Even Google’s major competitor, Apple, which still doesn’t have a streaming music service, may see its iTunes market share challenged by All Access. All Access is part of the Google Play platform which allows users to browse and purchase music, magazines, books, movies, television programs, and applications published through Google.

All Access costs $9.99 per month, with a 30-day free trial, but customers signing up before June 30th will pay a reduced monthly fee of $7.99. All Access provides unlimited access to Google’s entire online streaming music library, which is based on licensing agreements with music companies such as Universal Music and Sony Music Entertainment.

The subscription service can be used through the Google Play Web client and on Android devices. Subscribers can also add songs from the library to their devices for offline access. In addition, the monthly subscription includes a custom radio feature based on the songs, artists, and albums you select. All songs can be managed in playlists, purchased for download, and shared on Google+.

Included in the service for both subscribers and non-subscribers, is free access to the Google Play music storage locker which lets you upload up to 20,000 of your own songs and albums from your computer using the cross-platform Google Play Music Manager. The manager scans your iTunes library and any music folder on your computer and matches it with the same songs from the Google Play library. Copies of your songs not found in the Google library will be uploaded to your account.

All Access is currently US only, but if successful, might expand to other parts of the world in the future.

So what do you think of Google new music streaming service? Will you try it out or switch from your existing online music subscription?

Source: MercuryNews.com

The post Google Unveils Google Play Music All Access For Unlimited Music Streaming [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The tool is available in the form of a free iPhone app and as a web app that works in a standard desktop browser. Both the web and mobile versions feature the same functionality, so it’s time to find out whether the service is the powerful discovery tool that many of us have been hoping for.

Hashtag Music

The new #music service splits its expertise into four main sections on both the iOS and browser version – Popular, Emerging, Suggested and an area called #NowPlaying. On the iOS app, swiping left and right will move between these sections and in the web app users can simply hover the menu button in the top left corner – this should work a treat on touchscreens.

Popular artists are taken from Twitter activity site-wide, and it’s there you will find an overwhelming amount of commercial music. If you’re into more obscure sounds then you probably won’t spend too long here, but it’s still nice to get an up-to-date picture of what the micro-blogging community is currently listening to.

The Emerging section is designed to showcase so-called “hidden” talent, somehow extrapolated from Tweets. From what I’ve read on Twitter’s side, this list is mostly assembled from the #NowPlaying hashtag, something I’ll be getting to a little later in the review. It works fairly well, though some of the suggestions on this list aren’t as new as I’d perhaps like: established artists like The Gaslight Anthem appear next to truly obscure, non-verified accounts each time I have used the service.

The Suggested section takes artists you are following on Twitter and finds other similar artists based on these findings. It works, but you’ll need to follow enough artists to get a decent amount of suggestions. As someone who hasn’t really used Twitter to keep up with musicians, I found the few artists I was following when I started using the service produced some truly random results.

#NowPlaying is essentially a method of sharing music across the service. On both mobile and browser apps this features songs in Tweets tagged with the #NowPlaying hashtag from your feed, but its site-wide usage runs a little deeper. For artists the #NowPlaying hashtag is more than just a way to share your music, it’s how Twitter decides whether your band appears on the service or not. Artists wondering why they’re not recognised clearly need to Tweet more (and I’m sure Twitter would love that).

Unsurprisingly, Twitter #music requires you have a Twitter account, just like recent video venture Vine. Much like Twitter itself, #music also has an area for your personal profile. Here you can see recognised artists you follow and jump straight to their profiles. I found it slightly disappointing to only have the big artists I follow appear on this page, but that’s where the #NowPlaying tag comes in. It’s a clever way for Twitter to get artists sending out updates and music as the social network tries to make itself the new go-to for socially-inclined music fans.

Tapping an artist will take you to their profile and give you the opportunity to follow them on Twitter as well as seeing who they follow. This is billed as a great way to discover similar music, but it does rather depend on the artists ability to follow relevant artists. Some don’t, and this throws #music off the scent a little but it’s a nice way of passing on recommendations (in theory).

Streaming via Spotify & Rdio

In addition to 30-second previews of tracks that are pulled from iTunes, along with a link to buy, #music integrates streaming from both Spotify and Rdio. Connecting my Spotify account was a painless affair, and on the mobile side of things allowed me to play music from Spotify within the #music app. On the desktop there is no web streaming, and (for Spotify at least) users must have the desktop app open on their desktop. The play link will then trigger the loading of a song on Spotify in the background.

This is an ideal solution for using Twitter’s vast number of Tweets and baked-in discovery tools to listen to full-tracks on a service many users actually pay for. Occasionally something will go wrong when the song isn’t available on Spotify, and in this instance the 30-second iTunes clip won’t play either. This results in an error message about the song not being available which is a small bug, but one that the developers should probably fix soon.

I can’t vouch for Rdio but Spotify integration left me wanting more, particularly on the mobile side of things. When you listen to a song, and it plays in the #music app, there’s actually no way of saving that track with out exiting the app, opening Spotify, searching for it, and adding it to a playlist. The quickest way of “saving” a track is to actually Tweet it, a solution I didn’t find ideal. On the desktop this was less of an issue due to Spotify’s reliance on a desktop client. If #music created a playlist called “Liked from #music” in Spotify then I could sort out my saved tracks at a later point and I’d be quite happy.

In Conclusion

Twitter’s new #music experiment is a bold leap forward into territory that’s already familiar to the social network. Many fans follow their favourite bands and artists on Twitter to get up-to-date information, remixes and tour details. Twitter also provides a way for fans to connect on a slightly more personal level with their favourite musicians.

