China Doll: Sound Bytes on the Web

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Sound Bytes on the Web

December 30, 2006

There is a number of quality web sites for audio streaming. They provide an attractive alternative to the radio channels found in iTune, Windows Media Player, LAUNCHcast, AOL XM as a source for free music. With the help of some gadgets, such as Squeezebox or a RockFM or a simple wired or wireless transmitter to link up your computer with your hi-fi, you can enjoy your favourite music in CD-quality non-stop 24/7 without paying a single cent.

One of the drawbacks (it may be considered as an advantage if you want to discover something new), if it may be called so, is that these providers are licensed as Internet Radio and the relevant regulations do not permit them to provide on-demand services (ie, play any of your requested songs instantaneously). You can only seed the playlist with your favourite songs or artists and, hopefully, your requested songs will pop-up in your radio station sooner or later.

Here is a list of providers (in order of my personal preferences) whom you may wish to tune into:

1. finetune

I use this most often because it allows me to play specific songs (they by-pass the licenced requirements by limiting 3 songs from a single artist per each playlist). It has a decent search interface and is an excellent source for oldies.

What finetune lacks is some plugins to integrate it with your preferred music player. It doesn’t provide any stand-alone player and is 100% web-based. Keep an eye on FineTune’s development as it looks quite promising.

Here you will find several playlists I have created or simply try out the flash player below.

2. Last.fm

Definitely a must to visit. It is so good that I am considering to pay them for a subscription service. Even as a free account user, I am sure it won’t disappoint you.

It plays random music based on the user’s profile and his/her listening habits – every song the user plays in his/her computer will get scrobbled to the user’s profile using a plugin.

It is perhaps the best supported radio site. It can be accessed through a web-based flash player or its stand-alone Last.fm player. The stand-alone player will display some informative details about the current track you are playing in addition to a myriad of functions to communicate with Last.fm about the music you like. It is far more superior than, say, the “Now Playing” in Windows Media Player.

There is also a number of add-on to integrate Last.fm with your blog/web site. Here is a list of my recent tracks scrobbled to Last.fm from my computer.

3. Pandora

This is the engine behind MSN Radio. It works similar to Last.fm but perhaps lacks the “attractiveness” of a community spirit. It’s free account is ad supported but the ad is not intrusive. There is a web-interface to let Pandora know of your taste.

4. Mp3Tune (Sideload)

A promising alternative for playing and sharing your music on the web. It uses a ajax-based player to play songs stored in the user’s “Locker”. It can only plays existing mp3 files – either mp3 you already own or mp3 you manage to find (“steal”) on the web. Read some suggestions by my_haz or GoogleTutor to find out how to search for some unprotected music directories.

mp3Tune use a plugin, Oboe, to make it very easy to upload mp3 files into your “Locker”. Once installed, it will automatically detect any mp3 found on a webpage and gives the user the option to upload (sideload) them to his/her locker.

It is actually easier than one may have thought to find mp3 on the web. An advance Google search will typically give a few dozen of sites where the users either have not properly protected their music uploads or they intentionally want to share their mp3 collection with the rest of the world. Obviously, if they have a popular mp3 collection, they will soon find out that they cannot access their own web site when the traffic limit set by their hosting provider is exceeded.

Try this: