class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spotify-icon.png?323f2c" alt="" />Do you love Spotify’s free version, but tired of needing href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/wine/">Wine just to listen to the music? Good news – Spotify now offers a free version specifically for Linux users. Or at least, users of Debian, Ubuntu and their variants. Sorry Fedora fans.

Spotify gives you access to millions of songs, for free. Unlike Pandora or Last FM though, you can listen to entire albums on demand. Be warned, there are some obnoxiously genre-defying ads involved. It’s totally worth it overall, though – you’ll discover new music and generally be a happier person.

The Linux version of Spotify used to only work with paid accounts. That’s why I showed you back in July, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/spotifys-free-version-working-linux/">how to get Spotify’s free version working in Linux using href="www.makeuseof.com/tag/playonlinux-brings-windows-games-programs-linux/">PlayOn, a tool that makes using Wine simple. That worked, but it wasn’t perfect. Neither is the new, official version of Spotify. There are some interface bugs, and local playback can be tricky. If you just want to stream on Linux though, Spotify’s developers just did you a big favor – the official version runs much better than Wine could ever deliver, and it integrates well into Ubuntu’s Unity as well.

Native Is Better

Spotify’s native Linux version starts up quickly, meaning it won’t take you long to realize how much better this is than Wine.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spotify-linux.png?323f2c" alt="" width="572" height="326" />

You’ll need to register for an account at href="http://www.spotify.com">Spotify.com before you can do anything, and sadly registering requires a Facebook account (unless you were lucky enough to register before that became mandatory).

Once it does start up, it still feels a little out of place in Linux – a silver theme will do that. Still, find what you’re looking for and you’ll be listening very quickly:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spotifylinux-playing.png?323f2c" alt="" width="579" height="249" />

Spotify starts playing music faster than some local-based players. You’ll quickly find something you like, because there are millions of songs here. Close the program and it will run in the background. You’ll find an indicator applet in the tray, though, meaning it’s easy to bring the program back to the front.

Ubuntu integration is fantastic with this version. The menu bar integrates with Unity, and you can use the volume button in Ubuntu to control the player:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spotify-integration.png?323f2c" alt="" width="432" height="285" />

Get Spotify!

Are you ready to install the new Linux Spotify? href="http://www.spotify.com/us/download/previews/">Find installation instructions for Debian and Ubuntu here. But if you prefer to not add the repositories directly, you can href="http://repository.spotify.com/pool/non-free/s/spotify/">download Spotify for Linux directly here. I can’t find a release for other distributions. Presumably they’re coming,  but I suppose for now the Wine method still works. Please correct me if there’s another version, and link to it below.

Conclusion

It’s great to see Spotify recognize us Linux users, but they’re hardly alone in doing so. Native Linux versions of software are becoming common. Dropbox loves us, and so does The Ubuntu Software Center’s selection of games is growing all the time, and the cloud means there’s not much left we can’t do with our Linux machines. It’s great news for Linux enthusiasts, and I can’t wait to see this trend grow in 2012.

Adobe: bring us the Creative Suite!

Let’s celebrate in the comments below. I’ll be around.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" title="sound sunday" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/images/recurring/sound-sunday.png?323f2c" alt="free music" width="210" height="210" />Sound Sunday is a weekly feature promoting free album downloads. Every edition invites you to explore various genres and artists from around the world. This edition highlights the Free Music Archive, a website that offers free downloads under Creative Commons and other licenses.

Also have a look at the previous href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-free-albums-free-music-archive-sound-sunday-june-26th/" title="Sound Sunday Edition June 26 2011">FMA Special.

Please share your thoughts and post your feedback in the comments. Album submissions, suggestions, and genre requests via email [tina at makeuseof dot com] are most welcome!

title="M.W.D. MySpace" href="http://www.myspace.com/mwd">M.W.D. – Singing Forest

Genre: downtempo, jazz, hip hop

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From FMA: “Like his other label mates on Budabeats Netlabel M.W.D. loves Hip Hop, samples, Jazz and crackling vinyl. His approach on instrumental Downbeats is more cinematic and relaxed. The DJ from Hungary (…) knows how to melt funky guitar licks, short brass sounds and organ chords together, as clearly demonstrated on this record!”