#music rolls this into one neat, discovery package and once more artists start using the #NowPlaying tag then the already bustling service will feel a lot busier. Spotify and Rdio integration makes it the perfect accompaniment for users of these services, though a method of saving songs required to make it a truly useful partnership.

Twitter has done well to launch the service with so much momentum and it’s well worth checking out, particularly if you use Spotify or Rdio. Android users look out for an app “soon”, according to Twitter.

Download/Visit: Twitter #music for iPhone at the App Store / Twitter Music Desktop

Have you tried Twitter #music? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Discover New Music With Twitter #music for Desktop & iPhone [Web & iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The main problem with this setup is that if you’re sitting with friends, computer-stereo-hybrid blasting away at the other side of the room, it’s often a chore to play DJ. If you don’t enjoy the benefits of AirPlay, queueing a new album on that computer requires just as much work as it would on a conventional stereo.

That is, unless you start involving your mobile devices and an app like Spot Remote for iOS.

Spot Remote ($2.99)

Spot Remote is a small application for your iPhone and iPad that allows you to remotely control your Spotify-equipped Mac OS X computer. Instead of crossing the room to access your computer, Spot Remote allows you to remotely manage Spotify’s music; skipping songs, queueing artists and even creating a Spotify radio station.

In fact, Spot Remote looks very similar to the Spotify app for the iPhone or iPad. The main difference being that, instead of controlling the music that’s coming from your mobile device’s speakers, you’re playing DJ with the Spotify client hosted on your Mac. You may not have access to all the same features you have on your computer, but there’s an unmistakable benefit to being able to control a central music installation, no matter which device you hold in your hand.

Installation and Setup

Like many of the applications that make your computer and iOS devices play nice, Spot Remote is comprised of two parts; a desktop client and an iOS app. To use Spot Remote, you’ll need to install both. The desktop client can be downloaded from the website without charge. This also means there’s no limit to the number of computers you can control with the Spot Remote app on your iOS device.

The iOS Spot Remote app will only set you back $2.99 for a universal app which works on both the iPhone and iPad, so if you buy one, you can use it on both devices. After installing the desktop client, your computer should show up in the Spot Remote app.

If your iPad is unable to detect your computer, make sure your iPad and computer are on the same network and the Spot Remote desktop client is running. Restart the Spotify desktop client and go to Settings > Show available servers in the Spot Remote iOS app.

Search

As mentioned above, the Spot Remote iOS app feels mighty similar to the Spotify iOS app. There’s some overlap in functionality, too. You can search Spotify’s database for tracks, artists and albums as you would in the Spotify app. Select a song or album to play it on your connected Mac OS X computer.

Although the search functionality in Spot Remote for the iPad works like a charm, sometimes the interface seems to be designed primarily for the iPhone and only starts to look good once you’ve browsed through several tabs, as shown in the screenshot above.

Control

Although queueing music will often involve using the Spot Remote’s search, you can navigate the Spotify library a number of ways. Any playlists you’ve created in Spotify or playlists you’ve found through ShareMyPlaylists are also accessible through Spot Remote. The top lists you see when you open Spotify — either music recommended for you specifically or music that’s popular in your region — can also be found in Spot Remote’s sidebar.

More advanced features are available through Spot Remote’s pop-up menu. Press and hold any song in the search results or one of your playlists to show a pop-up context menu, as shown below. Similar to the Spotify application, here you can star and queue a song, add it to a playlist or even start a radio station.

In the end, if you’re not looking for music, you’ll spend most of your time in the Now Playing screen of Spot Remote. This screen, shown in the screenshot above, can be opened by pressing the full-screen arrows in the lower left corner of the Spot Remote application. This simple, yet elegant screen allows you to skip through songs and toggle different play modes.

More importantly, even if you can’t access the wide variety of Spotify apps, if you use one of these to start start a playlist through Spotify’s fully featured desktop client, you can still view and skip songs in Spot Remote’s now playing screen.

Download: Spot Remote ($2.99) at the App Store

How do you control your Spotify music installation? Give us a sneak peek of your Spotify workflow, and tell us about your tips and tricks in the comments section below the article!

The post Control Spotify on Your Mac Using Spot Remote [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

But there are still some gaps to fill. For instance, audio files can be embedded into webpages, but those webpages have no way to listen to all the music. Or what about controlling the playing and pausing of songs on websites that don’t respond to your keyboard controls? These are just two of the several problems that still exist, despite the great conveniences of music on the Internet.

In this article we’ll talk about seven tools that will change how you listen and interact with your online tunes.

Songdrop (Chrome & Bookmarklet)

You probably don’t only listen to music in one location on the web. You might find about an artist through a song embedded in a blog post, then read about them on a website, which contains a YouTube video of them performing live. How do you take these two audio clips, from different sources, and save them (and future songs) in one place for easy listening? Songdrop is your solution.

How does Songdrop collect these songs? Through its Dropit button, which comes in the form of a Chrome extension and bookmarklet. We’ve actually covered Songdrop in more depth previously on MakeUseOf.

Anesidora (Chrome)

Anesidora is a Chrome extension that allows you to listen to your Pandora stations without having a tab open at all. You can simply log in with your Pandora account credentials and it will load all your stations for listening directly in your Chrome browser. It has created some controversy since there aren’t any ads that play through the extension, however according to the developer, he doesn’t support the lack of ads in the extension:

Unfortunately due to Pandora using a closed API I have no choice in the matter. I offered to give Pandora ownership of my extension and they declined. They do this to themselves.

To find out more about Anesidora, refer to the MakeUseOf article.

Exfm (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)

Exfm, a website and browser extension, is a tool that collects displays any audio files from the webpage you’re visiting. For example, let’s say you visit one of Tina’s Sound Sunday articles. With Exfm installed, it will automatically pull the embedded audio files and allow you to play them, even after navigating away from the page.

Below is an image of what Exfm looks like on a webpage, notice the controls, queue and options to “favorite”, share and shuffle.

Want to close that page? No worries – the tracks have already been saved in your queue. However, you now are able to control them through the Exfm button in the Chrome browser. For more info, check out our full review.

Last.fm Scrobbler (Facebook App)

The Last.fm Scrobbler Facebook app has been mentioned a couple different times. Probably the one you might remember the most was in the slightly sarcastic, but educational article from Craig about apps you can use to help Facebook invade your life. As you might have guessed, the Last.fm Scrobbler app was one of them.

If you’re playing with a program or service that doesn’t have the ability to post to Facebook, but does scrobble to Last.fm, you can use this as a workaround.

Sway.fm Unified Music Media Keys (Chrome)

Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of compatibility that websites have with your media keys on your keyboard? Instead of being able to just hit the Play/Pause, Previous or Next buttons, you have to go to the webpage and manually click the controls. Sway.fm Unified Music Media Keys takes care of that problem.

Previously, Justin has covered it here and did an excellent job with a thorough review.

One thing to note is that if you’re unable to install this in Chrome on Windows 8, it’s because there is a compatibility issue. To get around this, put Chrome in Windows 7 compatibility mode and the you’ll be able to install and use the extension.

Flutter (Windows, Mac, Chrome)

Would you believe me if I told you that you can control your media player with your hand? Yep, just like the Xbox Kinect. But this time, all you need is your webcam and three steady hand gestures.

Flutter works with iTunes, Spotify, Winamp, VLC and Windows Media Player on Windows and Mac. However, in addition to those local apps, Flutter can also control YouTube, Netflix, Grooveshark and Pandora via the Chrome extension.

Flutter has actually been covered on MakeUseOf before, once by Simon and another time by Dave, who went more in depth, gearing it towards Mac users (but the same applies to Windows users). I recommend you look into both of those articles for more information – it’s been an excellent app for me to use.

I now use it more than ever since owning my new, almost perfect laptop, which has one slight imperfection – no media keys (play/pause, forward, back).

Plus Music (Chrome)

Plus Music is a Chrome extension that focuses on discovering music and instantly playing it from anywhere on the web. For instance, if you’re reading about a new artist, you can simply click the icon, type in the artists name and listen to their music right in the extension. Plus Music has four standout features that integrate into Facebook:

• Artist Recognition: it knows when you’re on an official band page and lets you listen with a single click.
• Similar Artists: Suggests similar artists on Facebook.
• Universal Remote: Control playback in the Facebook interface.
• Easy Sharing: You can find and attach songs to share directly in Facebook without ever leaving.

Outside of the Facebook integration, Plus Music also has great searching capabilities, instant play through right clicking an artist’s name, and smart suggestions. It also can scrobble to Last.fm, share complete tracks – not just a clip and create a mix in the queue.

Conclusion

Now should you use all of these music listening tools together? Technically, none of them should interfere with each other, but I’m definitely an advocate of keeping extensions and apps down to a minimum. So let me ask you: which ones are your favorites?

Have you used any of these before? If not, which ones do you feel would fit best into your own lifestyle? If you have any other recommendations that I missed, feel free to share those in the comments below as well!

The post 7 Tools That Will Revolutionize Your Music Listening Habits On The Web appeared first on MakeUseOf.

A fact that might not be as well known as offline listening is that you can take advantage of that feature with more than just music – with Spotify being home to audiobooks, standup comedy and more.

Rather than drown out chatter on your commute with music, why not opt for an audiobook instead? While Spotify itself has yet to delve into the audiobook world, thanks to the public domain, there’s already a significant collection of classic novels, plays, poetry and more. And it doesn’t end there. Spotify also houses a significant collection of standup comedy, with some of the biggest names in the business.

And if you’re in the mood for something completely different – you can even listen to NASA recordings of the Apollo Missions and more.

Listen To Classic Literature

There is no shortage of classic literature that’s in the public domain on Spotify. A quick search turns up a few of our favorite classics, and then some.  There are a few ways you can find them. The first is to simply think of classic books you’re interested in finding, and look them up. You can also use a great online service like the Gutenburg library to think of titles you want to look up.

Another great way to discover what’s available on Spotify is to use the related artists feature. When you look up any given book, click on the artist name (in other words – the person who is reading the audiobook) and you’ll find a bunch of related artists who have recorded audiobooks of their own.

To get you started, we’ve got a list of some of the most popular classic lit titles that are available on Spotify:

• Stevenson: Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde
• Austen: Pride & Prejudice
• Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities
• Hugo: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
• Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd
• Dostoyevsky: Crime & Punishment
• Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• Carroll: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
• Cooper: Last Of The Mohicans
• Dickens: Oliver Twist
• You’ll also find a significant library of titles written by William Shakespeare.

Aside from novels, you’ll also find a few interesting plays that are worth listening to, among them:

• Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
• Harold Pinter: The Caretaker
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal

There are also some great lists compiled by other people including a list of spooky stories and poems on Spotify, 21 classics and a William Shakespeare list.

