Music posts

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

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, 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: Internet, Google, Search

Don't stop believing. ANOTHER Google search enhancement -- music this time!

by Sebastian Anthony Oct 28th 2009

Did you know that 'lyrics' is the most searched term on Google in the last five years? Lyrics! Of all things! Not porn, not news, not even games -- but lyrics. And Google, de facto masters of search, know that there's more to search than merely quality or quantity or veracity -- it's about getting the results, when you want them -- i.e. right now. They call it 'time to result': How long does it take to find what you're looking for? If you search for 'Journey', there's a fairly good chance that you're looking for a Journey video or lyrics, and not a journey-planning site -- and that's what their latest search feature brings you.

You don't even need to know the song title -- if Google can match your lyric fragment against a song, it'll pop up at the top of your search results. Neat.

Google might've been developing this one for some time, but instead of implementing their own library of music and needlessly repeating a vast wealth of data already out there on the Internet, Google have partnered with Pandora, imeem and Rhapsody to give you direct links to the songs and artists you're searching for. Rejoice! No longer are we limited to shoddy-quality live videos on YouTube! But how long will it be before Google sets its sights on the music equivalent of YouTube? Lee called this one a yawner -- but I think this might be the best of Google's newly-released features.

Tags: google, google music, GoogleMusic, music, streaming

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, 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, 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

Filed under: Business, Web services

Wikia gets into the lyrics business, acquires LyricWiki

by Jay Hathaway Oct 20th 2009

Most people have heard of Wikipedia, but Wikia (co-founded by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales) is a little bit less well-known. It's a collection of fan-based wikis where people can obsessively catalog info about sports teams, bands, movies, and all kinds of other pop culture material. The latest addition to Wikia is song lyrics, now that the company has purchased LyricWiki.

In the process of snapping up LyricWiki, Wikia also negotiated a licensing deal for the song lyrics themselves, so there's no worry about record companies trying to shut the site down. Wikia runs on open-source wiki software and doesn't show tons of ads, like every other lyric site you'll stumble upon if you try Googling for song lyrics. It also has the advantage of a large number of users to correct the lyrics, so you're likely to find more accurate results than on sites that function more as banner-ad billboards than lyrics collections.

[via VentureBeat]

Tags: lyrics, lyricwiki, music, wiki, wikia

Grooveshark reaches deal with EMI, more big things just around the corner

by Lee Mathews Oct 13th 2009

I love my Grooveshark pro subscription - I paid for it a while back when the new VIP preview went live and I've never regretted it. With more new features rolling out and a major announcement today, the service keeps getting better and better.

Today's big news: EMI Music and EMI Music Publishing have come on board to "create a mutually sustainable deal which represents the future of digital music," said Grooveshark CEO Sam Tarantino.

In layman's terms: Grooveshark listeners now have access to EMI's massive catalog of tunes. In a brief phone chat with Grooveshark's Joshua Bonnanain, I got the distinct impression that this was just the start. While he didn't spell out any specifics for me (we love a good mystery anyway) I'm hoping that the ability to buy and download playlists is coming soon. I'd much rather use Grooveshark for my purchases than iTunes - Josh said stay tuned, wheels are turning.

Some added coolness for current VIPs: there are now half a dozen new themes available to use and added options for the now playing bar. You can choose either no cover art, or artwork in two different sizes. It's an awesome option, especially if you use Grooveshark on both small and large displays.

Reaching a deal with EMI is fantastic news - here's hoping other labels follow suit.

Tags: audio, EMI, grooveshark, mp3, music, online-radio, radio, streaming

Filed under: Audio, Web

How to Play Ohio like a piano - Time Waster

by Brad Linder Oct 8th 2009

Here's an interesting fact: The state of Ohio has 88 counties. You know what else has 88 components? A piano keyboard. Andy Woodruff was thinking about those two facts this summer and he decided to take the obvious next step and create a map of Ohio in Flash that assigns a musical note to each key.

The result is Ohio is a Piano. Click on any county and you'll hear a musical note.

Of course, a piano keyboard is laid out in a logical fashion making it easy to create music by placing your fingers over the proper keys. Ohio's districts weren't exactly drawn with music in mind, and it's a bit tricky to pluck out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But the map has a few built in songs that you can trigger like a player ~~Ohio~~ piano. Just hit the play button and each county will flash as its note is played.

You can also rearrange the notes based on various geographic and demographic data including county name, population, age, sex, and so forth. One of the neatest features lets you plot a course from one area of the map to another and listen to the tune that plays as you pass through each county.

Musically, Ohio is a Piano isn't that interesting. But conceptually it's pretty cool and for some reason I can't make myself stop rearranging the notes.

[via Neatorama]

Tags: maps, music, ohio, ohio-is-a-piano

Filed under: Audio, Fun, iPhone

Cadence lets you set the tempo of your iPhone's tunes

by Jay Hathaway Sep 29th 2009

Cadence is an iPhone app that creates custom playlists from your iTunes library, each set to a different tempo. If you're a runner, a DJ, or just someone who likes to keep everything going to the beat, it's worth a look. To use Cadence, you'll have to download a small Mac desktop app that automatically finds the tempos of the songs in your library. Scanning takes time, but you only have to do it once.

