(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Aside from his storied history of mastering downloadable software and ensnaring cyber-ne'er-do-wells around the globe, Power Downloader is also a longtime music collector. Since the very first 78rpm record he received as a young boy on Christmas Day untold years ago, Power has combed the stacks of record stores everywhere he travels. From Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beatles, and the Stooges to Arcade Fire, R. Kelly, and The White Stripes, Power Downloader has acquired a gigantic music collection that now also lives on his PC, portable MP3 player, and via software, any connected computer, or iPhone in the world.
When the digital-music revolution was only beginning to brew, Power took the opportunity to transfer a large number of his vinyl LP records to his PC using the free software Musicmatch, since acquired by Yahoo. Although he doesn't buy nearly as many records now as he did during the wild disco '70s, he still manages to acquire more than a few in the course of his adventures. Today he uses the free software Audacity to record his audio directly from his turntable to his PC using a preamp and a RCA-to-headphone adapter.
For ripping CDs, the options are numerous. Power's first choice is still the tried and true CDex, GPL-licensed software that very simply converts discs into lossless WAV files, compressed MP3s, or patent-free OGG files. Some users complain about slow transfer rates, but Power's more concerned with quality regardless.
File Renamer Basic makes renaming files by ID3 tag a snap.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Through the years and batches of albums, CDs, and free digital downloads from sources like Download.com Music, Power has collected music files on his media PC that vary wildly in file name structure. Some are Artist-Album-Song, others Artist-Song, and many others simply song names as file names, with no artist info at all.
To standardize his digital music files, Power fires up the extremely useful free utility File Renamer Basic. This fantastic freeware lets you automatically find and replace terms from file names, delete a certain number of character from the beginning or end of the file, and directly edit ID3 tags for your music files. Even better, the app will automatically rename files based on their ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags. Insert the keywords you'd like to use to create the filename, select the files you want to rename, and voila--instant normalization of filenames.
Finally, to listen to his gigantic music library anywhere he goes, Power uses the free app Simplify Media, which lets you share your iTunes or Winamp libraries with any computer (or iPhone) with a connection to the Web. Those measly 160GB iPods aren't enough for Power's massive collection (plus you know he's got video). Using a home-networking system, multiple external hard drives, and DVDs full of archived tunes, Power has years and years of music to listen to, no matter where his adventures take him.
Once installed, Simplify Media will appear in your list of iPhone apps.
(Credit: Simplify Media)Simplify Media--a free desktop application for Windows or Mac OS X that lets you stream your digital music or your friends' from iTunes or Winamp (Simplify Media covered previously)--today released a new version of its software that is developed to run on the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch.
Rather than function as a conventional iPhone app, (i.e. a Web app built for Safari), the new program is standalone software that requires a "jailbroken" iPhone to work.
The ability to listen to your entire music collection or your friends' anywhere your iPhone or iPod Touch has Wi-Fi access could certainly be very popular, since iPhones max out at 8GB storage and iPod Touch only allows up to 16GB. However, Simplify Media for the iPhone is still in alpha release, so don't get your hopes up too high yet.
Using a jailbroken iPhone with 1.0.2 firmware, we were able to access a remote library and play songs fine, but there were major functionality limits and stability issues. There's no way to sort your streaming music; back and forward buttons don't function completely; and we encountered some crashing issues.
A quick e-mail conversation with Simplify Media co-founder Paul Joyce seems to indicate that most of our stability issues were because of the outdated 1.0.2 firmware. Paul explains the problems with using 1.0.2:
"Although the early development of our peer-to-peer framework was done with 1.0.2, once the 1.1.1 jailbreak was perfected we upgraded. All of the (complicated) tie-ins with Quicktime to enable continuous playing were done with the newer firmware (1.1.1 and 1.1.2), explaining your problems. We have our personal phones (for testing) and a few extra phones and an iPod Touch for development, but, unfortunately, not enough to support the earlier firmware."
Once Simplify Media is running, you can explore your friends' music collections.
(Credit: Simplify Media)Despite the currently limited feature set, Simplify Media is a great idea that will catch on in one form or another. Paul also mentioned that sort control, next song, and previous song haven't been coded yet but are planned for the next release. The company must definitely be champing at the bit for an official SDK for the iPhone, which is expected in February 2008. It's quite curious that the Simplify Media iPhone app isn't Web-based, considering the popularity of SeeQPod; also, anyone with an iPhone will have to break their service contract to even install Simplify Media.
For more on Simplify Media for iPhone or iPod Touch, visit the iPhone page on the Simplify Media Web site. If you're not prepared to jailbreak your iPhone or install prerelease software on your fancy new gadget, watch this Simplify Media video below that offers a tour of the mobile app. The software currently supports WMA, AAC, and MP3 formats for streaming audio.
Note: Download.com Editor Jason Parker contributed to this article, including most of the hands-on testing of the Simplify Media for iPhone app.
I love my Archos Gmini, but it can't shuffle worth a darn.