Singing Forest is a free download from the title="M.W.D. - Singing Forest" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/MWD/Singing_Forest/">Free Music Archive.

title="State Shirt Homepage" href="http://www.stateshirt.com/">State Shirt – This Is Old

Genre: experimental, indie, rock, pop

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From State Shirt’s Homepage: “My real name is not State Shirt (it’s Ethan Tufts), but I do wear a lot of state shirts. (…) I’ve been told my music is kinda like if The Postal Service, Radiohead, Beck, Elbow, and Folk Implosion all got in a bar fight then make up over frosty Newcastle Ales. All of my music is open source and available for free. (…) If you like what you hear, please spread the word and consider buying a CD, MP3, or a t-shirt. It allows me to continue to make music. And I appreciate that so much.”

This Is Old is a free download from the title="State Shirt - This Is Old" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/State_Shirt/This_Is_Old/">Free Music Archive.

title="Kyoto MySpace" href="http://www.myspace.com/thekyotoband">Kyoto – Lo Que Vuelve Para Vengarse

Genre: experimental, pop, shoegaze, hardcore

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From their FMA profile: “Kyoto was born in Zaragoza in late 2006 formed by Ivan Fanlo (drums), Isaac Moreira (bass and keyboards) and Alicia Puebla (vocals, keyboard), supplemented with small arrangements and influenced by bands like Slowdive, Isis, Red House Painters or Décima Victima, mixing different styles from shoegaze to more experimental hardcore, with lyrics in spanish. After two EP’s, “Cuatro finales terroríficos” (2007) and “Tan sólo la muerte es definitiva” (2008), each with four songs on mini CD and a carefully designed, they released their first LP, “Lo que vuelve para vengarse” (2010) recorded, mixed and mastered by Hans Krüger (Delorean, Half Foot Outside, El Columpio Asesino), with a luxurious design and completely handmade. In fall 2011 they released a split vinyl 7″ EP with The Fractal Sound, where we can find two of their songs in acoustic format in a limited edition in multiple colors.”

Lo Que Vuelve Para Vengarse is a free download from the title="Kyoto - Lo Que Vuelve Para Vengarse" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kyoto/Lo_Que_Vuelve_Para_Vengarse/">Free Music Archive.

title="The Underscore Orkestra Homepage" href="http://theunderscoreorkestra.com/">The Underscore Orkestra – No Money No Honey All We Got Is Us

Genre: jazz, big band, swing

width="300" height="460"> name="movie" value="http://freemusicarchive.org/swf/playlistplayer.swf"/> name="flashvars" value="playlist=http://freemusicarchive.org/services/playlists/embed/album/3332.xml"/> name="allowscriptaccess" value="sameDomain"/> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://freemusicarchive.org/swf/playlistplayer.swf" width="300" height="460" flashvars="playlist=http://freemusicarchive.org/services/playlists/embed/album/3332.xml" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" />

From their FMA profile: “The Underscore Orkestra is a Portland OR based band, playing a blend of Balkan, Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz and Swing, with a repertoire consisting of both original and traditional material. The Underscore Orkestra has been performing for the past 5 + years, touring all around the western U.S., Mexico and Guatemala and has been seen from intimate coffee shop setting all the way to huge outdoor festivals. We are also working with and interested in continuing to meet performance artists, jugglers, poets, storytellers, clowns, actors and tech folk alike…”

No Money No Honey All We Got Is Us is a free download from the title="The Underscore Orkestra - No Money No Honey All We Got Is Us" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Underscore_Orkestra/No_Money_No_Honey_All_We_Got_Is_Us/">Free Music Archive.

title="Jonah Dempcy Cheshire Label" href="http://www.cheshirelabel.com/">Jonah Dempcy – Syncretic Beliefs

Genre: instrumental, jazz, piano

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From his href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/13854286" title="Jonah Dempcy Blogger">Blogger profile: “I’m a musician living in Seattle. I make electronic jazz music under the moniker Revolution Void. My music is a mix of electronic breaks and jazz improvisation, featuring solos from some of the top players in modern jazz such as Seamus Blake, Lucas Pickford and Matthew Garrison.”

Syncretic Beliefs is a free download from the title="Jonah Dempcy - Syncretic Beliefs" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jonah_Dempcy/Syncretic_Beliefs/">Free Music Archive.

title="Fabrizio Paterlini Homepage" href="http://www.fabriziopaterlini.com/">Fabrizio Paterlini – Viandanze

Genre: classical, piano

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From his FMA profile: “Fabrizio Paterlini’s music has been defined as ambient, minimalist, graceful, sweet and relaxing: “a glass of red wine on a summer evening”, as he himself defines it. Recently, he released an EP – “Viandanze” a small preview of the entire full album that will be registered in 2009. In 2007, on the “Music Center” label, he released his debut CD, “Viaggi in Aeromobile” (Aircraft Trips): a delicate and elegant album that catapults the listener into the intimate world of the artist where he willingly allows himself to be transported by a sound of rare beauty. /> Born in Mantua, Fabrizio started playing the piano at the age of 6. After many years studying classical music, he started perfoming with a number of bands, playing everything from progressive to hard rock, from jazz to pop. It was not until the end of the 90s that he decided to explore new musical paths, concentrating on the piano, the instrument that best expresses his inner world.”

Viandanze is a free download from the title="Fabrizio Paterlini - Viandanze" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fabrizio_Paterlini/Viandanze_EP/">Free Music Archive.

title="Evgeny Grinko MySpace" href="http://www.myspace.com/evgenygrinko">Evgeny Grinko – Cinematic Melodies

Genre: minimalism, composed

width="300" height="310"> name="movie" value="http://freemusicarchive.org/swf/playlistplayer.swf"/> name="flashvars" value="playlist=http://freemusicarchive.org/services/playlists/embed/album/4421.xml"/> name="allowscriptaccess" value="sameDomain"/> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://freemusicarchive.org/swf/playlistplayer.swf" width="300" height="310" flashvars="playlist=http://freemusicarchive.org/services/playlists/embed/album/4421.xml" allowscriptaccess="sameDomain" />

From his FMA profile: “Evgeny Grinko aka Greendaizer is best known for his work as a drummer for several Moscow-based underground bands, namely V.O.M., WOGULOW TAROUTZ VERMO, and MONROE’S PILLS. «I once did an arrangement of Joy Division’s song Love Will Tear Us Apart for a Military Brass Band. I changed a bit their original. So, it sounded somewhere between ska-music and fast-tempo military march. We performed it at a street festival and it was just great! I’ve been dreaming of my own Street Orchestra since that time…» – says Greendaizer.”

Cinematic Melodies is a free download from the title="Evgeny Grinko - Cinematic Melodies" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Evgeny_Grinko/Cinematic_Melodies_EP/">Free Music Archive.

title="Chan Wai Fat Homepage" href="https://sites.google.com/site/chingfatproject/">Chan Wai Fat – Children of Soul Mountain (Original Soundtrack)

Genre: folk, soundtrack

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From his FMA profiles: “Chan Wai Fat is a musician from Hong Kong. He is a self-taught musician in his early year. (…) composed this original soundtrack for the play CHILDREN OF THE SOUL MOUNTAIN (LING SHAN) inspired by the daoist pilgrimage in Gao Xingjian’s Nobel winning novel SOUL MOUNTAIN (LING SHAN). [He] visited the minority tribes along part of the Ling Shan path, resulting a re-interpretation of two traditional folk songs and seven new compositions with a mix of native recordings. This album is a selection of songs from the play, sung by elderly blind folk singer Po Sun-yi. Sun-yi was born and raised in Guizhou. This is the same region of southwestern China where composer Fat visited the Ling Shan Path and where Shamanistic customs and traditions still flourish.”

Children of Soul Mountain (Original Soundtrack) is a free download from the title="Chan Wai Fat - Children of Soul Mountain (Original Soundtrack)" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chan_Wai_Fat/Children_of_Soul_Mountain/">Free Music Archive.

title="Blue Sausage Infant Homepage" href="http://bluesausageinfant.com/">Blue Sausage Infant – Confessions of a Rogue Taxidermist

Genre: experimental, melodic, drone

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From the project’s FMA profile: “BLUE SAUSAGE INFANT is the work of Chester Hawkins of Washington DC. Since 1986, BSI has produced music that combines aspects of noise, drone, Krautrock, sample-plundering, dark ambient, and kosmische electronica to produce a multi-layered feast for the brain. Hawkins describes his music as “mean-spirited euphoria,” a complex breed of long-form psychedelia with a hint of paranoia to augment the bliss.”

