Filed under: Audio

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software, web 2.0, Web

Back from the dead? Yahoo Upcoming gets some surprise feature love

by Nik Fletcher Nov 22nd 2009

It's been a number of months (if not longer) since Yahoo showed any love to its Upcoming events service. Since acquiring the service in October 2005, the service has seen just one re-design - and few additional features since. However, in a largely-uncovered announcement earlier in the week, Upcoming now offers a new Jumpstart feature that scans your Pandora, last.fm and iTunes libraries and then follows your favourite artists on the service - alerting you to forthcoming gigs listed on Upcoming.

Whilst other services, including last.fm, allow you to easily view your favourite artists, it's an interesting addition to the Upcoming service - and hopefully means that Yahoo are now looking at ways to build on a largely unloved product.

Tags: events, last.fm, upcoming, yahoo

Filed under: Audio, Utilities

Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta -- holy crap, it's finally here!

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 20th 2009

Believe it or not, almost 7 years after its initial release, the Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta is finally out, and with it comes a large list of changes. Most of them are much-needed interface fixes, but there is the welcome addition of built-in support for the streaming of Windows Media formats (ASX/MMS/RTSP). Other than that, it's much of the same.

Foobar2000, if you were wondering, is a very light-weight music player. It's incredibly flexible thanks to its modular design and fully-featured developer kit. There are mods and plug-ins for Foobar that make it one of the most useful music players: if you're the kind of music buff that likes downloading 'quadrophonic gold remastered' albums in AC3 format from Torrent sites, then Foobar is the music player for you. If you have a large MP3 (or FLAC, AAC, MP4...) music collection and simply want to listen to it, Foobar is also the one for you.

There's all the usual functionality there too, like ripping CDs or fixing ID3 tags. My personal favourite is the keyboard shortcuts that you can set to work globally -- so even if you're playing a game like World of Warcraft, you can skip and pause your music using a finger-breaking keyboard shortcut. Handy. There's also a neat Windows 7 shell integration plugin, if you're fortunate enough to be using Foobar2000 AND Windows 7!

If you're one of those old boring types that's still using the antiquated WinAmp, or you're using the slow-and-disgustingly-bloated iTunes, give Foobar2000 a go -- you'll be surprised at just how good it is.

Official download (torrent) / MajorGeeks direct download (seems link was broken -- fixed now)

Tags: foobar2000, mp3, music player, MusicPlayer

Filed under: Audio, Video

Finally, serious competition for iTunes...from Sony!

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 20th 2009

They've been awfully quiet the last couple of years, except for the recent PS3 price reduction and slow drip-feed of good games. But it seems, after the appointment of a new CEO back in 2006, the results of some internal reshuffling might finally be coming to fruition!

There's no name for the new software reported on by BusinessWeek. There's also very few details of the functionality Sony's iTunes-killer will actually utilize to draw people away from Apple's soft, white allure and into their black, serious grasp.

BusinessWeek suggests that the software will try to differentiate itself from iTunes by including Picasa- and YouTube-like functionality, allowing users to upload videos and photos from their (Sony?) cameras. Other than that... who knows what Sony has up their sleeves?

Sony are huge however -- multi-national robber-baron 'XBox' huge -- with an additional vast library of music and movies. They also have a large installed base of PlayStation owners (that's fast increasing!) It wouldn't be a surprise to see some kind of 'PlayStation App Store' included in Sony's new software.

We shall see!

[via BusinessWeek]

Tags: app store, AppStore, itunes, software, sony

Filed under: Audio, Web services

YouScrobble mashes up Last.fm and YouTube

by Jay Hathaway Nov 9th 2009

Music fans have been using YouTube as a quick way to listen to songs for ages now, and it looks like developers are finally catching on. I recently told you about TubeRadio.fm, which turns YouTube into a pretty nice little music player. Now there's another YouTube/Last.fm mashup called YouScrobble. It's a similar service, but with a twist: YouScrobble is a music players, but it also allows you to download a limited number of songs.

YouScrobble, true to its name, will scrobble your songs to your Last.fm account, while TubeRadio.fm's integration with Last.fm is limited to mining it for track data. On the other hand, TubeRadio.fm shows the actual music video for each song and automatically puts together the track listings of album. It's really a tossup between the two, but if you don't care about downloading - heck, you can just use Dirpy to download any song from YouTube, anyway - I think TubeRadio is the better choice.

