The makers of this Internet music player have perhaps got the right note when they describe it as iTunes meets YouTube meets Spotify.

TubeRadio.fm is YouTube at its core with the look of iTunes. And functionally it offers the streaming access to millions of songs like Spotify. It’s better as an alternative because Spotify is not available in a lot of countries including my own. The free web app has Last.fm behind it.

We have many online jukeboxes and we can always go to YouTube and ‘listen’ to the tracks…

So Where Exactly Should We Put TubeRadio.fm?

TubeRadio.fm wraps it all up and comes out as a slick dedicated Internet music player for YouTube. But the power of the web app is not merely playing the music but it’s in the way it lets you find and organize the music videos. Search for your favorite artist or band and add the track to your custom playlist. From just this single search, you can get all their available albums and build a complete playlist with a couple of clicks. And another click can take you to Amazon if you desire to purchase the albums. The whole process takes seamless seconds.

Let’s Build Our First Playlist

Let’s dive in (with a free registration) and see if TubeRadio.fm can walk the talk. Let’s build a playlist with some tracks of a favorite band of mine.

1. The first snapshot is of the TubeRadio.fm interface. The iTunes like interface should be intuitive enough for a music lover.



2. Start by searching for your favorite artist or band using the YouTube/TubeRadio.fm search field. The search yields a lots of tracks and you can mouse over them to see thumbnail previews of the videos.



3. You can click on any of the video tracks to listen to the track or watch it in the YouTube player at the bottom half of the screen. Or better you can make yourself a playlist. Making a playlist is simple – give a name in the new playlist box and click Add. Playlists can be renamed, moved up or down, deleted and shared.



4. To build the playlist, you can individually add the singles by clicking on the Add to Playlist button next to the track. But if you want to really build up the playlist go for the Discography tab. The Discography search gets you the entire catalogue of albums released that’s available on YouTube. You just need to click and select the albums you want and then click the little plus which says Add Albums to Playlist. From the little box which pops up, you can build a new playlist or add it to the existing ones.



5. The videos get processed into your playlist and a notification pops up with the status.



You can get into your playlist and fine tune it (Edit, Delete, and Find Replacement) by clicking the little gear icon next to each track. Your own playlists (My Playlists) are searchable from the search box on top.

The Shared Feeling

These days no web app is complete without a community. TubeRadio.fm lets you share public playlists. Enter the name of the band and click on Public Playlists. Click on it to see the tracks and click on the Subscribe button to bring it under your Shared Playlists. Shared playlists also get updated across the board if there are any changes to it. Unsubscribing from one also takes just a click. You can also rate the shared playlist by giving it stars.

What about the Player Itself?

If it’s the visual experience you want, you will be disappointed because the YouTube video player gets the shrinking treatment. It takes up very little space at the bottom of the browser. TubeRadio.fm is more about listening rather than watching. Of course, you can click on that little video and open it up in all its YouTube glory in a separate browser window. What I liked though was the extra information (Lyrics, Bio, Similar bands, Releases) that’s available with a click.

The track management features are simple. You can sort the tracks by clicking on the columns or custom sort them to play in definite order or just keep them shuffled. You can move the videos around between playlists and edit video information by clicking on the gear icon. Don’t like the video; then just replace it with another one from the same gear icon.

The Final Note

TubeRadio.fm is a wonderful attempt to bring all of YouTube’s musical goodies under one interface. It’s smooth and not difficult to navigate. For iTunes users it will be easier still because of the similar looking interface. The video player does not get much prominence but then it was supposed to be about the audio in the video anyways.

The only problem that might raise its head is with the quality of audios themselves. Not all YouTube videos have high bitrates. Bitrates in the region of 128kbps should be good for casual listening. Little things like the high definition tag on the playlist videos and YouTube star ratings for the videos would have made selection and sorting easier. But that’s minor bellyaching when the web app has the other nice things on offer.

Play TubeRadio.fm and let us know if this Internet music player struck the right chords with you.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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However, I would much prefer to be ahead of things and already know all the latest music, news and new bands. So I went out to find the best sources for alternative music novelty. Are you craving to hear what I found?

Here are five different websites that will still your hunger for fresh music, video clips, tour dates, news, gossip, and new artists.

