How To Move Your Music Library Online with Moof

I don’t know why everything these days needs to be in the ‘cloud’ (online). Is it a legitimate effort to update old business models to our current computing environment? Or are developers taking advantage of investors predisposition to invest in young, untested web technologies?

I’m still debating that issue and I’d sure be glad to hear what you think. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at Moof, the newest attempt at moving your music library to the Internet.

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Moof addresses the segment of the market that prefers to stream music from a web-based service rather than storing songs locally and using software like iTunes. The convenience factor cannot be ignored ““ I’ve noticed many people, and students particularly, would prefer listening to Spotify rather than downloading songs from via P2P or online music stores like iTunes Store and its cheaper alternatives.

It’s easier, just open it and have some background music while your work. Or instantly search and listen to an entire album that a friend recommended.

While similar streaming services, notably Mixtape, incorporates some social networking features, Moof sticks to the basic functionality of playback and playlists creation. There’s another quite striking difference between Moof and other similar services ““ it uses YouTube to provide playback. If your song wasn’t uploaded to YouTube, you won’t be able to play it back.

Personally, I think that the API did a great job of retrieving songs ““ finding even some of my most obscure artists. Unfortunately for hard-core indie music fans, there’s no feature that allows manual uploading of songs, something that the Lala Music Mover does automatically.

To sum it up in a sentence, Moof is basically a front-end to YouTube, with an interface that resembles a desktop media player.

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It’s worth mentioning that Moof also allows you to import your iTunes Library XML file ““ which means you will be have a sort of a backup of your music. You won’t be able to use the service to re-download the songs in case your hard drive crashes, but at least you could listen to them online.

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The interface resembles iTunes although it doesn’t provide the same feature set. Some more picky users will notice that there’s no way to rate songs or view track numbers. I do prefer this layout to Groovesharks‘s Apple-esque cascading menus.

While Moof doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking to the equation, as the idea of a cloud music library was already implemented some time ago, it’s definitely worth checking out. Visit Moof and don’t forget to tell us what you think in the comments.

Tagged: music player • streaming • streaming music

Stefan Neagu

Back in 2007 I started a tech blog on Google's Blogspot platform. After writing a few articles that got popular and generated a significant amount of traffic, I focused on improving my writing and researching topics the were popular with IT people. I found the work rewarding, as I could stay on top of the the latest tech while earning a living. I contributed to a few websites before finally starting my own self hosted blog. The lack of significant advertising revenue meant I had to give up my freedom, at least partially, and join a monolith: MakeUseOf. Working for MakeUseOf helped enhance my skills as well as develop relationships with people in the tech industry. More information can be found at the Tux Geek , LinkedIn and ClaimID.

Neomotion

I’ve already moved my music library to the cloud, but did it the easy way through Playlist.com. No download, just search for the songs you like and play. Highly recommended, especially because it’s a breeze to use.

Moof seems like too much effort needs to be put in before it acts the way you like it.
http://twitter.com/heziabrass Hezi

Thanks Stefan!

looks good – i’ve signed up.
http://www.acmewebpages.com/ Patrick Spreng

I am moving to “the cloud” because I have computers at home, work and school. Rather than lugging a laptop or portable drive everywhere, I store documents, passwords (using LastPass), etc., where I can access them wherever I am. Now I can do the same with my ‘tunes.
ferf

Um,what does ‘the cloud’ means?

http://www.markoneill.org Mark O'Neill

It means having all your information – files, music, etc – all online. Things like Google Docs for example which stores all your documents for you.

Kashim

Is there any similar website which allows to stream music to your media player of choice? (Aimp2 in my case)

i.e. creating custom playlists

http://tuxgeek.me/ Stefan Neagu

I’m not aware of any services that do that but I’ll do some research and could post an article about it.
Neomotion

Well, you could use playlist.com, but it only streams to your pc with their own online player. (haha, i am not affiliated by them in any way, i just realised i must sound like i am a staffer plugging my own company. I’ve just been using and loving it)