Confessions of a Rogue Taxidermist is a free download from the title="Blue Sausage Infant - Confessions of a Rogue Taxidermist" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Sausage_Infant/Confessions_of_a_Rogue_Taxidermist/">Free Music Archive.

title="Spinnaface Homepage" href="http://www.spinnaface.com/">Spinnaface – Music For The People

Genre: disco, electronic, funk

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From his homepage: “Spinnface first stepped on the scene in 2007 with his debut song & video Spinnface. Since then he has independently released 2 full length albums and over 58 original tracks. (…) Spinnface’s diverse sound meshes a wide variety of genres to create his own unique style that has been described as “an 80s vission of what dance music might sound like in the future, super-smooth liquid digital funk” – Jason, FMA Admin (…) Spinnface is 100% independent! Just a man with an all chrome face who loves to make music, party and keep it spinnin!”

Music For The People is a free download from the title="Spinnaface - Music For The People" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Spinnaface/Music_For_The_People/">Free Music Archive.

New to Sound Sunday? Past editions of Sound Sunday are available title="Past Editions of Sound Sunday" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/soundsunday/">here.

Feel free to get in touch with me [tina at makeuseof dot com] to share free material, suggestions, and feedback or simply add your comments below.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/intro_soundcloud_300px.jpg" alt="" />Discovering a new artist, album or record label that corresponds with your tastes and expectations can be a rewarding experience. These golden discoveries can be few and far between and that’s where I turn to using a few extra tools to help hone in on the music I love.

We first featured href="http://www.soundcloud.com/">SoundCloud on MakeUseOf initially href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/music-in-the-soundcloud/">back in 2008, and while the core service largely remains the same; much has changed. If you’ve been wondering what SoundCloud is, whether you can make use of it and what makes it so special then read on to find out why you should probably have been using this free service all along.

Follow The Music

The service operates much in the same way as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter whereby, once registered, you can follow other users and receive notification of new activity in your stream. The process really doesn’t get more complicated than this, and once you’ve followed a few users then your stream will begin to look fairly busy.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/dashboard_soundcloud.png" alt="" width="579" height="355" />

Along the top of the page is the main navigation, including your Dashboard (essentially a stream), You featuring all your activity, including comments made, favourites and so on, Tracks which is a quick way of exploring music on offer (now includes a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-creative-commons-projects-pay-attention/">Creative Commons option), People for finding other users and Groups. You can of course search for music, though you’re probably better going by tags for specific genres.

width="100%" height="81" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="src" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F28395070&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" /> width="100%" height="81" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F28395070&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" allowscriptaccess="always" />

Listening to music via SoundCloud can provide an oddly visual experience. For starters, each track is represented by a waveform with comments layered on top. Comments are tied to specific points in the song, and will be displayed accordingly for future listeners. Much of the time whilst using the service I find myself transfixed by the waveform and fairly amused by the barrage of comments, especially near a drop.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/tags_soundcloud.png" alt="" width="579" height="366" />

Comments are not only somewhat amusing but also a great way of discovering other artists you may like. If you notice someone is frequently passing comment on music you’re fond of then why not see who else that user is following.

The player itself really has come a long way since our last profile of SoundCloud, and there are a wealth of options for each song. As well as sharing with a lot of social networks, clicking “Like” to favourite the song and of course adding a comment, it is also possible to buy or download the song (depending on what the artist has stipulated) and even href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/embed-mp3-player-website">embed the player within a website.

I’ve taken advantage of this here to bring you a few choice cuts from the service, and to demonstrate a great way of sharing your favourite tracks with those not currently using SoundCloud.

style="text-align: center;"> width="100%" height="81" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="src" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F9243449&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" /> width="100%" height="81" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F9243449&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" allowscriptaccess="always" />

SoundCloud Mobile

By far one of the best ways of using the service is via one of the mobile apps. Both the Android version and SoundCloud for iOS received updates recently, and whilst I can’t really speak too much for href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/android">Android, the updated app I’m running on my href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/iphone">iPhone is better than ever.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/soundcloud_ios.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="320" />

The recent iOS update finally added the viewing of comments during playback and refreshed the UI. Your followers’ activity in both versions is now constricted to the Stream tab with any sounds you choose to record or share going in the Activity tab. As you’d expect, the iPhone version continues playback in the background without a hitch (some apps still don’t do this) and you can skip and pause from your homescreen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/control_soundcloud_from_homescreen.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