Yahoo! Adult Alternative & Alternative Rock Stations

Before we dive into the muddy reality of the music world, let’s stick around at the surface for a bit and enjoy the result of all the hard work and advertising: the music.

I value Yahoo! music because they provide high quality video clips. The Adult Alternative Station provides "a mix of pop, rock, and alternative videos without the rep, bubble gum or hard stuff" and at Alternative Rock you’ll find "all your faves, plus new bands just hitting the scene." Just what I want. The best: you can create your own playlists from this and dozens of other video stations. The only drawback: one commercial before each clip.

NME

In the music news world, NME is an authority. But the online magazine has a lot more to offer than mere news. They feature album reviews, latest video releases, behind the scenes coverage from festivals and other events, and a special section for new music.

You can browse for a particular alternative music band or musician in the Artist section and find anything that was ever published about that person on NME. The coverage also includes a Biography, Discography, Videography and Books, if available.

Free daily MP3 downloads reside on the New Music page. The Radar recommends 10 new bands you need to hear each week. If you can’t get enough or want to share your own discoveries, sign up for MyNME and post your thoughts on the message boards, while receiving access to exclusive material. The membership is of course free.

PureVolume

This site focuses on new artists and their music, with little of the other dirt. Hence it’s less cluttered than NME, but also more useful and much more novel than Yahoo! Music. This is the perfect site to listen to new tracks and discover new alternative music because the tracks are uploaded by the artists themselves!

As you see in the screenshot above, there are four main sections: Music, Videos, Events, and People. The positive surprise was finding events, i.e. shows listed for places other than North America or the UK. Dozens of shows are listed for all over Germany on each single day. Even Egypt, Bulgaria, Jamaica, and Malaysia have solid listings, including preview audio files.

The site appears to have a very big community, which actively participates in keeping it fresh and up to date. The People section confirms this assumption. The only downside is the audio playback. It’s very basic and leaving a site means closing the track that’s playing.

The video playback is much more advanced, providing social media integration, and the quality is very good, allowing full screen view. Unfortunately, videos can’t be exported to an external window either.

There is a lot more to discover on PureMusic, so dive in!

Of course these are not the only sites for awesome alternative music. An honorable mention goes out to Alternative Addiction, which probably is the US version of NME, and Bowling Stone, a Canadian Indie / Alternative music blog where Chris, Julie and Paolo recommend "new music for your iPod."

If you care for live music, also check out Will’s recent post about 3 Ways To Track Tour Dates Of Your Favorite Rock Bands.

At what places do you stop to recharge your mp3 player or discover new music, videos, news, and background information? Pandora, Last.fm, Napster or anything we don’t know, yet? Surprise us in the comments!

Image credits: greekgod

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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This is awesome on its own but recently I discovered that you can make Babysmash have a transparant window. This lets whatever is on the desktop show through. I started with using pictures of my daughter and she went on happily clicking away staring at herself.

You can find the option within the settings page – the second option from the bottom.

While using Babysmash and having it read the letters and numbers you are typing is pretty cool.

But how long do you really think this could hold the attention of a 16 month old? When she was 8 or 9 months old it would last 10 minutes or 15 minutes on a good day. As time went on she got distracted by other things much quicker (like piles of CD’s and DVD’s). I happened onto this magic combination by accident.

You see I was checking out websites for my daughter to listen to some music on and she came running over to the computer. I picked her up and launched Babysmash out of habit.

What I wound up with was a looping playback of kids music videos playing in the background. She was able to smash away at the keyboard and mouse and some very child friendly music and music videos played away. My daughter got very excited and sat here for almost 20 minutes this time!

That is huge for a little girl!

We experimented with the different shows and it turned out that Jack’s Big Music Show was her favorite. But Pinky Dinky Doo and The Backyardigans also kept her mighty entertained!

When it was time to eat I had problems pulling her away from it. But that is a whole different story!

I went looking around the Noggin website and it is chock full of free activities for kids as well as music and links to other kid friendly stuff. So if you have a baby, are about to have a baby or are thinking about having a baby store this site away and you will thank me!

If any of you out there have other good tech tips for keeping kids happy please put us on in the comments!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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But that certainly doesn’t mean that other search engines can’t do a decent, if not better, job and this list has been compiled for just this reason.

