Our Team Blog

Spotify Now Streaming Music With Custom Boxee App

Spotify’s endless catalogue of music has arrived on Boxee.

When I tell people about Spotify, I say it’s like iTunes, but with millions and millions of songs built in… and sharing that makes “Ping” look like an 8-track.  With its recent Facebook integration, which lets you discover, share and comment on Spotify music with your friends, Spotify is spreading like wildfire in the US from its base in Europe (where the history comes from).

 

Adding Spotify’s huge music catalogue to a Boxee Box with a Premium subscription costs less than a cup of coffee per week (9.99/month $, € or £). Of course anyone can try the service on their computer for free (with a few ads) or for 4.99/month without ads using an Unlimited account. However, we like the “Go Big or Go Home” philosophy, and Spotify Premium streams sweet serenades everywhere – providing access on your Boxee Box, mobile phone and letting you rock out to playlists offline. After a week with the Premium subscription, I deleted all the other music on my phone and now just use Spotify.

The week before, at a recent party, we created a shared playlist that all of our friends could add to – from Outkast to LCD Soundsystem to Michael Jackson to Fake Blood.  During the party we used the Spotify app on our computer to DJ the entire thing… from 10pm to 5:30am.  For the next one, we’re looking forward to turning our Boxee Box into command central for the DJ booth.

Since Boxee and Spotify are both all about helping you find new stuff you’ll love, we thought it would be fun to have Boxee employees share their favorite playlists with you.  Click on any of the playlists below to listen to them with Spotify.  Once you’ve fallen in love, sign up for a Premium account and start streaming your favorites through your Boxee Box!
October 14, 2011 at 9:00 am

Boxee streaming News, Sports, and Music en Español with Prisa

Today we have 3 huge Spanish language HTML 5 app releases coming from Prisa: AS.com, Los 40, and El Pais.

AS.com
Get all of your sports news from Football and Basketball to formula 1 in the AS.com app. It brings match results, video highlights, articles and analysis of games in an easy to navigate format for your TV.  The app’s also got team specific news for football fans, just click the team badge and AS.com will only show articles relevant to your team.

 

Los 40 brings you Top 40 hits in a radio style format.  Listen to music while browsing the current top 40 list or checking out Los 40’s music news page to get the latest info on the artists you care about.

The El Pais app offers headlines and breaking news from one of the world’s premier Spanish language newspapers.  Get the latest political, economic, and social news along with a comprehensive video and photo archives covering current events.  You can also view the latest football standings, although for more detailed information you’ll want to check out the AS.com app.

Rejoice – the app is available for Spanish speaking Boxee Box users around the globe.


September 28, 2011 at 11:16 am

WSJ Live, live and on-demand news on Boxee

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This morning, we’re launching WSJ Live into the Boxee App Library, bringing original live news programming from The Wall Street Journal to Boxee.  The app also offers thousands of free on-demand video from across Dow Jones’ network of sites.

WSJ Live will begin to offer 4 hours of live news every day coming on shows like News Hub, Markets Hub, Lunch Break, Digits, Mean Street, and Opinion Journal in the coming week.  That’ll be at least 2 more hours of actual live news every day than WSJ Live’s cable news counterparts.

The app also offers breaking news updates, exclusive interviews, and special events coverage.  With original content pouring in from Dow Jones’ army of journalists at publications like Dow Jones Newswires, Barron’s, Marketwatch, SmartMoney and AllThingsDigital this app is going to quickly become invaluable to any news-junkies on Boxee.

So hop into the app now and check out live news from WSJ Live and over 2,000 on-demand videos from WSJ’s great news sources.

September 13, 2011 at 11:46 am

Stream music in top quality HD with MOG on Boxee

Today MOG lands in the Boxee App Library with instant streaming of over 11 million songs, all in better than HD audio (320 kbps).  MOG’s music library blasts and serenades in the highest quality audio available for streaming pretty much anywhere.  The massive song library will make sure you’re never searching for more than a few seconds for what you want, whether it’s top pop music hits or traditional Indian classics.

MOG App

Create your own playlists or have Mog build a radio station for you based on artists and songs you love for a no-fuss way to keep the music going… and to help you discover bands you’ve never heard of.

So head over to http://www.mog.com/boxee now and sign up for a free 14 day trial now to check out one of the top music streaming services on the web today, now available on Boxee.

August 30, 2011 at 10:00 am

Grooveshark lurking in the water on Boxee!!

 

We can’t remember what it was like to enjoy music prior to the streaming era that has consumed us all. Since its arrival though, one glaring problem remained: we couldn’t bring our online playlists to Boxee…until now! Grooveshark has arrived on Boxee, bringing some serious music streaming goodness to your home stereo system.

Huge Collection, Past and Present
Grooveshark’s catalogue won’t leave you wanting. Access millions of songs from every genre, from Rock to Classical to Electronic to Folk.