(Credit: CNET Networks)I love my Archos Gmini 220. It doesn't play movies, make phone calls, or take snapshots, but it provides me 20GB of digital music and files that I can take anywhere and transfer to any computer. It also only cost me $150 two years ago and is still going strong (with the help of one critical rubber band). It's also very solid as a lo-fi recording device for live shows.
While I don't need a portable music player that massages my back or sorts my laundry, I do need one that can shuffle my tracks randomly. Unfortunately, like most portable media players, my Gmini fails miserably. While shuffling, it will often play the exact same string of songs I heard just a few hours earlier.
So what's a variety-loving listener to do? Well, I make playlists, usually "smart" playlists in MediaMonkey using the "last played" criteria. Of course, Apple's iTunes also provides similar functionality, as do a number of other free digital-music jukeboxes.
Those looking for more automation in the process should check out The Filter, a plug-in for iTunes that will automatically create intelligent playlists based on your own preferences. I've had mixed results, but Peter Gabriel supposedly swears by it.
The future of random playlists will likely happen on the Web. A number of Web sites like imeem and FineTune let you create your own mixes for embedding on your blog or home page, but they haven't yet taken the leap onto portable devices.
When you're looking for a mix of various songs, do you leave your listening choices up to the God of Shuffle, or do you use software or Web sites to help you build playlists? Tell me about your own secret tricks for great mixes in the comments.
(Credit:
LimeWire)
LimeWire is best known as the latest in a long chain of software that makes it easy to find and download music for free, replacing Napster, Grokster, eDonkey, Kazaa, and all the other applications and networks that shut down or cracked down on the sharing of copyrighted material.
Lime Wire LLP, the company that makes the LimeWire software application, has also been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), but has so far refused to cave, saying that it only manufactures the software and has no control over how users choose to employ it. Moreover, it filed a countersuit in September 2006 on antitrust grounds, calling the RIAA an illegal cartel that conspires to destroy any distribution channel that the recording industry doesn't control. ... Read more
MyFlashFetish player
(Credit: CNET Networks)If you're the sort of Web surfer who hangs out on social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook or someone who frequents MP3 blogs, you've surely seen and used one of the free Flash audio players in this article. All of the Web-based apps below let you add a functional music player to your home page or blog with no muss and very little fuss.
In this article, I am focusing on Web software that lets you create custom playlists with specific songs that you want to include. I also include Last.fm (the half in my count) because I love it, but its embeddable player works by offering a personal radio station based on your musical preferences. The music is fantastic, but you can't pick specific songs to add to your playlist.
I have compiled my own mixes using all of these players at a new blog. (I even used MyFlashFetish twice!) Go to MP3 Playlist Overload on Blogger to listen to some of my favorite music and try out the Flash players. I'm sure that there are lots of other free, embeddable music players online, so please tell me about your favorites in the comments. ... Read more
You'll need to upgrade to version 7.2 in order to access iTunes Plus content.
(Credit: CNET Networks)After Steve Jobs' open letter to record executives back in February, it was clear that DRM-free music (music without digital rights management technology) wasn't far away for Apple users. Today, the concept became a reality with the release of iTunes 7.2 (download it for Windows or Mac OS X).
As of today, all of the songs from music label EMI on Apple's iTunes Store will be free of DRM via a new service called iTunes Plus. (Note: that link will open iTunes and take you to iTunes Plus, but only if you have version 7.2 installed.) ... Read more
Almost anyone who's tried to use the "shuffle" functionality to create automatic playlists can attest that randomizing song lists or libraries is no easy task. I always seem to get one or two songs that appear far too often and some artists who never show up at all.
Enter The Filter (download it at CNET Download.com), a Windows plug-in for iTunes backed by musician Peter Gabriel. The Filter uses artificial intelligence and the All Music Guide database to manufacture custom iTunes playlists based on a variety of user inputs, such as a few songs of your choice, a specific artist, or a music genre.
Upon start-up, The Filter scans your entire iTunes library, which takes considerable time if you have 10,000-plus tracks. It compares the metadata for those files against the All Music Guide database, and also uses your own playing history to compose new playlists based around various parameters. A lot of its success will depend on your library, of course, and how well your tracks are tagged.
You'll need a username and password to access The Filter service, but the program lets you test it out with a temporary login. The interface seems a bit kludgy: Even though I can minimize the player, I can't stop it from appearing on top of all my other windows. Moving the full-size player for The Filter over the iTunes interface often causes it to momentarily disappear. And, although The Filter playlists show up logically in the iTunes interface, there's no contextual menu items or other, more integrated features.
Aside from niggling interface bugs, I'm impressed by The Filter's playlists. Selection appears to be based on genre, but the process is much more sophisticated than that. With only a few semirandom song choices from me, the plug-in quickly created a rather fluid collection with tracks from Beck, DJ Shadow, Underworld, VHS or Beta, and The Books.
I have my own beef with iTunes for Windows, mostly because of its aggressive file organization and lack of an on-the-fly playlist. I prefer MediaMonkey for my music organization, but plug-ins like The Filter could certainly lure me back to Apple's jukebox.
The Filter is available only for iTunes 4 and above on Windows XP. Support for Mac iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player is expected to arrive in the coming months.
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