Listen To Vintage Radio

In addition to classic novels, you’ll also find an interesting collection of vintage radioshows (complete with their original ads) featuring the likes of Errol Flynn and more. One vintage radio playlist has almost 2,000 tracks on it with shows including The Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes and more.

Listen To Comedy

In the mood for something a little less serious? Spotify’s standup comedy collection is impressive and will leave you in stitches. Search for your favourites, check out related artists, or even start a radio station using one stand up comedian for an endless playlist of hilarity. The caliber of standup comedians you’ll find on Spotify is impressive including:

• Maz Jobrani
• Eddie Izzard
• Robin Williams
• Bill Cosby
• Eddie Murphy
• Monty Python

Listen To NASA Missions

And in the spirit of Monty Python, and now for something completely different. An absolute hidden gem on Spotify is some NASA recordings, among them, recordings from The Apollo Missions.

• NASA – One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind: Recordings From The Apollo Missions
• NASA – The Apollo Missions

The recordings are a fascinating peak into a world we rarely get to see and with Spotify’s offline feature, you can take the NASA recordings with you everywhere you go.

Learn a Language

If you’d like to brush up your language skills, Spotify can be a useful companion to lessons you’re taking elsewhere. With the app, Listen Language, you can find recordings that will help you learn English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic and much much more.

Can you think of other interesting things to listen to on Spotify that aren’t music? Let us know in the comments.

The post 5 Awesome Things To Listen To On Spotify That Isn’t Music appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The obvious alternative would be Spotify. However, I don’t very often go on a journey of musical discovery from within Spotify and it feels strange to pay a monthly fee to play what is essentially the same music library over and over again.

CloudPlay ($ 4.99)

CloudPlay is a nifty little application that resides in your Mac OS X menu bar. To use it, just click on the little cloud icon in your menu bar and start searching for music that fits your mood. CloudPlay solves the problems mentioned earlier by pulling its music from the cloud. However, unlike other popular Cloud players like Spotify and Grooveshark CloudPlay doesn’t let you tune in to its own super sized music database. Instead, CloudPlay looks for the tracks using other third-party services, like YouTube and SoundCloud.

This both has its advantages and its disadvantages. Unlike Spotify and Grooveshark, CloudPlay won’t ask for a monthly fee. After a single payment of $4.99 the application is yours and you won’t be charged again. However, some of CloudPlay’s procurement of music may be in a grey zone. If a music video is deleted from YouTube due to a DMCA complaint, it will also disappear from SoundCloud.

Perhaps the biggest single drawback to SoundCloud is its fragmented search. With Spotify, you search for a song or artist and receive a simple response to your query. With CloudPlay, a lot of different users may have uploaded the same music video, crowding your search results. But all in all, this is a small price to pay for free access to a ridiculous amount of music.

Media Sources

CloudPlay tunes in to multiple services to provide you with music. First and foremost, CloudPlay looks at your iTunes library. Any song you already have on your computer will also show up in CloudPlay’s search result. This ensures you’ll get your music with the best audio quality possible. This is especially great news if you’ve spent a lot of time painstakingly organising your iTunes music library.

If CloudPlay can’t find the track in your iTunes library, it’ll start looking online. Online sources include YouTube, SoundCloud, Exfm, UndergroundMusic, Jamendo and Official.fm. If you aren’t able to find the song you’re looking for through YouTube, CloudPlay’s combination of professional, indie and all-round music services provide a great fallback.

You can toggle any of these sources on or off in SoundCloud’s preference to get a more fine grained control of your search results.

Playlists

Just like most other music players, CloudPlay gives you the ability to create a playlist of your favourite songs. To add a song to a playlist, right-click it in CloudPlay and select or create a new playlist. These playlists are visible in CloudPlay by pressing the drop-down menu in the main application screen. This is especially useful because you can add tracks from across different music sources to a single playlist.

CloudPlay can also tune in to other playlists. Any playlists you have in your iTunes library are also accessible through CloudPlay’s drop-down menu. Better yet, you can access your favourites and playlists that you previously created on your YouTube account, or browse preexisting playlists on Console.fm and Jamendo.

However, if you want to stream music from your YouTube playlists offline, you’ll have to use other tools to download your YouTube playlists.

Online Radio

A third and final source of music for CloudPlay is in Online Radio. There is a rich offering of online radio stations; thousands upon thousands of them. Angela Alcorn even wrote about how to create your own online radio station. CloudPlay searches these radio stations to give you additional search results, besides the aforementioned sources. Similar to tracks that are found using other music services, you can save radio stations that you like to your playlists, adding dynamic content to your song collections.

What application or service do you use to listen to music on your computer. Do you still keep all your albums locally, or have you perhaps subscribed to a cloud music service. Let us know in the comments section below the article!

The post Stream Music From Your Menu Bar With CloudPlay [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Spotify has improved massively over the last few years, but there has been one glaring oversight that has put many people off using the music streaming service: the need to download and install a dedicated desktop client. Thankfully that oversight is in the process of being remedied, with a Web player incoming.

The Spotify Web player is currently in beta, but was recently rolled out to U.K. users. I’ve been using it ever since, and what follows is an initial overview of the beta version of the Spotify Web player. Please note that the browser-based version of Spotify may have evolved since this first look was penned.

Spotify Web Player

To access the Spotify Web player you simply head to play.spotify.com.

