UKMac.net » Music http://ukmac.net Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:43:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Spotify – Streaming Audio Done Right http://ukmac.net/2009/03/17/spotify-streaming-audio-done-right/ http://ukmac.net/2009/03/17/spotify-streaming-audio-done-right/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:43:33 +0000 Scott http://ukmac.net/?p=507 Spotify is a new audio streaming service that is unlike most of those that have gone before it. Once you have downloaded the app ( Windows and Mac versions available ) you have a world of music available to listen to with no downloading required. Unlike other streaming services Spotify streams are high quality 160 kb/s Ogg files and begin playing the instant you click on a track with no signs of buffering or delays in startup.

Spotify has signed a number of deals with record labels and distributers who provide the content for the service. Currently the free services is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain with other countries coming soon.

The free service provides unlimited music access with only occasional ads dropped in between tracks and displayed in the Spotify application. The inconvenience is certainly very minor considering the amount of content that is available for free. Day passes and monthly subscription schemes are also available for those who would rather not be bothered by sponsors ads.

Spotify has also provided a feature to enable sharing of playlists with friends by creating unique URL’s for each list which can then be shared via email, IM and on web sites. There are already a large number of web sites popping up that provide Spotify users with a way of publishing their playlists to the wider Spotify community. Amongst the better ones of these are SpotifyList, Spotify Playlists and SpotyShare

Additionally Spotify is Last.fm aware and will scrobble your played tracks to your Last.fm profile so fans of this service can keep track of the music they have been playing.

Overall Spotify is a stunning service which is highly rated by all who have tried it ( just try searching Twitter for comments to see evidence of this ). I for one hope it continues to develop and doesn’t lose any of the current features along the way.

Recommended.

]]> http://ukmac.net/2009/03/17/spotify-streaming-audio-done-right/feed/ 0 Recognize Playing Music With Tunatic http://ukmac.net/2008/10/13/recognize-playing-music-with-tunatic/ http://ukmac.net/2008/10/13/recognize-playing-music-with-tunatic/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:57:17 +0000 Scott http://ukmac.net/?p=386 Most iPhone users are probably familiar with the application Shazam which is available as a free download from the app store. Shazam allows you to identify the name of a music track playing on the TV/Radio or in a club/bar by recording a short segment using your iPhones microphone which it then uploads to the Shazam servers where the track is recognized and the artist and track name displayed back on your iPhone.

Tunatic allows you to do the same thing on your Mac. It is a free download which when run displays a small purple search badge indicating that it is ready to identify a song. By default it will use the in-built microphone on the Mac to record the playing music but this can be changed to the line-input through the application preferences if preferred. Clicking the Search icon will start Tunatic identification and it will record and upload any playing music to the Tunatic servers for identification. Normally within about 30 seconds the Tunatic window will change to display the track name and artist. Recognition in my experience was very good with it only failing to recognize a few more obscure tracks.

A fun application that is both impressive and on occasion very useful.

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