Jaksta Music Recorder for Mac

Jaksta Music Miner for Mac caters to frequent users of YouTube or other sites with streaming audio who may want to listen to their favorite songs away from the Internet. The application performs well and successfully saves copies of media files streamed online to your hard drive.

Upon installation Jaksta Music Miner for Mac's basic tutorial walks the user through the initial setup. To keep it working in the background the user needs to turn the program "on" by pressing a small button in the program's status bar. When an audio track or a video comes up in the Web browser, the application automatically downloads it, usually much quicker than it plays back. When the download completes, the user is prompted with a sound--if the option is selected in the preferences menu--and is able to play back the audio track as well as to send it to iTunes for later use. In the preferences, there is also an option to automatically add the downloaded tracks to iTunes. The tracks sent to iTunes played well with no distortions. Unless the audio is encrypted, the program is able to grab it for playback. Unfortunately, this also includes audio for advertising. Also, turning the program on in the middle of a song will keep it from downloading, making it difficult to find certain audio unless the user knows what is coming next. The program's trial version is available for free, but limits the full length downloads to 10, with the remaining downloads only available at 50 percent.

For those looking to capture and save streaming audio and extract audio from video files found on the Web, Jaksta Music Miner for Mac is a great option. The application offers everything you would expect and performs flawlessly.

Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of Jaksta Music Miner for Mac 1.0.8. The trial version has limited functionality.