If Spotify is available in your country and if that country has been granted access to the beta you’ll be asked to either sign in to an existing Spotify account or sign up for an account using Facebook. In other words you sign in to the Spotify Web player in the same way that you sign into the desktop client.

The first thing you’ll want to do is check the options for this session. The options are limited to turning a private session on or off, and choosing whether or not to share your Spotify activity on Facebook. This is also where you log out of your account.

When you sign in you’ll find yourself on the ‘What’s New‘ page, as Spotify tries to encourage you to discover new music rather than stick to the songs you already know and love. ‘What’s New‘ is one of four main sections the Web player is divided in to, all of which are detailed below.

What’s New

The ‘What’s New‘ section has multiple options attached to it. You can view ‘New Recommended Albums’, ‘Trending Playlists Among Friends’, ‘Top Tracks Among Friends’, ‘New Releases’, ‘Trending Playlists Near You’, and ‘Top Tracks Near You’.

All of these are useful to a certain degree, but the ‘New Releases‘ are particularly worth scrolling through in order to see which albums have been added to Spotify over the last few days. These won’t necessarily be brand new albums, but albums that are instead new to Spotify.

Playlists

The ‘Playlists‘ section of the Web player houses all of the playlists from the Spotify desktop client. Any and all changes made are carried across from desktop to the Web and vice-versa. You can rename existing playlists or create a new playlist right from within the Spotify Web player.

You can also start a radio station based on a particular playlist, which is perfect for those times when you’d like to hear a mixture of tracks known to you and tracks new to you. This should also encourage you to build playlists around certain themes.

Radio

The ‘Radio‘ section plays, by default, a station based on your current top artist. You also get ‘Recommended Stations’ and ‘Genre Stations’. You can ‘Create [a] New Station’ based on any artist or track simply by searching for it. We’ve already detailed how to get the most out of Spotify Radio, and the same rules apply to the Web player as to the desktop application.

Search

The ‘Search’ options are simple and minimalist. Clicking ‘Search‘ brings up a text entry box, and as each letter is typed into it the results change underneath. So searching for Muse first brings up Nicki Minaj and Bob Marley, then Mumford & Sons and Muddy Waters before Muse finally pops up.

Each search is rewarded with ‘Artists’, ‘Albums’, ‘Tracks’, and ‘Playlists’ matching the terms typed in. Clicking ‘Show All Results…‘ means you can explore each of these elements in more depth.

Conclusions

This is just a first look at the Spotify Web player, with the beta assignation meaning a full review would be unfair at this early stage. However, the browser-based version of Spotify is already refined enough to make it perfectly feasible to drop the desktop client altogether. Which is exactly what I have done.

Everything of importance – with the notable exception of its native apps – has been brought over from the desktop client to the Web player, and the whole thing works as simply and seamlessly as ever. I suspect it won’t be long before Spotify brings the Web player out of beta and releases it to all users. How long it then carries on supporting the desktop client remains to be seen.

Do you have access to the Spotify Web player beta? If so, please give it a spin and let us know what you think in the comments section below. Are you more likely to use Spotify when it’s fully available on the Web or will you still use the desktop client regardless? Is there anything you’d like to see Spotify do differently with the service in the future?

The post A First Look At The Spotify Web Player appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Songza is far from the first music streaming service we’ve reviewed. We’ve previously looked at Grooveshark, shared tips about using Spotify more effectively, and looked at an add-on that lets you enjoy Pandora with no ads. But there’s something that makes Songza unique: Its ability to help you find not just “music you like,” but music that’s right for this very moment – music that works with whatever you’re trying to do.

Accessing Songza Globally

First, an important word on availability. There are few things more frustrating than reading a rave review about some service, only to discover you’re barred from using it due to your location. So, yes, Songza is geographically limited. But don’t let that stop you! I’m using the excellent UnoDNS to access it (and Hulu, and many other services) regardless of my location. You could also use a VPN to access Songza from anywhere. The bottom line here is that it’s easy and inexpensive (and if you happen to be reading this from the US, well, lucky you).

The Music Concierge

Like so many other streaming services, Songza lets you search for artists you like, or hunt for playlists. Yay – that’s nice, but not overly exciting. Where it shines is the unique Music Concierge feature, which is a concept I haven’t seen anywhere else:

Whereas other services just find music I like, or maybe music based on artists, Songza uses a time-based approach. As I access the site, it detects the current time and date (in my own location – geolocation isn’t an issue for this feature). I then get to pick one of five probable activities Songza could help me with right now. These change according to the day or week – for example, Songza tends to offer “cooking” as an activity on some evenings. I find the icons beautifully descriptive, and there’s always at least one activity that describes well what I’m trying to do. In this case, I’m going to click through to “Easing into the Day”:

This takes me into the second stage of the Concierge process, asking me to pick a genre. Again, the descriptions are succinct, but they work. Not just “Indie,” but “Warm & Wistful Indie.” The adjectives help. “Easy-going folk” sounds appealing to me right now, so let’s go with that:

Finally, Songza boils down my selections into one of three possible playlists, each with a nice handwritten description, and artist thumbnails. Let’s zoom in one one to get a closer look at the text:

You don’t have to read the whole description, of course. One of the few drawbacks of the Concierge interface is that the thumbnails are almost useless at this point: They’re tiny, and hovering the mouse over them yields no further information. Worse still, clicking on a thumbnail (perhaps in hope of artist information), just takes you to the station and starts playing. Annoying, but a minor point overall.

