Archive for: mp3
Mp3tunes is a music streaming service(also supports some video formats) that allows you 2gb of free data (10GB if you request it) or you can pay for more room. My favorite feature is that you can upload M3U files which in case you don’t know are playlist files. You can stream to Android, iPod, WebOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, PS3, Wii, Windows Phone 7, and right to your browser (it really has support for almost anything you can think of). They also have API’s avalible for free and open source apps for you to play with .I think that its one of the best mp3 streaming services out there because it has alot of support.
I have my own account and I use it to sync music from my home computer to the cloud then play in on another computer. The online storage player is really neat and you can play any music or video you want from the player and there is a Flash and Html player. Also I use my phone(Palm pre) and stream music from the cloud down to my phone or to my Tivo. Currently the only problems I have encountered is syncing videos because on WebOS doesn’t support video streaming yet i guess. Also on Tivo you will sometimes get an error when streaming and the only way to fix it is restart the unit which takes forever. Besides for that I think it is a really great program and I would recommend it to anyone look to stream music to multiple devices.
Amazon.com seems to have finally succeeded in breaking into the “cloud” market with their new “Amazon Cloud Drive.” It touts a default of 5GB of online storage for free, unlimited access from any computer and, of course, reassures customers they will never have to worry about losing their files again. Their claim is, “Anything digital, securely stored, available anywhere.” But is it really as great as they claim? I decided to dig deeper and find out.
I received an email from Amazon when the cloud drive was launched and was given $2.00 in credit towards mp3 purchases. Intrigued by this new development (and the free music credits), I ventured to their website to check it out. I quickly found a song I wanted and clicked the buy button. It asked if I wanted to save the music to my cloud drive. “Simple enough,” I thought. Then I wouldn’t have to download it – I could just stream it. I immediately went to my new cloud drive, selected my new song (which was available immediately) and pressed play. It buffered up the song and played but I discovered it was also downloading to my computer as well. Bummer.
Next I decided to try uploading some music. I clicked “Upload to your Cloud Drive” and was prompted to download the “Amazon MP3 Uploader.” Wait a minute – so I have to use proprietary software to upload music? “That’s a bit inconvenient,” I thought, but I downloaded it anyway. After installing the software, it decided it had to scan my entire hard drive for music, which was a long and tedious process. Once it finally loaded, it told me I had X playlists and X songs not in my cloud drive and asked if I wanted to upload it all now. I declined (as it would have been way more than 5GB of space) and chose a few albums to upload. What I found was that it killed my internet speed and I saw no way to limit the upload rate. Frustrated after about 20 minutes of sluggish internet, I killed the uploader until that night when it could run and not bother me.
In the meantime, I checked out the Android mp3 player from Amazon, wondering if it too would have to download my music before playing it. I discovered that while it can play the song through buffered memory, it still has to download; so listening while downloading isn’t a good option as the song often plays faster than it downloads (unless you’re using Wi-Fi). So once again I’m stuck waiting.
Ultimately, I was able to get the music I wanted uploaded and then downloaded again (to my phone). Now that I have done so, I can simply open the Amazon cloud player and quickly hear what I want (slightly faster than searching my hard drive and includes better filtering options). So was the hassle worth it?
Pros:
- Music can save directly to the cloud (optional). This allows me to download my new music at my convenience and on whatever computer or mobile device I wish to listen to it on.
- I no longer have to use a USB flash drive or external to move music around.
- Creating a playlist is simple
- Music can be viewed by songs, albums, artists, or genres.
- In addition to music, the cloud drive can also store documents, pictures and videos
- Music can be listened to through a web browser or via a mobile device using Amazon’s MP3 app.
- 5GB free storage space
Cons:
- Uploading and downloading again is time consuming
- No upload speed limiter makes for doing anything else while uploading nearly impossible (and I have a 15MB connection)
- Must use proprietary software to upload music
- Must buy an annual subscription if you want more than 5GB of storage at $1/GB.
- No true streaming – music has to be downloaded to each device you wish to listen on
Overall, I would say Amazon has a potentially great thing going on here. If they simply added the ability to stream without downloading, I would give the Amazon Cloud Player and Drive 5/5 stars. As it is now, and considering their hefty fees for storage in excess of 5GB, I give it 3.5/5 stars. It’s a great concept, but could use a few tweaks to make it the best.
The very popular music search engine Skreemr is rising back from the deadpool. Skreemr is live again with a lot of new functionality changes and upgrades. Skreemr indexes free mp3 files from around the web and from creditable resources. Users can stream the music for free on Skreemr and then there are options to download via Amazon and even download a ringtone.
Its great to see that Skreemr now showcases the site in which the mp3 was found on. This will provide the websites with some additional traffic, but could hurt in terms of hosting possibly illegal mp3 files.
Skreemr was previously closed down due to pressure from the major record labels, so I’m wondering how long it is going to be available this time around.
MP32Tube it’s another YouTube web app which we can use to upload MP3, WAV or M4V files to YouTube using the images we select to create a video.