So check out this catalog of awesome alternative search engines that are certain to help you search faster and more efficiently on that World Wide Web.

Music & Video

MP3Realm

If you’re one of the countless people today who gets their music digitally, then MP3Realm is for you. The site features a basic search for MP3’s as well as song lyrics.

MP3s can be streamed, added to playlists and of course downloaded. The advanced search option also lets users browse MP3’s by genre (a ton to choose from) or by artist.

TuneFind

I’m sure that some part of all of our lives has been spent in front of the television and I always manage to find a song that catches my fancy no matter what I’m watching. That’s where TuneFind comes in; the site is dedicated to providing users with the names of artists/song titles that have appeared on their favorite television shows, and even movies.

You can even reverse look up artists, to see which films and shows their music has been featured on.

MuviBee

A site dedicated to the best of both worlds, MuviBee lets users search for music and music videos (via YouTube) that might be associated with the song. The site proves to be versatile and certainly unique, providing users with Top 10 Charts from iTunes, the US, UK and Germany as well as direct links to Amazon and iTunes if you should decide to purchase music you like.

ClipBlast

ClipBlast features short videos from a variety of mainstream sources, including Hulu, TBS, BBC etc. The site is easy to use and loaded with enough content to keep you busy for hours.

Blinkx

Blinkx is another quality video search engine that collects results from hundreds of video/television providers and incorporates them into your search. The site also lets you browse videos from a myriad of topics.

If, by the way, you’re having trouble with videos that are limited to region, like Hulu, then try out some of the neat solutions we’ve covered here at MUO.

Files & Others

Rapidshare1

Rapidshare has become a premium site for uploading and serving content for hungry web users. It’s natural then to expect a site devoted to searching for files on Rapidshare, and Rapidshare1 is it. The site is dead simple and all you need to get going is something to look for.

Filestube

Filestube takes Rapidshare1 to another level by aggregating its searches to include several other networks including MegaUpload, YouSendIt, Filefront etc. Searches can also be filtered by file type which adds more convenience to the engine.

FileSnatcher

Another good site, FileSnatcher lets you look for files on a few different file sharing networks, including Badongo, Mediafire and 4shared.

Recipes & Cooking

Cookstr

As the name implies, Cookstr is for the wannabe-chef in all of us. The site is clean and intuitive and searching is simple. What I like best about Cookstr is the wide range of search filters that they offer, some of which include searching for recipes based on chef, author, skill level, holiday, course, cost and much more.

Keep in mind that the site is still in beta and Cookstr will be adding a “menu-search” feature as well as helpful tips/techniques as the site develops.

RecipeZaar

RecipeZaar is another excellent website for searching up quality recipes for your next meal. Users can also search for ‘cookbooks’ which are a collection of another user’s recipes. Also, recipe results feature ratings and nutritional information.

Fun

Tickex

Trying to buy tickets online? Well then check out Tickex, the site that collects search results from multiple ticket providers for concerts, sporting events and theatre. Searches can be made by venue, country, event, city etc. The site also provides direct links to retailers to simplify your experience even further.

Quotiki

Looking for something clever to say in your next argument? Try out Quotiki, a quotation search engine that has collected some of the wisest and shrewd idioms the world over.

WhatsOpen

WhatsOpen is a young site, but its concept is awesome. They let users see what stores, malls and shops are currently open in their neighborhood and how long they’ll be open. As I’ve mentioned, the site is rather new and the working locations are still limited to a few key cities in the US of A, but rest assured new locations are being added as the site grows.

So there you have it readers, 13 awesome search engines for you to play with. Questions, comments, suggestions? Then drop us a line in the comments and share your thoughts with fellow MUO followers.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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All of the content on Muzu is video and they have built up quite a big library. All the music rights on Muzu are protected because they have signed a deal with over 200 international labels which includes Sony BMG Music Entertainment and a lot of other big labels in the industry.

On the front page of the website you will see that there are featured channels, top videos, best of the tube, live and documentaries. At the top of the website is the search bar where you can search for music videos by artists and bands.