Now Playing on Boxee: Grooveshark

Check Out What’s Popular
The Grooveshark Popular List lets you check out what’s hot at the moment. Keep up with music trends and new tracks without being bombarded by ads (a la commercial radio).

Discover New Music on Grooveshark

Curate Your Music Library

You don’t have to dig through the mountains of music available every time you build a new playlist. Grooveshark makes it easy for you to build your own personal library. If you see something you like you can add it to your library with just 2 clicks. Then access your library from anywhere you want. Even on your mobile devices.

Create Playlists
Create and save playlists in the app, or any browser, then access them from anywhere.

Queue things up on Grooveshark for Boxee

The app is free to try for a few weeks and if you end up loving it – give up buying one cheap meal a month ($9) and all the music you can stream is on Boxee, your phone, and your computer. Once you’ve got an account – your playlists and music library are loaded up no matter what device you’re using.

To celebrate the launch, we’ve partnered to give away tons of Grooveshark premium accounts and 5 Boxee Boxes – head over to http://boxee.grooveshark.com/ to win!

AOL HD App brings more stupendous Internet-only stuff to the TV

If you’re old enough, you remember the days when “the Internet” was synonymous with AOL. They ran a CD by mail outfit that could have covered the entire United States with shiny plastic discs.  With your “50 free hours!” you got mail!, a dial-up connection, and an incredible assortment of curated news, video, and audio.  They laid the groundwork for most of us to experience the Internet for the first time (although we’d been using BBS’ since 2400 baud).

Fast forward to today, and AOL has become a bastion of high-quality video content that we’re very happy to open up today.   Here’s a quick snapshot of what you’ll get with the AOL app available worldwide:

Translogic [Auto] - Check out test-drives, concept cars, supercars, interviews, automotive history lessons and behind-the-scenes footage from the world’s best car-makers including up and comers like Tesla.

Huffington Post Celebrity [Entertainment] - Watch celeb interviews from Cee-Lo, Kim Kardashian, and Fred Armisen (we <3 Portlandia).  Think Entertainment Tonight, for the web.

Engadget [Tech] - A huge repository of reviews, and opinions on the latest gadgets, gizmos, software, and all things tech.  It’s Mecca for technologists – we recommend daily viewings to keep up to date with Tim, Darren, and the rest of the electronics-laiden crew at Engadget.

The Interface & Sessions [Music] - Check out intimate concert performances and behind-the-scenes footage from big name bands like Train, Adele, TV on the Radio, Iron & Wine, and Gorillaz as well as indie groups like  Manchester Orchestra, Battles, Foster the People, The Dodos, and Chk Chk Chk.  Seriously people – if you like music, you’ll spend hours in here. You’ll be blown away by what’s available here – seriously, we’ve been asking AOL for access to this content for almost a year now… it’s that good.

Full CD Listening Party [Music] - Turn Boxee into a music jukebox that plays full releases from all types of different artists from Vanessa Carlton (singer of  the jangly piano song you secretly love), Electronica veterans Underworld, rapper Black Rob (as opposed to your friend White Mike), and NY’s post-punk plus pianos and pipes band Aficionado.

Moviefone [Movies] - movie trailers for the latest films & celebrity interviews.  Watch Leo talk about Inception, Will Ferrell discuss the intense physical training he went through to get in shape for The Other Guys, and Jason Bateman explain what it means to be inside Ryan Reynolds body.  [we're hoping there's also a secret easter egg where you can have the moviefone guy read you bedtime stories]

AOL Home OR How I Became Master of My Domain [Home] - Thanks to this section alone, my home Feng Shui is off the charts, I’ve made healthy meals every night this week, and I installed a fountain in my dining room chandelier that can accommodate water, chocolate, or cheese.  For all of us who need a little help around the home there’s a near-infinite amount of videos to help teach you how to cook (with Curtis Stone), fix things around the house (with Eric Stromer), keep yourself and kids entertained with crafts (with Kendra), and elevate your home decor game to the next level.  And seriously if anyone makes a working fondue fountain inside of a chandelier, we’ll send you a Boxee Box.

Literally this is only the tip of the iceberg of what you’ll get in this app.  Check it out today in the App Library and let us know what you think!

July 27, 2011 at 11:33 am

Boxee and Headweb join forces to deliver a complimentary copy of “The Green Hornet” to Nordic users

We recently announced Headweb’s new Boxee app – to celebrate, we’ve teamed up to provide users in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark with a free copy of the blockbuster hit “The Green Hornet”.  Headweb’s on-demand movie service has won numerous awards delivering an immersive experience and it’s dead-simple to use on Boxee.

Headweb gives away Green Hornet on Boxee
The offer (available until August 30, 2011) is exclusive to Boxee users, and is just the beginning of a great range of content promotions and exclusive offers we want to reward you with.

