Sound: #26: Making (or listening to) Music Together

Sharing Musical Tastes

I'm not really interested in joining any music networking sites, so it is hard to really look at the sites to see what they offer. Part of it could be that music is not a BIG part of my life. My tastes are rather eclectic, also, so it could be hard to really nail my tastes down.

Project Playlist - social music experiment (from site)
This site lets you search for music without joining. It looks like you can create lists for various social sites too, probably with free membership.

Imeem
This not only has music, but video and photo, too. It gives you categories for the music and video right on the front page. It deems itself as a Community.

MOG - because the web mostly sucks (from the site)
This one does require a download if you want to use the Mogomatic to match you with others. This one does require a download if you want to use the Mogomatic to match you with others.

Phling! is a service that allows you to access audio from your PC on your mobile phone and share it with friends. I don't have a cell phone.

Qloud allows you to add a "my music" component to your existing social network account in Facebook or Friendster and I don't have accounts with these.


Creating Music Together

I tried the site JamStudio . It is fun, but a little limiting right now. I'm still trying it out. You can listen to what I've done by joining and opening the Public file and going to jl1.

I may try Splice or ccMixter next.

Sound #25: Am I a Music Pirate? It's Hard to Know...

CD Burning:

I find that burning a CD is easy. It helps to have good software. I don't have an MP3 player of my own yet, so I borrow the branch player. Maybe one of these days. I still use CDs. I like to have portable storage without having to worry about a PC crash and losing any tunes.

Sharing Music

One on the advantages of having legal music CD is the ability to loan the CD to a friend to listen. You can't use it while they have it and vice versa. It takes the legal question out.

Musicians can benefit by sharing, but I think it should be limited. They sould be able to make the decision on how their work is used. After all, musicians need to eat too.

Radiohead took a big step in releasing their new album online before coming out with a hard copy. They still had good sales when the CD came out. It was their decision.

Creative Commons License is a nice step in the middle. It allows some uses of of works, but askes for credit/recognition.

Sound #24: The Sound of Music

This blog will be about online music. Whether it be downloads (paid or free), podscasts or streaming radio, there is a lot of music out on the Web. Here are my thoughts on some of these:


Pay to Play sites:

Napster advertises "Unlimited Music On Demand". It has available software, which may or may not be required. You do need to have an active membership to play tracks downloaded from Napster. This keeps you reeled in to play the music. I guess if you don't mind that commitment...

iTunes is restricted to one computer,or one ipod, one library or computer. I think this format is too limiting. I'm not an Ipod person and this is one of the reasons. The other being no access to the battery(s).

Yahoo! Here again, you need to be subscribed to access played songs. Cost seems lower than Napster and no propietary software. You can use Media Player.

Rhapsody is like Napster with its own software, but nothing immediately about needing to stay current to play the music (Icould be wrong). Rhapsody also offers a limited free account that doesn't appear to be a limited time or trial offer. It also has an editors's choice rating from CNET.

Amazon sells MP3 files by song and album. Supposed to be compaticble with both iTunes andMedia Player. If you aren't interested in unlimited play or tunes and don't want to worry about maintaining a membership to play your downloads, this could be for you.


Free and Legal:

HCPL Digital Media is one source for free downloads. It does have a time limit for the "checkout". This is a good way to sample music to see what you like before buying it or to have a "library" available without useing a lot of your own storage.


Downloading:

Ease will depend on the site you use. I have found it to be easy myself. In some cases, it is simply click and drag to your PC, then click and drag to your MP3. A number of MP3s are treated as data devices by the PC, making it real simple.


Online Radio:

One of my favorite stations, KACC, has streaming radion online. They also offer occasional live band webcasts from the studio. Most cool. KUHF also offers online steaming. They both may be operated by colleges, but I get classical, news and rock covered. Take a look at your favorite station. It may be available online

iHCPL:the Next Generation

Here we go again! Time to learn more new or not so new things. The link is http://www.ihcplnextgen.blogspot.com/ . Watch for my posts!