Find hidden gems in your music collection or open your computer to the biggest free library of tunes seen since Napster... and it's all legal!
By now you're no doubt happy with one media player or other to listen to your music or, should the viewing of this page be about as digital as you get, you've settled for a CD or analog system. All methods have their benefits but, of late, we've been enjoying the latest revolution in music appreciation.
While listening to a compact disc or MP3 can be enjoyable when you know what it is you're in the mood for, there's something to be said for a little nudge now and then. We don't mean the radio which renders your control over the playlist to nothing but the minimal hope of a request getting aired, nor do we mean the services like Pandora and Last.FM that have appeared online in recent years. Today we're talking about an application you will almost certainly heard of and one that might be the best thing you've tried since a double deck cassette player.
iTunes Genius
While Apple's iTunes does its job when it comes to playing media, buying media and syncing media to iPods, it hasn't had that addictive feature you can't live without until now. That feature is called Genius and, quite frankly, it is.
Assuming you have an adequately stocked music library, Genius allows you to hit one button while a track is playing and build a playlist based around that song. That sentence doesn't do any justice to the service though. You really HAVE to try Genius to understand what makes it great and, just how effective it can be during the times when you think "I wanna' hear more like this".
By constantly scanning your library and checking back with the Apple mothership (don't worry, they're not after those "questionable" downloads you've got stored in there) Genius matches songs, sometimes surprisingly, that share characteristics of the source tune and fit into its overall "feel". Again, words can't do Genius justice but in recent tests Marlena Shaw’s California Soul brought about a fantastic journey through Mark Ronson and Motown, rounded off with a crescendo of Daft Punk. Aerosmith have mingled with Elvis and Elton John held hands with U2 while Fall Out Boy danced along.
Of course, aside from reviving underplayed tunes in your collection, Genius is also a handy and damn fast way of creating a playlist that you can come back to time and time again. If you haven't already, download iTunes 8 today at www.apple.com/iTunes
Spotify
For those lacking a hard drive busting music reservoir there's a new application which, for the enjoyment and unbridled access to such a vast library of tunes it provides, just doesn't seem legal. Spotify can be downloaded from www.spotify.com and is available for Mac and PC users but offers a twist on the normal computer-based music player - none of the music is yours. You don't import songs from CD and you don't download them to your computer, with just a broadband internet connection you have one of the largest music collections you've ever seen at your disposal. Load up the app, search for an artist (just like you do in iTunes or Windows Media Player) and the results are displayed. Perfect for when your smug "music aficionado" counterparts open a sentence with "Of course, you probably don't have a copy of...", the chances are you now do.
Unlike many streaming audio services, Spotify offers up good quality audio at around 160Kb/s (that's pretty good) and rarely lags or pauses to "buffer" its stream. Of course, you need a decent web connection, but nothing fancy.
On top of the ability to search for almost any artist you can think of (there are a few notable exceptions but more bands are added all the time) you can also create playlists and take advantage of Artist Radio which plays your chosen musician alongside those of a similar ilk. All of this with no drain on your disk space or the requirement to spend a penny (in monetary terms that is, pissing yourself at the value offered is quite possible). So what's the catch...
There really isn't one. Spotify is supported by advertising. If you sign up for a £10 monthly subscription you can get rid of them but, due to their infrequency and brevity, it's hardly worth it. For putting up with (sometimes quite informative) adverts every 15 minutes or so you can forget about paying for music ever again. Just remember to pay your phone bill and you're good to go...
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