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Filed under: Audio, Internet, Apple

Apple:Over 2 million DRM-free tracks now on iTunes

iTunes Plus
Just one day after Apple announced it would be dropping the price of DRM-free music tracks from $1.29 to the iTunes-standard $.99, the company expanding its catalog of unencrypted music.

With the move, Apple can legitimately claim to have the largest (legal) library of DRM-free music available online. For a few weeks there Amazon held that distinction, but it looks like the war is on. And while there are still a number of major record labels that are not providing DRM-free tracks through any service, it warms our hearts to see a price war between two industry giants battling to offer high quality unencrypted tracks to music fans.

Apple's DRM-free tracks are all AAC files encoded at 256kbps. The company was already offering a huge library of tracks from EMI. New labels offering DRM-free music include Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, and The Orchard.

[via TUAW]

Filed under: Audio, Video

CodecInstaller: free program for installing A/V codecs

CodecInstaller
CodecInstaller does exactly what you would think. It installs codecs. Audio codecs, video codecs. All the usual suspects, DivX, XviD, Windows Media, AAC, you name it.

Of course, if you've got a good media player like VLC or ZoomPlayer, you probably don't need a separate program to install these codecs. But CodecInstaller can still come in handy if you want a lightweight program for analyzing audio and video files.

Just click the analyze button at point CodecInstaller at your mystery file. It's not perfect. For example, when we tried to analyze several DivX recordings made using BeyondTV, it could only find info for the audio codec, not the video codec. But if you want to know the bitrate, framerate, codec, or dimensions of that file you downloaded from the interwebs, you might want to give CodecInstaller a try.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Utilities, Windows, Podcasting, Microsoft, Freeware

AudioShell - tag music files in Windows Explorer

AudioShellMP3 files have had tag properties forever, and it actually seems somewhat odd that they're not accessible in Windows Explorer, as part of the file properties pane. AudioShell fixes that, by exposing the audio file's id3 tags right within Windows Explorer where they can be viewed and updated.

AudioShell supports editing file tags individually, or doing groups of files all at once. It adds a verbose tooltip window when mousing over audio files, and adds the ability to choose specific id3 tags to add as columns in Windows Explorer, so you can easily sort by them, or manipulate your files as needed.

AudioShell is free, and supports the following file formats:
  • mp3 (all ID3 tag versions)
  • wma, asf and wmv (including DRM protected files)
  • Apple iTunes and iPod aac (m4a, m4b and m4p) and mp4 files
  • ogg, flac (vorbis comment tags)
  • mpc, mp+ (APE/APEv2 tags)
  • monkey's audio (APE/APEv2 tags)
  • wav pack (APE/APEv2 tags)
  • optim frog (APE/APEv2 tags)
  • wav (ID3v2 tag in 'tag ' RIFF chunk)
[via Windows Fanatics]

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Freeware

Soundflavor DJ: Find music by sound

SoundflavorWant to shop for music by sound? Or have iTunes choose songs and create a playlist based on a few songs you've already played? Does this sound like a bunch of futuristic mumbo-jumbo? Well, it's what Soundflavor DJ is offering.

Soundflavor DJ is powered by something known as the "Music Recommendation Engine," which sounds very sci-fi to me. (But cool! Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking sci-fi.) Powered by more than six years of research and analysis, the Music Recommendation Engine can recognize and recommend songs in nearly every genre of music. Simply play a few songs in iTunes, and eventually the software begins displaying album artwork for upcoming songs it thinks you'll like. You can adjust the "Flavorizer" knob to control how often Soundflavor DJ makes recommendations.

Currently, Soundflavor DJ is available only for Windows, and works only with iTunes. Support for other music players, as well as a Mac version, will come soon.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note... What is it with all these Web 2.0 companies that have delicious-looking fruit logos? There's the cherry with Soundflavor, Jump2Mail has a luscious strawberry; and there are plenty more out there, such as Vitamin (an orange) and Wild Apricot (take a guess). It's quite a phenomenon!

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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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