The only thing that the mobile version really lacks is the ability to download tracks, though if you really like a track that much you can favourite it and download it the next time you’re near a PC. The mobile SoundCloud experience is generally a faster and more pleasant way of checking your stream, and I’d thoroughly recommend it.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/now_playing_soundcloud_iphone.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

Download: href="http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/soundcloud/id336353151?mt=8">SoundCloud for iOS @ App Store /> Download: href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.soundcloud.android&hl=en">SoundCloud for Android @ Android Market /> View: href="http://m.soundcloud.com/">SoundCloud Mobile (Web)

Other Ways To Get Your ‘Cloud On

SoundCloud really has been growing for a long time now, and as a result there are a lot of ways to use the service. Mac OS X users who are running 10.6 or later can jump right in and download href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/soundcloud-desktop">SoundCloud Desktop, directly from the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/mac-app-store/">Mac App Store. The interface somewhat resembles iTunes and the software is ideal if you’re thinking of streaming SoundCloud for a party.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/soundcloud_desktop_app.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="313" />

There are further add-ons and plugins for the href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/soundcloud4ps3">PS3, href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/boxee">Boxee and href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/roku">Roku. In addition to this there are a wealth of apps that take advantage of the SoundCloud service. If you’re fond of mobile music making apps like the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-app-review-imaschine-powerful-portable-groove-sketchpad-ios/">recently featured iMaschine or href="http://soundcloud.com/apps/ims-20">KORG’s iMS-20 then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out you can share your creations straight to SoundCloud simply by logging in using your chosen app.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/export_to_soundcloud_imaschine.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

SoundCloud’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/api-good-technology-explained/">API has spawned literally hundreds of additional ways to use the service, be it creating an online presence using your taste in music, setting up a trigger to href="http://www.ifttt.com/">Tweet your uploads using If This Then That or simply sharing a rough loop or two with your followers.

View: href="http://soundcloud.com/apps">The SoundCloud App Database

style="text-align: center;"> width="100%" height="81" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> name="src" value="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F28878460&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" /> width="100%" height="81" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F28878460&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=f71200" allowscriptaccess="always" />

Finally…

Who exactly is SoundCloud good for? Well aside from being an awesome tool for you and me to quickly discover new music, SoundCloud is also great for artists and record labels, particularly smaller ones.

My SoundCloud favourites are populated mostly by tracks from obscure artists, some just starting out, who I would never have discovered were it not for the service. Similarly, many of these artists and producers would never have received the same level of exposure had it not been for SoundCloud.

So there’s your final reason to sign up, download and wallow in the SoundCloud service. If you’d like to share any tracks, your profile or artists in the comments then go ahead.

Do you like SoundCloud? Have you used it for a while? Noticed the mobile updates? Post your thoughts in the comment box below.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/intro_megaman_8bit.jpg" alt="video game music" />Chiptune is a fairly broad term used to describe music that has been programmed to play on old, often 8bit sound chips from days of yore. The term can also refer to modern examples of video game music, with artists like Anamanaguchi rocketing to fame complete with href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/visual-boy-advance-game-boy-advance-emulator-multiple-platforms-windows-mac-linux/">Game Boys in hand.

Much like MIDI files, chiptune tracks are often just sets of instructions that tell the chip what to do and when to do it. Purists will always tell you to listen to the track on original hardware, though it’s unlikely everyone has a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-great-crossplatform-emulators-5-classic-computer-platforms/">Commodore 64 or Amiga 1200 just lying around (guilty parties, raise your hands).

Here are some of the very best tools, resources and other websites to immerse yourself in the bleep-boop world of chiptune.

Chips ‘n’ Dip

In order to enjoy the unbelievable amount of chiptune music that has made it onto the world wide web over the years you’ll either be needing the original hardware and programs required for playback (for the seriously dedicated) or some href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/emulation/">emulation software to do the job for you.

style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> width="500" height="375" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SAnFLgThTgo?fs=1&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Many mainstream media players such as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/itunes">iTunes and Windows Media Player are not suitable for chiptune files as there are many exotic filetypes associated with this kind of music. href="http://support.xmplay.com/index.php">XMPlay is probably one of the finest examples for Windows users, and even users running Linux should have some href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-about-some-wine-with-your-linux/">success using Wine.