Once you find a station that seems nice, just click Play, and go back to whatever it is you were doing before. The right music will effortlessly fill the room (or your ear buds, as the case may be):

Described in detail, the Concierge process may seem lengthy; it really isn’t. It usually takes me about 15 seconds between the time I go on Songza and the first song starts to play – and it’s almost always a song that’s right for the moment.

There’s More to Songza

This isn’t an exhaustive review of Songza, because a part of the fun is about exploring the service on your own. As you can see above, you can navigate playlists – something I haven’t gone into at all.

It does, however, showcase Songza’s crowning feature – the Concierge. To me, that’s the real reason to use the service. That, and the lack of audio ads, make it better than Pandora, at least to me.

What about you? What do you use to stream music? Did you try out the Concierge? Let me know below!

The post Songza: A Fun, Free, Easy Way To Listen To Streaming Music That’s Right For Your Mood And Day appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Pandora manages to accomplish this using the Music Genome Project, which analyzes music with the help of actual musicians to form a database that can compare and contrast music at a fundamental level. All this to say, if you type in a song or artist, Pandora will constantly stream songs that are similar to it.

Over time, however, Pandora’s flaws do start to become noticeable. While we have an article on cool things you can do with Pandora, this post will focus on external tools that make Pandora more accessible and more convenient for the average user.

Elpis

Elpis is my most favorite Pandora-related application. In Greek mythology, Pandora opened her box and released evil unto the world, but one thing remained in that box: the Greek god of hope, Elpis. Having used this program for a few months now, I can confidently say that Elpis has restored my hope in Pandora.

In short, Elpis is a standalone desktop program that connects to your Pandora account and streams your stations. With it, you can add new stations, delete old ones, control it using remote media keys (if you have them), thumbs up and thumbs down, and more. Super bonus: it’s entirely free and open source.

It always irked me that I had to have my browser open to listen to Pandora, mostly because of the wasted screen/tab estate. It’s a small complaint, sure, but Elpis is just so convenient that it might be the best Pandora-related program out there. Period.

PRadio

PRadio (which I assume is a squishing together of Pandora Radio) is a Windows 8 app that integrates the goodness of Pandora straight into the new operating system. With it, you can play songs and view stations using Windows 8’s Modern UI. The integration is actually pretty handy since you can pin certain stations for direct access.

Some people believe that Windows 8 is still missing a few necessary features and others are saying that Windows 8 didn’t live up to its expectations, but I know a lot of people who have already made the switch. If you’re one of those people and you love listening to Pandora, then PRadio might be the app that improves your quality of listen – even if by just a little bit.

Anesidora

Maybe you don’t mind listening to Pandora in a browser (maybe your browser is open 24/7 already), but there are some quirks of the web-based interface that you don’t like. If you use Chrome, there’s an answer for you: Anesidora. It’s a Chrome extension that allows you to play Pandora without dedicating a tab.

Anesidora is a simple browser dropdown that comes complete with play controls. It uses fewer system resources than Flash or HTML5, so it’s preferable on slower machines (e.g., netbooks). It’s not an official Chrome extension, possibly due to copyright concerns and other issues, so you’ll need to download and install Anesidora off the official site.

For a more complete review, check out Aaron’s Anesidora overview.

FindThatBand

FindThatBand is a browser extension available on Chrome and Firefox. It’s not exactly specific to Pandora, but it’s definitely useful in connection with Pandora. Basically, whenever you come across a song or artist while browsing the web, you can highlight the term, right click, and use FindThatBand to learn more.

So, for example, if you came across Britney Spears on the web and you highlighted her name, you could right click and select “Find on Pandora” to immediately start a new station for Britney Spears. This is really useful if you come across a song or artist and you want more music that’s similar to that one.

Conclusion

Pandora is a great service that played its part in pioneering online radio for the masses. It may not be as pick-and-choose as other services that are now available, but I like it for what it is. If you like Pandora but you’re looking for something that will add a dash of spice, try one of the tools listed above. They all make Pandora just a little more convenient for everyday use.

The post Enhance Pandora’s Music Magic With These Great Tools appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The free service gives listeners six months of free music streaming through Rdio’s Web and desktop clients for Mac and Windows, with no credit needed to start listening. It is, however, limited to an unspecified number of streaming songs per month, after which you will no longer be able to enjoy free streaming. A meter  on top of your Rdio page will show you how much free music you have left per month of the trial period.

As a free Rdio user, you get access to a vast catalog of songs and albums., and can also make connections with other Rdio users and follow their latest music listening activities. You can add music to your Rdio Collection and create playlists, as well as share your listening activity to Twitter and Facebook.

The free account does not, however, extend to Rdio’s mobile apps, or Sonos and Roku devices. A monthly subscription (starting at $4.99) to Rdio provides full unlimited access to its catalog, plus its mobile services. On that note, Rdio has also released an update to its iOS app that includes full-screen album art, and the ability to follow the listening activity of your Rdio friends.

Source: Rdio Blog

The post Rdio’s Free Music-Streaming Service Is Now Available In Seven New Countries [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For those of you that don’t know (which is probably 99% of you since this app is so new and hidden), Music Pool is an app that lets you sync up your Android device with other Android devices nearby, using those devices as extra speakers to amplify your music. Instead of having a flat song playing from just your phone, you can play it simultaneously from multiple phones in order to create a surround sound experience.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it? I was a bit skeptical at first, but having taken a closer look at the app, I’m surprised at its design and how well it works.

