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By Nitasha Tiku 2/09/12 2:03pm

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Spotify playlist (screengrab)

America’s Dad Barack Obama Made You a Semi-Cheesy Spotify Playlist

Remember when your Dad discovered Facebook? This is better. This afternoon, the President (you know, that guy who got Zuck to put down the hoodie) tweeted and tumbled a link to his 2012 Campaign Playlist on Spotify. POTUSes, they’re early adopters just like us!

As the Verge points out, President Obama may catch a little flack for using a Swedish service like Spotify instead of its American counterparts, but we think it shows a keen eye for global tech trends. Besides, Spotify’s Facebook integration gives Obama another reason to mention the Second Coming of Tech IPOs in his stump speeches. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 1/03/12 12:02pm

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From the Silvio Dante Fair Isle sweater collection for Target.

Netflix Taps Sopranos Alum for Its Latest Original Series: Bada Bing Europe

Netflix will soon offer a salve for customers bummed that The Sopranos isn’t on Netflix Instant. Next month, the company debuts an original series: a “fish out of water” story about a mobster played by Steven Van Zandt (better known as the proprietor of the illustrious Bada Bing strip joint or E Street Band guitarist with a bandana, depending).

The plot sounds like an international version of the Steve Martin flick, My Blue Heaven. Only instead of the suburbs, Van Zandt, playing a mobster called Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano goes into the federal witness protection program in Lillehammer, Norway, a request he makes based on a vague recollection of the 1994 Winter Olympics. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 12/09/11 10:32am

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Did Spotify’s New York Team Just Build a Radio App That Could Kill Pandora?

On stage at LeWeb in Paris, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sent a tremor that we imagine reached all the way back at Pandora headquarters in Oakland. TechCrunch Alexia Tsotsis reports that Mr. Ek “innocuously” introduced a radio app, built on the company’s recently released app platform by Spotify’s dev team in New York.

His pitch: “It’s kind of like Pandora with unlimited skipping and unlimited stations.”

Except for the fact that Pandora has a mobile version, and Spotify’s app is still confined to the web (for now), it’s hard to imagine that Pandora, which caps users to 100 stations and eight song skips, isn’t feeling threatened. Read More