Most applications we can use related to YouTube are mostly for downloading videos, downloading only the audio file, etc.; but just a few are focused on the uploading process. MP32Tube fits perfectly for users who want to share music or some audio files using the YouTube engine.
Using this application is also very simple: Upload images (jpg, jpeg, gif and png supported); upload the audio file; edit the video info and create the video.
MP32Tube also offers a secure method for using your YouTube account: All the connections to the account are done through Google’s AuthSub API. Meaning they never have access to your password.
MacX DVD Ripper Pro it’s paid application where we can not only rip DVDs, but also we can convert those into MOV, MP4, FLV, AVI or even MP3. But now, there’s a special offer for all of us: Until October 28th, we can get it for free!
Direct download for Windows here, and for Mac click here.
Among the features in MacX DVD Ripper Pro, we can find:
- Output formats: MOV, MP4, FLV, AVI, and MP3.
- Supporting portable devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, and PSP.
- Remove CSS encryption, all region protection, Sony ARccOS Protection, APS.
- Rip Disney DVD with New Copy protection.
- Available for Windows and Mac.
MacX DVD Ripper Pro, freeware until a few days more, usually costs U$S39.99, so you better hurry and get yourself a copy!
Songr is a completely free and small application which we can use to search over 16 music engines and directly download files within the app. And even more, we can download YouTube high-quality videos and if we prefer, just extracting and downloading the audio from the video.
Since the Napster blast, the web did not have the chance to unify a good way for users to get music for free (and legally); tons of sites and applications appeared but not all of them are famous. Songr is one of those that are in fact quite powerful. You can download it from this link.
Here are some of the features:
Songr aggregates results from 16 mp3 search engines
Full album search- Download HQ/HD YouTube videos and optionally extracts the audio track as mp3
- It grays out low bitrate preview-only and mp3s
- Intelligent sorting: Songr tries to display high quality mp3s on the top of the list
- Double clicking a mp3 file opens it directly in Windows Media Player
- Songr converts links that point to a web page instead of the mp3 file
- It makes possible to discover the name of a song by typing some words in the Search by lyrics panel and listen to a preview of the song
- Automatic updates check, to get more search engine connectors
- Automatic mode
- Links to buy music from Amazon and Rhapsody
- It’s freeware, without ads or restrictions
The supported MP3 search engines: Audiodump.com, BeeMp3.com, DilanDau.com, 4shared.com, Goear.com, Hypster.com, Iask.com, JustHearIt.com (YouTube videos), Kohit.net, Mp3000.net, Mp3Realm.org, Mpeg-Search.com, Skreemr.com, Socbay.com, Soso.com, Wrzuta.pl.
ListenToYouTube.com is a simple and free web app which we can use to extract the audio from a YouTube video. No registration required, we only need the YouTube URL and we are ready to go.
There are several sites and applications available to do this, but this is one of the simplest we can find.
- Just access the web site ListenToYouTube.com.
- Copy/Paste the YouTube URL. Click Go.
- Wait a few seconds until the video is retrieved to a server, removed the audio and make it available to download.
We can even choose the type of quality of the audio we are going to download, standard or high quality.
Do you enjoy swimming? And do you love music and can’t get anywhere without your MP3 player? Well, we have news for you. Regaletes, a shopping site available from Spain, is offering a great new gadget: A waterproof MP3 player.
This new gadget is available only in a 2GB model. I know, this is not the best sized MP3 player, but still, in 2GB I’d say that you can have enough music for your swimming session. The interconnection system is, of course, USB.
Even though it could sound a little pricy, 89 euros, still the possibility to use it while you are showering or in a swimming pool it’s just awesome!
“Grab That File!” is an online service available that lets you download music directly from MySpace completely free. This free version provides us with the possibility to download up to 7 songs per day, with the possibility for a Premium upgrade.
As you probably know, MySpace is the favorite site for many bands to start distributing new songs but of course the only way to listen it is using the website with an Internet connection. Grab That File! gives us the possibility for a direct download of the MP3 file.
The use of it is pretty simple: Login using your Facebook account; enter the MySpace URL with that contains the music; and download the file you want.
Of course, there’s a big disclaimer saying that you should only download music that does not infringe any copyright laws.
How many of you have created your iTunes playlists and feel like your list is never complete unless you’ve got everything you need for every song including album art? If you’re one of those types, then I’m right there with you. Nothing frustrates me more than playing music on my MP3 player and seeing no album art with a song. Perhaps I’m OCD, perhaps it’s just the huge music fan in me, but Album Art Search has been a holy land of sorts for all the album art I need.
The site offers up the album art of some of the most sought after albums, straight from the homepage, but digging deeper you’re able to find what you’re missing after a search for a specific album. The categories give you a broad based idea of what you’ll find, and by clicking on the image you can go to Amazon if you’d like to buy the physical media. You can also bookmark and save the images for your own use.
So now there’s no reason for any of your playlists to be without album art. Dig in, find what you need and let us know what you think. There are other competitors out that I think do it better, but I like the ease of finding what I need on this platform.