[via ghacks]

Tags: download, last.fm, mp3, music, youscrobble, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Photo, Video, News, P2P, Social Software, iPhone, Mobile, Web

Now finally available - ubiquitous media sharing with Orb for Mac

by Dolores Parker Nov 5th 2009

It was pretty exciting news at Download Squad to hear Orb, the "sort of software version of Slingbox," was available for Mac. Orb allows you to broadcast your media to any device that has a web browser. After downloading Orb to your "always on" Mac with a high speed internet connection, you can access all your photos, songs, TV shows, and videos from any device with a browser and media player.

After downloading the app, Orb indexes your media and then prompts you to either log in to mycast.orb.com, or create a log in if you don't have an account. After you log in you can see your dashboard and all your media goodies.

Though my songs appeared immediately, my photos did not. There are various feed settings you can play with and channels to explore. Also, with a simple drag drop interface you can share your media with your friends via email, SMS, widget on your blog, or a public URL.

Checking it out from my home computer is one thing, but would it work on other devices? Success! I was able to access my media from my Dell PC.

A note for iPhone owners: The esteemed and indefatigable Jay Hathaway noted that he received errors when he tried to download the free version of OrbLive for the iPhone, which he tried from both his iPhone and his iTunes account on his Mac. There are 3 flavors of Orb available for the iPhone: OrbLive free, OrbMedia ($4.99) and OrbLive ($9.99)

Note to Orb: Please update your landing page to include PC and Mac, ok?

Tags: iphone, Mac, media sharing, media streamer, MediaSharing, MediaStreamer, mobile, Orb

Filed under: Audio, Internet

Music pirates spend more on music than their legal, law-abiding brethren

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 2nd 2009

The results of a survey, announced yesterday, show that the biggest buyers of music are in fact those that pirate the most. The conclusions come from a poll of 1,000 people between the ages of 16 and 50, with 10% of those admitting they download music illegally -- so it's not a huge slice of the population, and it's by no means conclusive, but I think it just confirms what we already know: it's the music fans that download all the music.

It's the music fans that watch live performances and go the extra mile to get the t-shirts and the posters and track down out-of-print B-sides. The survey shows that the average music downloader spends £77 ($126) a year on music -- while the non-downloader only spends £44.

This probably isn't very big news for you in America -- we all know the RIAA are draconian bitches, nothing new, move along now -- but here in the UK we're about to have a law passed that will allow people to be banned from the Internet if they continue to download music illegally after a written warning. It just stinks of poorly-informed lobbying by the BPI -- the British equivalent of the RIAA.

[via The Independent]

Tags: bpi, music, piracy, riaa

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Apple

Apple TV, amongst other things, now mixes your music!

by Sebastian Anthony Oct 29th 2009

Not only was there an update to iTunes today but there was also a software update for the Apple TV media center box thingee! With it there's a shiny press release and overhauled website.

If you haven't heard of Apple TV, it's their answer to the Windows Media Center -- just plug it into an HD TV, connect to a Mac or PC running iTunes via your local network... and blam! All of those lovely iTunes-bought movies and TV episodes can now be easily streamed to your big screen.

The new functionality being touted with version 3.0 of Apple TV are their two musical technologies: iTunes LP and Genius Mixes. iTunes LP is like some kind of 'immersive experience' -- not only do you listen to your favourite albums through your living room sound system (which is usually the best in the house!), but you also get 'extra footage' displayed on the TV! Presumably this will be liner notes from the album, studio photos and video footage from live concerts.

The update also brings the other new, neat feature of iTunes -- Genius Mixes -- to the Apple TV. Using some kind of match-making algorithm (a la Pandora?), Apple will apparently create smooth-sounding playlists automatically.

Of course, available to you at any time with the Apple TV there's the usual fare of streaming Internet radio and YouTube (though I can't imagine your living room speakers are going to be very kind to YouTube videos...) Also worth mention is the ability to easily get your photos from your hard disk (or Flickr) over to your big TV.

It all comes at a price though -- $230, for a box with a small hard disk and a network adaptor.

At least it's a pretty box.

[via Engadget]

Tags: apple tv, AppleTv, itunes, multimedia, set-top-box, streaming

Filed under: Audio, Video, Windows, Freeware

Convert audio and video files in 2 clicks with Oxelon Media Converter

by Brad Linder Oct 29th 2009

There are dozens of great programs for converting media files from one format to another. Some of our favorites are Super, MediaCoder, and WinLAME, and VirtualDub.But if you're looking for a fast and simple solution, you probably won't find many programs that are as simple to use as Oxelon Media Converter.

Oxelon adds two shortcuts to your Windows context menu: one for transcoding audio files, the other for transcoding video. All you have to do is right-click on any media file in Windows Explorer and select the file format you want to convert it to. Oxelon will open a new window and ask you where you'd like to save the file. You can also change audio and video codecs, framerate, bitrate, and video dimensions as well as other settings. But all you really have to do at that point is hit the "Conversion" button to start converting your file.