If you’re looking for a new artist or band in a particular genre then you can easily discover them by choosing ‘genre’ or the type under ‘Browse Content’ and then clicking the arrow to continue. You will then be taken to a results page that will show you the type of music that you selected that’s available on Muzu. You can sort these by channels, videos or users, as well as ordering by ‘most viewed’ and ‘most recent’. If you see something that catches your eye then click the image to view the content.

When you load up an artist or a band, the first page you will see is the TV page. This is the page where a video of their featured content is played. You can view that band or artists profile, messages and Fan TV by clicking the other links at the top of the page. If you like the content on that page and want to send it to friends you can do this at the click of a button. Press “Send To Friend” at the top of the page and then enter your friends email addresses.

If you like the content a lot then you can also add it to your favorites if you have an account on Muzu. You can also send the owner of the channel a message by clicking ’send message’ then entering a subject and a message and finally pressing ’send’. If you’ve made a fan video of the artist or band you can upload it to their channel on the same page.

Creating Your Muzu Account

To watch content on Muzu you don’t need an account. But if you visit Muzu a lot and you want to favorite artists and bands then you should create an account to keep all your favorites organized.

Once you have created your Muzu account people will be able to view your user account at [your_username].muzu.tv or if you’re a artist/band muzu.tv/[your_band].

Customizing Your Channel

If there are videos that you like then you can add them to the playlist on your channel by clicking the ‘+’ sign in the video player to add it.

To change the theme of your Muzu profile go to ‘My Channel’ and then click ‘Customize’. From here click the themes tab and then you can choose which theme you would like to use.

On the Customize Toolbar there are widgets, themes, backgrounds and settings.

Under the Widgets tab you’ll be able to add playlists, images, texts and your Muzu Favorites to your pages. For the themes tab you’ll be able to choose a theme for your Muzu profile, for backgrounds you’ll be able to upload images and set them as your background and under the settings tab you will be able to change your password, default page and privacy settings.

Muzu is a nice simple website but it feels somewhat incomplete as if something is missing. How do you think Muzu scores compared to other music video websites out there? Some of the other cool websites to watch music videos that were covered in 12 Cool Places to Watch Music Videos plus recently added Cleepr, SSMunch and Seeqpod. Let us know by leaving your comments.

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(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writes about technology, software and websites, check out his blog @ www.TheTutorialBlog.com

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How it works

Although Jogli does not necessarily require registration, I recommend that you do register because then you will get access to all the features like saving your playlists and creating a Jogli profile.

To find music you have to type in the song, artist name or the album in the search box on the Jogli home page. On the results page you will get all the results related to your search under different headings like Artist, Albums and Clips on the right-hand side. For example, I did a search for the band ‘ Green day ‘.

On the left, we’ve got the video player on the top and the playlist editor below it.

Create and save playlists

The playlist editor on the right allows you to create and customize playlists by dragging and dropping songs, playlists or albums from the right. Registered users can further have access to the Music Library and are able to save their playlists.

Watch clips with lyrics and save them

When you click on a video clip, the video player on the left starts playing it and on the right you also get the lyrics to that particular song. Further it allows you to share stuff through email.

I should say that I am impressed with Jogli and the way it indexes and organizes the YouTube videos and songs from other sources. Considering the fact that it’s still in beta and has a lot of room for improvement, I am sure this will develop into one of the best resources for searching music on the web. Even now I think it’s probably the coolest one.

I’d love to know your experience of using Jogli. Do you use it or do you know of an even better alternative?

(By) Abhijeet Mukherjee is addicted to the internet and loves blogging and freelance writing. He blogs about tech tweask, blogging tips, productivity hacks at Jeet Blog

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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(1) Seeqpod
About: A+ service that aggregates music videos from Youtube and similar biggies and presents them, in an intuitive, fast loading, well-designed and easy-to-navigate interface. (Special thanks to Jen, for tipping us about it.)
Extra Features: 1. create/share/playback playlists, 2. in-built Audio/Video player, 3. embed playlists to your web profile, 4. submit videos, 5. view live searches performed by other users.

(2) Middio
About: simpler, less pimped and feature-handicapped alternative to Seeqpod. Although, availability of ‘Top 100′ section makes it worth a check.

Extra Features: 1. ‘Top 100′ section, 2. share (via Facebook), 3. also shows related videos.