Follow these easy steps to redeem your offer:

  • Register or login online at http://www.headweb.com
  • Choose “The Green Hornet” out of the extensive movie catalog
  • Click the “RENT” button
  • Select “campaign code” as payment method and use the code G5M7K2X9Z8
  • Once successfully redeemed, return to your Boxee device to enjoy – Popcorn and Soda recommended but not included in the offer

Keep reading the blog for more great promotions with Headweb and other content partners on Boxee.

July 21, 2011 at 9:37 am

Boxee Lands in London: BBC iPlayer, BlinkBox, iPad Sneak Peek

Tonight we’re in East London sharing some new partners, showing off the iPad, and establishing a beachhead for further European growth.  Here’s a quick run through of tonight’s announcements.

LAUNCHING TONIGHT

BBC iPlayer
Following some recent technical changes, BBC iPlayer is back and is better than ever. With a fresh new look, this is the BBC your way, giving you on demand access to all that the BBC has to offer from the past seven days. There’s nothing else to do, other than sit back, relax and enjoy your favourite BBC programmes from the comfort of your sofa at a time that suits you.

COMING SOON

Blink Box
As the UK’s largest online movies and TV website, BlinkBox is a perfect match for our first major rental service dedicated to Great Britain. They’ve partnered with pretty much every major studio to offer a huge selection of movies and TV at competitive prices and a load of free stuff as well (see one of my favorites, Summer Heights High for free).  Tonight we’ve announced a partnership with them to bring their shows and movies to both the Boxee library as well as to a special Blink Box app so UK users can enjoy everything the service provides. Work starts in September with a release currently slated for the end of the year.

SNEAK PEEK – Boxee for iPad
Tonight we’re also giving people a sneak peek at the Boxee iPad App.  The goal was to create something that stood on its own to bring Boxee to the iPad – videos your friends have shared, featured items, your watch later queue, as well as video files from your local network (using the new Boxee Media Server).  Of course if you’ve got a Boxee Box as well, you’ll be able to use the iPad app as a way to send stuff to your TV.

We were very excited to see the event in London sell out and we think it speaks volumes about the demand for Boxee not only in the UK but across Europe in general so we hope this will be the first of many events and announcements for our European users.

Cheers,
Team Boxee

June 7, 2011 at 3:07 pm

Boxee goes Bollywood

We’ve all enjoyed Indian clips and music videos over the past few years, but when was the last time you watched a “Bollywood” movie that wasn’t directed by Danny Boyle? If you love the music, romance, drama, comedy or dancing inside of India’s huge film industry, check out Databazaar Media on Boxee.

Databazaar Media provides unlimited streaming of Movies, TV Shows and Music Videos in over six Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, English, Tamil, Marathi etc. for a flat monthly rate of $7.99.  Not sure about subscribing?  You can easily browse movies on the Databazaar website, and sign up for a one week trial absolutely free. Once you’ve signed in, run the Databazaar App on Boxee to bring the best Indian films to your TV whenever you want it.

Services like Databazaar continue to highlight the benefits of streaming entertainment – namely that filmmakers from the other side of the globe are able to deliver their movies to huge new markets quickly and easily.   We’re happy to be working with Databazaar to support Indian filmmakers, and very excited to share all their great content with our users.

June 2, 2011 at 2:53 pm

The NHL Boxee App gets a facelift for the new season.

Hockey season started a few weeks ago and to commemorate we thought we’d celebrate with a new NHL GameCenter LIVE TM / NHL VaultTM App on Boxee. And for Hockey fans, our App Master Shawn has cooked up an amazing new app that takes advantage of all the great news and coverage that NHL® fans want.

NHL_LiveAction

Here’s a breakdown of how the new App pulls out all the stops for game day.

  • NEW INTERFACE – a totally overhauled interface that gives you access to so much more than just games
  • NEWS – get the latest headlines and stories news from NHL.com
  • GAME HIGHLIGHTS – See the highlight reel from games earlier today all the way back to the beginning of the pre-season.
  • ARCHIVE –  Watch any game from the 2007-2008 season until now.  Gloat all over again.
  • STANDINGS – See how your team is doing in their division and across the league including wins, losses, ties, points, goals, and more.
  • HIDE SCORES – We know that once you know the score, the games hardly worth watching. Boxee makes sure you know as much as you want to.
  • IMPROVED VIDEO – Our friends at the NHL have outdone themselves in providing an even higher quality video for every game.

If you’re not already a subscriber, you can try out NHL GameCenter LIVETM (for live games) - hours of game time each month for less than $20/month. It’s a no-brainer.  All games are subject to blackouts and other restrictions.  Check out Shawn’s handy-work below to fall in love with hockey  all over again.

NHL_News

NHL_Games

NHL_Standings

November 4, 2010 at 10:30 am