With the RIAA already suing teenagers for downloading pirated music, it’s time you move to the safer side and try another alternative. And yes, that ‘other’ alternative can be free and legal.
Tunerec is a web based service, that ‘records’ songs off internet radio streams and then tags them all for your convenience. Since it has to ‘record’ the streams first, it takes some time to save them in your database. But the patience is eventually rewarded. It has an iTunes like interface, where you can search for artists, songs and albums; Make playlists and also share them with friends.
Although I don’t understand why it has to ‘record’ songs for each user, and not just once for all its users, it probably doesn’t take much time as the number of songs i had last week jumped a whopping 100K this week, taking the total, as of now, to 1 Million.
It may not have all the songs you want, and likely demands patience even for those it has, the audio quality is commendable with very less buffering interuptions. As for the ‘legal’ thing you may be wondering about, the site mentions that it is completely legal and RWW also notes that Tunerec “ has worked out an agreement with the Swedish songwriters association STIM and the musicians (or at least the labels) get paid for every every song played on the service. ”
You can also invite your friends to the service and share your playlists with them.
Tunerec is currently in currently in closed beta but i was able to get into the service right away after i signed up. People living in Europe have a better option than Tunerec and that is Spotify. But sadly, Spotify is only available in Europe and will take some time untill it opens up to the U.S and rest of the world. Untill then, you have Tunerec. If you don’t like it, go buy your own CDs 
(By) An avid freelance writer and technology enthusiast, Keshav Khera is young geek from India. Fanatic about the web, he also writes a blog and makes unsuccessful efforts to avoid twitter.
In the last week or so we have been really taking a keen focus on music streaming service and even posted a specific review about MixTurtle. Today we have come across yet another music streaming service that might be worth a look. This new streaming service is called Just Hear It. Just Hear It has been created by two college students Nicolae Ivanescu and Cosmin Panait.
Just Hear It is very similar to MixTurtle, Seeqpod and Songza. It lets the user search for tracks that are online and add them to a playlist. Just Hear It claims to be completely legal, following DMCA guidelines, and paying royalties to all of the major performing-rights organizations, like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. In the future, Just Hear It aims to negotiate licenses to share revenue with labels.
After playing around with the site it still seems to have the same issues as Seeqpod and Songza, every now and then you will find the track that you want to listen to, but it simply wont play or the file is corrupted or incomplete. Im not really too sure if there is anything more annoying than setting up your playlist and half the songs playing.
However, because Just Hear It claims to be completely legal, I’m very curious to see how this business develops. They need to have a very strong business model and I’m guessing that will be based on advertising revenues.
By: Luis Sandoval
Amidst the myriad of online music options such as Last.fm and Pandora, Grooveshark has come into play as a more social networked option of the previous two. While this is a great way to connect like minded listeners via their music selections, the product could still use some major adjustments.
I’d like to start with installation. Like Last.fm, Grooveshark has an executable file which taps into your system to install an application. Groovesharks download is called Sharkbyte, and essentially attempt to connected with other media folders to extend your sharing options via the music you already have on your computer, for example in the iTunes folder. Once you’ve selected what you want to share you’re off to their website. I personally selected nothing since I do not like applications sharing anything that I currently have on my computer, feels too invasive.
As a user I was overwhelmed with the options the website offered. I felt the design was not fluid, and options were not clearly labeled as to their uses. While it seems like the site is very informative, for a first time user it’s crowded and hard to follow. What I found fascinating with Pandora is the ability to surf the options without ever leaving the main page where the music is playing; and when you did have to open a new page, it opens as a new tab in the browser for ease of use. I got lost too often on Grooveshark’s site. In an attempt to salvage my online experience I clicked on their FAQ’s and became frustrated when there was not sufficient coverage for my question to warrant even a click.
Now for the meat of the site, the music. From what I was able to see, the music options seem aplenty, and the created music playlists are very helpful. I enjoyed the fact that you could take existing playlists and make your own playlists by selecting only the songs you want. Creating playlists was fun, and the instant option to purchase is always good to have right at your fingertips. The quality of the music was clear, the player was a little awkward, but once you set the music to play, I overlooked the player. When the first song completed a major flaw came to light, it did not go onto the next track. I attempted several times to see if I could play entire playlists to no avail. One song? I only get the pleasure of listening to one song at a time? No thank you!
Grooveshark truly has a lot of potential, and of all the music networks I am on, this was definitely the most social. You can add friends who have similar interests in music, chat with them, drag and drop songs to share, broadcast your playlist onto Twitter and Pownce so your friends know what you are listening to. This could be an amazing social music network if only the rest of the site was not so frustrating.
Luckily this site is still in beta, so there’s hope. What are my suggestions to Grooveshark? Drop the install app, I don’t know many that want to openly share their library. Is sharing our playlists and favorite songs through the site not enough? Streamline the design of the site, make it intuitive, think of a first time user as opposed to someone who is familiar with Groovesharks offerings. Finally, let the music play. Let entire playlists play and use the site’s music engine to match new music onto our playlists to expose us to new groups. That is a way to grow a community; that is an excellent way to expand a listeners horizons.
Minic over at 901am has reported that Spiral Frog is now the third largest legal music download site. Spiral Frog reports that they have 850,000 registered users, thus putting them in third largest behind iTunes and Rhapsody. The company also reports that their traffic is also increasing at a constant rate, already surpassing two million unique visitors for March.
Im not really too sure if Spiral Frog should claim the fact that they are the third largest legal download store, mainly because they dont actually sell anything compared to iTunes and Rhapsody. Therefore, they should really be in first place, because people are willing to sign up to something in which they have the opportunity to get something for free rather than paying.