(3) Alluc
About: rather popular user-contributed link aggregator/directory for popular entertainment content including ‘music videos’. It won’t play videos on-site, instead it’ll provide you with links (Youtube, DailyMotion, Metacage, etc.) pointing to desired videos.

Extra Features: 1. features ‘Top 20′ and ‘Newly added’ sections, 2. browse videos by alphabet, 3. submit new links, 5. report broken links, 6. shows nr. of comments and views for each video, 7. also features Sport, Anime, Movies, TV shows and Cartoons categories.

(4) TV Links (no longer online)
About: yet another link directory for popular entertainment content, but with a couple of handy extras, i.e ‘full-screen’ mode and ‘on-site’ video streaming.

Extra Features: 1. browse artists by alphabet, 2. full screen mode, 3. also features TV shows, Cartoons, Anime, Movies and Sport categories, 4.report broken videos.

(5) Aggrega
About: here is something quite unique, Aggrega lets you instantly create custom music video plaslists by simply providing it with the name of your favorite actor and/or music genre (Reggae, Pop, HipHop, etc. ). It’s like Pandora but for music videos.

Extra Features: 1. create/manage/save/share channels (sort of like dynamic playlists), 2. submit videos, 3. love/hate playing videos to make your playlists better 4. comment on videos, 5. report broken links

(6) Yahoo!Music
About: well-known, massive and nicely-presented music entertainment service from Yahoo.

Extra Features: 1. ‘Top 100′, ‘Recently Played’ and ‘Recommended Videos’ sections, 2. browse videos by artist and genre, 3. feature ‘25-videos’ editable playlists, 4. different video quality options for each video, 5. rate videos/artists, 6. view lyrics, 7. ‘email to friend’ option.

(7) AOL Music
About: AOL Music Network (US only)

Extra Features: 1. browse videos by tags and genre, 2. features ‘Most recent’, ‘Most viewed’, Highets rated’ sections (for today, this month, this week, all time), 3. embed videos to your web profile, 4. cool daily ‘Top 11′ show, 5. tag videos. [Note: music videos currently available only to US users]

(8) iFilm
About: iFilm is a popular, Youtube-like video sharing network. However unlike many other video sharing biggies, it classifies video content into mainstream categories (incl. music videos) and let its users tag videos within the particular category. Hence, you get a nicely-organized, user-contributed, and easily-navigable directory of popular music videos.

Extra Features: 1. create/save/share playlists, 2. browse videos by tags, genre, and alphabet 3. features ‘Most Popular’ (now, yesterday, this week, this year) sections, 4. lists predefined music playlists (best of 2006, classics, old school rap, etc.), 5. shows related videos (from artist, from all), 6.upload and comment on videos, 7. ‘email to friend’ option.

(9) MusicBrigade
About: “Musicbrigade is the leading independent European social networking site based on the interest in and consumption of music.” (UK and EU only)

Extra Features: 1. create/save/share playlists, 2. features ‘Top rated’, ‘Most popular’, and ‘Newly Added’ video sections, 3. browse videos by artist (top rated, by alphabet, top 100 chart), 4. rate/comment on videos.

(10) VidZone
About: In a way similar to the above mentioned ‘Yahoo!Music’ and ‘AOL Music’ networks. Although, provides rather non-obvious navigation features and will play upto 10 sec. promo videos at the beginning of each music clip.

Extra Features: 1. create/save playlists, 2. browse videos by artist and genre, 3. predefined music video channels (by Genre), 4. full screen mode, 5. features ‘Artist of the week’, ‘Top 3′ and ‘Breathtaking’ sections.

(11) HotGet
Extra Features: 1. create/save playlists, 2. Browse videos by artist, 3. share/embed videos, 4. browse lyrics (partially), 5. view recently updated playlists from other users, 6. shows number of times video was played, 7. comment on videos, 8. also lists Audio tracks.

(12) SingingFool
Extra Features: 1. create/save/share playlists 2. full screen mode, 3. embed playlists to your web profile, 4. features genre based auto-playlists (Rap, Rock, Pop, R&B, etc.), 5. submit videos, 6. Most popular section (today, yesterday, week, this month), 7. comprehensive video browsing features.

Tip: Since some of the above mentioned websites play videos directly off Youtube and similar networks, it’s possible to download desired videos to your PC. More on it, in Youtube Tools.

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