The very first impression that I got was… unimpressed. The aesthetics for Music Pool are absolutely horrendous: it’s just two big buttons with a bunch of text beneath it. And what about that color scheme? It’d be hard to intentionally make it worse. However, beneath all of that ugliness, Music Pool is a fine app indeed.

The yellow text is a simple text box that gives instructions on how to use the app. Fair enough. The green text is your current “Nickname” which is something that’ll come in handy later on. Otherwise, Music Pool is split into two functions: Playing and Listening.

In any group of Music Pool devices, one should be the Player while the rest should be Listeners. The Listeners will sync with the Player and play the audio in unison.

So what sort of audio can a Player play? Anything that’s available on your device, pretty much.

The playback for Music Pool is called the Music Chooser. With it, you can toggle various albums, artists, songs, and playlists that are already on your device. Once you’re satisfied with your selections, you can hit Play Music to start streaming your music as a Player.

If we’re to be honest, the music playback control is a bit rusty. However, we should keep in mind that Music Pool is quite young and still has a lot of development ahead (as long as the creator keeps up with it). But even if it isn’t the most feature-perfect playback app, it’s usable enough that I don’t have any dealbreaking complaints.

Remember how I mentioned “Nicknames” back on the main Music Pool screen? That nickname is how a Listener can find and connect with a Player. If a Listener knows the nickname of a Player, then they can directly connect while the Player is active. Simple enough, right?

But Music Pool has another option that uses a map to locate Players nearby. Fat chance that you’ll coincidentally find another Player currently running (since this app remains an unknown), but if you do, you can use the map feature to connect to them and sync up with their audio.

In terms of ease-of-use, Music Pool gets it right. Nickname connection is smart and it gets the job done quick.

Lastly, Music Pool is sparse when it comes to customization. If you want to change your Player nickname to something more memorable or easier to type, you can do that here. You can also toggle the map feature for finding other Players.

The other two options in the settings menu weren’t very useful and I found no difference while using them. Perhaps in the future we’ll see a lot more features and preferences to play around with.

And that’s about it. I’ve never encountered another app like Music Pool, so as far as I know, it’s the first of its class. It’s a very cool concept, too – especially useful when you want to pump some music with your friends but no one has a portable sound system. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!

The post Use Music Pool To Broadcast Music Across Multiple Devices [Android] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You might have that one album that helps you think, that helps you create. You’re not sure why, but when you put it on you’re able to focus more than you otherwise could, and the result is usually work you’re proud of. Is there a scientific reason for that? The creators of Focus@Will claims there is, and are trying to replicate it with their online streaming service:

“The system assists during a typical productivity cycle by gently getting you into the concentration flow and then keeping you there,” the site’s about page says. “it works in the background by subtly soothing the part of your brain, the limbic system, that is always on the look out for danger, food, sex or shiny things.”

Some of the music you’ll hear while using the service was even specifically created for this purpose. It worked fairly well for me, and just might for you as well.

Focusing At Will

Head to FocusAtWill to get started. You’ll need to sign in using your Facebook or Google account – you can use an email address if you have neither. When you do you’ll be taken to the player itself. The interface couldn’t be simpler – you can either press play. You can like or skip a track. You can pick a different station.

The player is powered by HTML5, meaning you can use it on basically any device (no need for Flash!) There aren’t yet any dedicated smartphone apps. Pick whatever you’re into and the music will start immediately. There are a few choices.

You can’t specify a genre outside of these, so hip-hop and rock fans should look elsewhere. You can give a particular tune the thumbs up, if you like it, or skip one that you find annoying, but beyond that there’s not a lot of control.

So you won’t be able to pick your favorite artist, but that’s part of the point – for the music to eventually fade into the background, where it can subconsciously prompt you to stay on target and focus. There are no vocals of any sort to be found in any of these tracks, so whatever you choose you’ll be hearing instruments only.

It’s even recommended that you turn the volume down lower than you otherwise would, to further help you focus primarily on the task at hand.

Stations Offered

There aren’t many stations, but you’re bound to like at least a couple. Here are the choices:

• Classical.
• Focus Spa.
• Up Tempo.
• Alpha Chill.
• Acoustical.
• Jazz.
• Cinematic.
• Ambient.

I’m personally switching between Acoustical and Jazz, with occasional explorations of Ambient. What do you like best? Let me know in the comments below.

Other Music Stream Sites

Of course, this isn’t the only music streaming service out there that wants to help you focus. Get Work Done Music is a simple site that pulls in mostly electronic music from SoundCloud. It’s worth a shot if you’re not a fan of Focus@Will for whatever reason.

If working out is more your thing than focus, check out FitRadio, which can provide workout music in any genre. And if you want more control there are always services like Spotify, Pandora or Grooveshark. You probably already know about them, sure, but they’re worth a reminder now and again.

Conclusion

Focus@Will plays no ads, and during its beta it’s also absolutely free. Will that change in the future? Probably, and because of the nature of the app itself I doubt advertising will play a role – they would almost certainly break the cycle of focus the app is trying to create.

So this will likely be a subscription service in the future. If you try it now you’ll know whether or not it’s a service worth paying for, so give Focus@Will a shot to find out.

Let me know if this web app works for you in the comments below, being sure to explain the great feats of focus you were able to pull off because of it. Or just complain about how you don’t like any of this music, and how that makes me a terrible person.

The post Focus@Will: A Streaming Service Designed To Help You Stay On Task appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The interface for the Rdio app has been made to look more modern and sleek. The new look also makes it easier to navigate around the application and get to playing your favorite tunes faster. The new look is not busy at all, so it is easy to find what you are looking for without sifting through all kinds of unnecessary fluff. While Rdio may not have needed a new interface, as there was not anything wrong with the old one, a pleasant change is still never a bad thing.