The free program does have a few quirks. The most annoying one is that every time you close the program, Oxelon Media Converter will open its homepage in your default web browser. The other is that I had trouble converting some of the video files I had shot with my digital camera. The only way I could get them to encode was by selecting the "no audio" option, although it's possible that if I had spent more time fiddling I could have found another option that would have worked. Admittedly, my digital camera records audio at an odd sampling rate.

Oxelon recommends downloading and installing a plugin file to add support for a wide variety of audio and video formats. You can find a picture of the settings screen after the break.

[via Instant Fundas]

Tags: encode, media, media-converter, multimedia, oxelon-media-converter, transcode

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Web services

Pandora finally gets social sharing, via Facebook and Twitter

by Jay Hathaway Oct 28th 2009

There's a lot to love about the Pandora streaming music service. If you put together just the right combination of musical ingredients, you've got the modern-day equivalent of the perfect mixtape. Sending your brilliant Pandora station to a friend or 2 (or 200!) just got easier, with the addition of Facebook and Twitter sharing.

Until now, the only option for sharing your streaming radio stations was email. That feature is still around, including personalized "Station Gifting," which is a bit like a Pandora e-card. Twitter and Facebook sharing work with single songs or whole stations, and they place a link (along with any comments you want to add) into your public feed. Unfortunately, you still can't use these features to share with an individual friend via direct message, so you'll have to stick to email sharing for that.

[via CNET]

Tags: facebook, music, pandora, sharing, streaming, twitter

Filed under: Audio, Social Software, Web

We're gonna need a bigger boat: Grooveshark attacks your desktop

by Lee Mathews Oct 27th 2009

Damn you, Grooveshark! I've been doing just fine without any Adobe Air applications installed on my system. But you come along and release a standalone interface, and now I'm hooked.

As Sebastien reported with Waver, the Grooveshark Air app seems to be a bit more smooth and responsive than the browser-based version. Whatever the reason, as a guy that runs on unstable, developer-channel browsers that have a penchant for crashing, it's nice to have my streaming audio running stably in its own app.

The app's system tray icon provides pause, skip, and previous controls, and notifications with album art and track info can also be set to appear in whichever corner you prefer.

Grooveshark Desktop is currently for VIPs only. If you have a $3/month paid account, just sign in and head to your account page (or click here) to download Desktop. Adobe Air is required, but as long as you have the Flash Player plugin the install just takes a couple of clicks and some patience.

So now I've got a great out-of-browser way to access Grooveshark on my desktop. I wonder when I'll be able to do this on my iPod Touch? Soon, I hope.

Tags: adobe air, AdobeAir, grooveshark, music, streaming audio, StreamingAudio, web radio, WebRadio

Filed under: Audio, Beta, Search, Web

Blinkx launches a mediocre music search engine

by Brad Linder Oct 27th 2009

Online video site Blinkx is branching out into music with the launch of Blinkx Music Beta, a search engine for online music videos. The front page is simple enough. You're greeted with a search box, a list of top artists, and the ability to click a letter to see results starting with A through Z. You can search for artists, albums, or songs.

Unfortunately, the search index is pretty sparse. There are a number of songs, artists, and albums that return no results. And the search engine's not that intelligent. While a search for Coldplay returns a fair number of results, searching for Cold Play or Caldplay results in a "no results matching your query" message. So you'd better not include a typo or not know the proper phrasing of your favorite band name. Heck, on a whim, I tried searching for Hootie and the Blowfish and got zero results, which normally wouldn't upset me in the least. But Hootie & The Blowfish actually did return results.

Blinkx doesn't host the videos on its own site. Instead, when you click on a song you'll be taken to the page where the video rests, whether it be on YouTube, Last.fm, or another site. A Blinkx toolbar hangs out at the top of the screen to take you back to where you started or let you begin another search.

A fairly large number of videos I did find were cellphone recordings shot at concerts rather than professional music videos.

That's the bad news. Here's the good news: the Blinkbox online video service keeps getting better. I got an email today letting me know that Blinkbox had added a number of BBC TV shows which are now available to watch for free including episodes from the first two seasons of the original (William Hartnell) Doctor Who as well as episodes of The Young Ones, Hustle, and The League of Gentlemen. Update: It's just been pointed out to me that Blinkbox (which I mistakenly referred to as Blinkxbox at first) is not actually related to Blinkx. I'm still excited about the BBC content though.

