I’m almost mad thinking about it now.”
“Arthur and I have been sharing music with each other for years, but Arthur has always been on Apple Music and I've always preferred Spotify. We would go through the process looking up a track on the other's service then searching for that same content on another platform.” Hardy continues. “When Apple announced that Safari Extensions would be available on iOS 15, we realized that there was a pathway to make this process painless and automatic. We knew the pain first hand and were sure it would be useful to a lot of people who share music with their friends.”
(Image credit: MusicMatch)
While the app is a simple way of opening a music link, the two developers also discovered Safari Extensions on iOS 15 as another use-case for MusicMatch.
“When we heard about Safari Extensions coming to iOS we quickly identified this as an opportunity to solve this problem once and for all.” Van Siclen continues. “We made the Safari Extension, but understanding that extensions are kind of an esoteric, “pro” thing to set up, we decided to make the app fully functional itself. That was a good decision – my mom was able to use the app the first time she needed it.”
To macOS and beyond?
It’s only the first day of the app’s launch, but Hardy and Van Siclen aren’t stopping there. As you will see music links shared to you on other devices such as a Mac, there’s plenty of use cases where MusicMatch can help.
“Yes, we architected the app with cross-platform applications in mind,” Hardy explains. “We would love for MusicMatch to solve this problem no matter where customers are at. Our iOS app is just the start.”
“MusicMatch will soon come to macOS as both an app and Safari Extension. It is built with SwiftUI and has great access to Apple’s modern cross-platform infrastructure.” Van Siclen adds.
(Image credit: Apple)
But if you only have an iPhone, the two devs have plans for a future update on iOS.
“We’re also excited to add support for Tidal, YouTube Music, Pandora, and the other popular streaming services.” Van Siclen continues. “The key goal we identified is to be reliable, so for the first few updates we are focused on ensuring MusicMatch does its job flawlessly for everyone.”
Finally, we wanted to know if Hardy and Van Siclen were big music users on iOS.
“Yes! I listen to jazz, and when we work together, we put on London Grammar, Javiera Mena, Kamasi Washington, and a lot of cross-genre artists.” Van Siclen explains.
“Music has always played an important role in our lives.” Hardy adds. “Sharing music that's inspiring, songs to practice on the guitar, or artists to learn from has always been at the core of a rich and connected life for us.”
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