The features introduced with this update are also designed to make playing tunes faster and more efficient. The first new feature is a “Long Press” option that make sharing, syncing, and adding to playlists quicker than it was previously. Simply tap and hold a piece of music, and the options will be ready to go.

The other new feature is called “Badges”. This shows what music you’ve added to your collection or synced to your mobile device. Music in your collection will have a green badge and music synced to your mobile device will show an orange badge.

For Rdio users on iOS this is a great update which makes using the app a more streamlined process. Rdio users, what do you think? If you don’t use Rdio, is this update enough to make you give it a try? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Rdio

The post Rdio For iOS Gets A Slick New Interface [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Spotify has yet to improve in this area, but luckily enough there are third-party developers who are willing to pick up that slack for them. Gone are the days where you have to worry about expending precious extra clicks to stop, play, or pause your music. All it takes is a single application that acts as an extension to Spotify itself and you’ve added a nice chunk of missing functionality to the world’s best music manager.

Toastify

Toastify is made available at CodePlex, a great place for small developers to get their applications out. The download is less than 500K in size and works with every modern version of Windows (XP onward). On Windows 8, you may run into slight compatibility issues with some of the application’s many settings depending on how you’ve chosen to handle User Account Control.

During installation, you’re able to set Toastify to launch on Windows startup. After launching the application, Toastify docks to your system tray (like Spotify) as a blue version of the Spotify icon. You can right click that icon and select Settings to see the basics.

The two ticked options in the above screenshot basically allows Toastify to act as a complete Spotify manager. When launched, Spotify will launch and when closed, Spotify will close. There’s also the more obscure functionality of allowing your currently played track to be stored on the Windows clipboard.

The next tab in your settings is Toast, which has nothing at all to do with your breakfast. If you’ve ever used Growl or Snarl, a toast is a notification the same as the ones you receive when using those applications. It’s a small pop-up in the corner of your screen that tells you what song and artist has started playing.

The settings allow you to completely customize your toasts.

If uninterested, or if you use an application like Last.fm which mimics this same behavior when activated, you can disable toasts completely. You can also set them to only pop up when a Toastify hotkey is pressed. The rest of the settings here are completely aesthetic, allowing you to change colors, transparency levels, borders, and toast sizing.

The next tab is Hotkeys which, as you may be able to guess, allows you to control your Spotify global hotkeys.

As shown in the above screenshot, the Spotify hotkeys that you can configure are:

• Play/Pause
• Stop
• Previous Track
• Next Track
• Mute
• Volume Down
• Volume Up
• Show Toast
• Show Spotify
• Copy Track Information

Each have default hotkeys configured and all of them can be changed.

It takes a matter of a few seconds to download and install Toastify, and if you use Spotify regularly then it is completely worth it. Once you begin using global hotkeys to manage your music, you’ll realize what a hassle it was before you had them.

Let us know what you think of Toastify in the comments below.

The post Toastify Adds Global Hotkeys & Notifications To Spotify [Windows] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For those of us who aren’t yet paying for Pandora One, we’re stuck with listening along through the browser player. Having a dedicated tab up is a small price to pay for all the greatness that Pandora offers, but subscribers probably get a real kick out of that free tab space when their using their Pandora One desktop application. In this article, I’d like to walk you through a Chrome browser extension that can help take away so much attention from that pesky Pandora tab.

Click here to visit the official SoundControl Beta extension page!

SoundControl Beta isn’t an extension that is easy to get lost in. I’ve seen many confusing add-ons and extensions for Pandora on Firefox and Chrome, but this is not one of them. The function of SoundControl is simple: take the most important elements of the Pandora browser player and embed it into an extension bar icon.

Like every extension featured in the Chrome Web Store, Sound Control is a one-click install. As it completes, you’ll see a shiny new icon hit your extension bar. It’ll be a Pandora-themed play button. Click it once and, if Pandora is not yet active in a tab for you, it will be. If you don’t see it, look a little closer to notice it’s a pinned tab (meaning it should dock to the left of standard, unpinned tabs). Music will immediately begin to play from the last station you were listening to. Click the icon once again to pause streaming.

Now click the icon twice. A mini player should pop out beneath the extension bar.

This small window honestly gives you every single feature that the entire Pandora tab does, except in a much more compact interface. From here you can adjust your volume, like or dislike a song, control the basic playback features, and change stations. It also shows the track that is currently being played.

Now let’s click on Options.

The main functionality here is being able to change what happens with the extension when you click the icon multiple times. You can set multiple clicks to skip a track, thumbs up or down, or activate the browser tab (aside from the options already selected).

You’re also able to change what type of tab is automatically opened, and if you click that dropdown box then you’ll notice a Hidden option! We finally have our tab space back (although the tab and process assigned to it still remains active but invisible to the eye). Song notifications will show what song is being played as a small browser popup. Ad volume allows you to reduce the sound when ads are being played or just completely mute them altogether.

While it’s not hotkeys or a standalone client, SoundControl definitely makes using Pandora easier for the average (free) user. Clicking into that tap every few minutes can get very frustrating, and this extension sits as a pretty solid remedy. What do you think of SoundControl? Let me know in the comments!

The post SoundControl Beta Offers Easy Pandora Control In The Browser [Chrome] appeared first on MakeUseOf.