[via VentureBeat]

Tags: blinkx, blinkx-music-beta, blinkxbox, music-videos, online-video

Filed under: Audio, Video, Web services

TubeRadio.fm turns YouTube into a powerful music player

by Jay Hathaway Oct 26th 2009

Using YouTube to listen to music is nothing new. Search for a song you want to hear, and you're very likely to find it, even if there's no official music video. YouTube isn't built to listen to music though, and that's where TubeRadio.fm comes in. It's a slick music player that lets you create playlists from YouTube, and can even find entire albums at once, using track listings and album art from Last.fm. The TubeRadio homepage describes the service as "iTunes meets YouTube meets Spotify," and that's not much of exaggeration.

TubeRadio.fm puts more emphasis on the "radio" than the "tube": the videos themselves take up very little space in the UI. More space is devoted to the tabbed info box at the bottom of the screen, which automatically pulls up lyrics and artist bios. TubeRadio does a good job of getting the album versions of songs when you use 'Discography Mode' to grab whole albums, but occasionally it will find a live version instead. Fortunately, there's another mode that searches all of YouTube, and you can manually add the version you want, if it exists.

Tags: itunes, last.fm, music, music player, music videos, MusicPlayer, MusicVideos, playlist, spotify, tuberadio.fm, youtube

Filed under: Audio, Web services, Social Software

MySpace shows artists some love with analytics and music video archives

by Jay Hathaway Oct 23rd 2009

As MySpace has lost ground to Facebook and other competitors in the social networking world, it's increasingly focused on something it's always done well: music. Being a musician on MySpace just got a lot easier, thanks to new analytics features that give you a better picture of who's visiting your site and listening to your music. On top of that, MySpace has also worked out a deal with several prominent record labels to put a huge archive of music videos online.

On the new Artist Dashboard, artists can check out the demographics of their fanbase, including a breakdown of age, gender and location. The Dashboard also includes pageviews and song plays over time, and integrates information from iLike, which MySpace acquired earlier this year.

Music videos are now a much bigger part of MySpace. On top of the new video archive, music videos will show up in an artist's MySpace Player if they're available. Of course, MySpace has found a way to monetize the heck out the video business, including plenty of ads. Still, it's nice to have another large stash of music videos online, and it might include some that you can't easily find on YouTube.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: analytics, artist dashboard, ArtistDashboard, music videos, MusicVideos, myspace, myspace music, MyspaceMusic

Filed under: Audio, Google

Update: Google "music service" sounds more like an affiliate link program. Yawns ensue.

by Lee Mathews Oct 21st 2009

What was originally dangled by Mike Arrington as a possible iTunes-like streaming and/or download service turns out to be something far less exciting.

No, apparently Google is not planning something that "big." Rather, they're working to add functionality to Google Search. And by functionality, I mean something that sounds like revenue-generating links for Google without the complexity of creating a digital storefront.

According to an update from CNet, One Box will add links to existing digital music services like iLike and Lala. You search for a musician, album, or song title on Google - you get artwork thumbnails, playable audio clips, and links to buy tracks alongside your search results. iLike, of course, already embeds YouTube videos for songs people search for (example), so this is a bit like "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

To me, it also sounds like referral bucks for Google. It's closer to their core competency (search and advertising) than rolling out a full-blown iTunes competitor. And they can always buy iLike or Lala later on if things are going well. Google does love the acquisitions.

I don't know about you, but I'm way less excited about this than the original TechCrunch rumor. What do you think?

Tags: google

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Google

Watch out, iTunes! Google may be getting ready to launch a digital music service

by Lee Mathews Oct 21st 2009

While they've offered music streaming and downloads in China (pictured) for quite some time now, Google users elsewhere have been left wondering "When's it gonna be my turn? (use your best Cleveland voice)"

According to TechCrunch, it may not be that much longer. Take that with a grain of salt, of course, since Arrington and Co. have been known to miss the mark by a wide margin from time to time.

Still, an iTunes competitor makes a lot of sense and now is the perfect time for Google to debut it. With Android starting to pick up steam in the mobile handset market and devices like Barnes & Noble's Nook and Dell Streak popping up with the OS, Google could be planning to strike while the iron is hot.

They've also done their share of negotiating with copyright holders before, so getting content providers on board should be a walk in the park. Putting that experience and existing relationships to work in a music service could be a major win for Google.

After running Google Music China through Translate, I'm thinking my first downloads will be "Sparkling Arouses Love" and "How can you be Willing to Let Me Cry." If this music service turns out to be half as entertaining as Google Translate, I'm all in.

Tags: android, google, itunes, mp3, music

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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