When the scan is through, one click will automatically create playlists (20 songs each, when I tried it) at various tempos. Sync them to your iPhone and you're ready to go. Opening the Cadence iPhone app lets you slide a metronome until you find the beat that matches, then let go and start moving to hear music that matches your rhythm. Download it on the iTunes App Store here.

Tags: bpm, cadence, iphone, music, running, tempo

Filed under: Audio, iPhone

Air: Brian Eno's latest iPhone music app

by Jay Hathaway Sep 18th 2009

Last year, I raved about Bloom, an iPhone app from ambient music pioneer Brian Eno. Now Eno and the team behind Bloom have created Air [app store link]. Eno says the app is like an endless version of his famous composition "Music for Airports."

Air lets users create a complex, gradually shifting composition using vocal and piano samples. There are three different listen modes - each one its own arrangement - and four different conduct modes you can use to make music by tapping different parts of the screen.

If you can get together with some friends who also have iPhones, Air can spread a composition over multiple sets of speakers. It makes sense that Eno is saying that this is how he always wanted Music for Airports to be. That piece was designed as a continually looping sound installation for use in actual airports, so a version that's infinitely variable and always changing would perfectly suit the intent of the original project. It's also starting out at a lower price point than Bloom did, costing only 2 bucks. Not too bad for infinite music!

Tags: air, ambient, bloom, brian eno, BrianEno, generative music, GenerativeMusic, iphone, music

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Features, Macintosh

How to Auto-Tune yourself in GarageBand

by Jay Hathaway Sep 18th 2009

Even though Auto-tune - that funky robot effect that ruled the radio for a big chunk of 2008 - has been officially declared dead by no less a rap superstar than Jay-Z himself, people still went nuts for T-Pain's Auto-tune app on the iPhone. You don't have to have an iPhone (or pay hundreds of dollars for official Antares Auto-tune software) to get that T-Pain sound, though. In fact, you can do it with an app that comes preloaded on the average Mac: Garageband. Check out the gallery for a step-by-step guide to bringing the T-Pain.

Gallery: Auto-tune Yourself in GarageBand

Tags: auto-tune, autotune, DIY, garageband, how-to, music, t-pain, vocals

Filed under: Audio, P2P, Op-Ed

UK Music Industry unsurprisingly backs File-Sharer disconnections

by Nik Fletcher Sep 16th 2009

Just one day after the French Government passed a law that lets judges disconnect users whose computer networks have shown sufficient evidence of illegal file sharing, the UK government's plans to disconnect filesharers have also received an unsurprising boost: from the UK music industry.

The Guardian newspaper today quotes UK Music (a consortium of music industry interests here across the pond) saying "The purpose of [the disconnection] powers is to encourage users of unlicensed P2P networks towards existing and future digital music services." - but we can't help but question the effectiveness of pulling the plug on Internet connections.

Despite misleading super-extrapolated numbers in industry reports, us Brits are far-from reluctant to buy our music online - in the first half of 2008 the UK saw the biggest increase in digital sales in all the major worldwide markets [PDF]. Yet just last week, the Financial Times reported that EMI (the label owning The Beatles' back-catalogue) was reluctant to place the recently-remastered Beatles albums online due to fears of online piracy - despite being readily available in almost every other format, legal or otherwise.

Despite clear demand for digital copies, the music labels continue to blame piracy for their bone-headed decisions on online music. However, as long as the labels withhold music in the formats or outlets that consumers love (hello iTunes and 7Digital) it's clear that there's plenty the labels could do to help their image and balance sheets before turning to the government and bleating for draconian laws to help shore up their own digital naivity.

Tags: Music, RIAA

Filed under: Audio, web 2.0

Last.fm HD radio stations coming to major US cities

by Jay Hathaway Sep 11th 2009

CBS, the parent company of Last.fm, is launching HD radio stations in the four largest US markets, powered by Last.fm. We've seen traditional radio stations go online before, but it's rare to see an online service take to the airwaves like this. The stations will play music based on Last.fm's weekly charts, which sounds like a Web 2.0 twist on the old call-in countdown votes on the radio stations of my childhood.

To tune in to the actual stations you'll need to be in LA, New York, Chicago or San Francisco, and have an HD radio. That means this might be a bigger win for HD radio adoption in general than for Last.fm in particular. If people are going to start buying HD receivers, it'll be because there's enough quality content to make the investment worth it. Last.fm's stations might be a good start.

If you're not, though, you can still catch the online streaming version of the station through the Last.fm site or through Last.fm's mobile apps. Listeners can also expect in-studio performance and interviews from a studio Last.fm has set up in New York. With data from over 25 million users, Last.fm might be taking the mystery out of the formula for radio success. I wonder if they'll dig up some obscure gems, too, or whether it'll just be the popular stuff.

[via Wired]

Tags: cbs, hd, last.fm, music, radio

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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