It supports a large number of formats including various chiptune filetypes, and more plugins (for greater compatibility) and skins are available at href="http://www.un4seen.com/">Un4seen Developments. Users who fancy an alternative can also turn to href="http://www.chipamp.org/">Chipamp which is a chiptune plugin pack for Winamp, again suitable for Windows users.

style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"> width="500" height="375" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yJ4CaHqR4XI?fs=1&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Mac OS X and Linux (also Windows) users will have some success with href="http://www.bannister.org/software/ao.htm">Audio Overload, a tool designed specifically to emulate vintage sound chips from old computers. Whilst it doesn’t play everything it certainly covers a lot of the bases. If you’re interested in playing music from href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/play-arcade-games-pc">old arcade ROMs then the same author has produced a tool for the job href="http://www.bannister.org/software/m1.htm">called M1. For that all-important .XM file support on Mac or UNIX based systems then href="http://mikmod.raphnet.net/">MikMod does the job too.

The Music

Some of the songs featured on the websites below are in MP3 or streamable Flash form, so even if you don’t fancy grabbing specialist software you’ll at least be able to enjoy a few bleeps and boops!

href="http://www.chiptune.com/">Chiptune.com

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/chiptune_com.png" alt="video game music" width="580" height="440" />

Not only is Chiptune.com one of the greatest resources for all manner of retro sounds, but the website has been designed to imitate Workbench, the original AmigaOS. The result is a faithful and nostalgic interface that boots and behaves like a real Amiga.

The music is stored within the Chipbench 1.3 folder, and by far the most efficient way of browsing or downloading whole collections is via the FTP link (unless you’re a fan of closing a lot of windows all of the time).

Even if you don’t download anything this website is worth a poke around for old time’s sake.

href="https://8bc.org/">8bitcollective

style="text-align: center;">  class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/8bitcollective.png" alt="free video game music" width="580" height="430" />

Who said chiptune was dead? Not me, for I have seen 8bitcollective – a site dedicated to creating, discussing and sharing electronic noises. The music provided on this site appears to be MP3 only, so you can stream each song before deciding whether you want the free download or not.

It may disappoint some that original filetypes are not available, though don’t despair – there’s a lot of music available and all of it is completely free. I’d hazard a guess that much of the music found on 8bitcollective is fairly recent, though that’s not to say retro equipment or samples haven’t been used.

href="http://www.8bitpeoples.com/">8bitpeoples

style="text-align: center;">  class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/8bitpeoples.jpg" alt="free video game music" width="580" height="337" />

This collective formed in 1999 through their shared passion for video game music and an urge to bring chiptune to the masses, for free. The href="http://www.8bitpeoples.com/discography">discography page is where the treasure can be found and features music from various artists still producing this type of music today.

The website is regularly updated with news and new material, so check it out for 8bit happenings where you are in the world. The group are responsible for gigs and events around the globe and are currently preparing for the Australian Blip Festival in February 2012.

href="http://modarchive.org/index.php?query=54&request=search&search_type=genre">The MOD Archive – Chiptune

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/modarchive_chiptune.png" alt="free video game music" width="568" height="446" />

Nearly 2,000 separate entries make up this rather untidy list of chiptune downloads that mostly come in .XM format. There are also thousands of other files that make up The MOD Archive’s swelling archive of downloadable music, so check it out and see what you can find.

One thing that’s particularly nice about this site is that each download page offers up suggested software for listening to your chosen tune.

href="http://chiptunes.back2roots.org/">chiptunes.back2roots.org

style="text-align: center;">  class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/back2roots_chiptune.png" alt="video game music" width="577" height="294" />

Another fairly old website that features thousands of files to peruse and download. Alternatively you can simply download the lot in a click (the entire MOD archive comes in at 76.5MB, with an additional 5.5MB of Adlib files and 6.3MB of the YM variety).

Other Resources

The following sites aren’t repositories of files or chiptune-dedicated sites but might aid you in your search for warm fuzzy noises.

href="http://www.kohina.com/">Kohina (Radio)

Kohina is a simple radio station that serves up retro video game music 24/7. Prepare to play spot-the-tune as you encounter genuine sounds from some very old games!

href="http://www.di.fm/chiptunes/index.php">Digitally Imported – Chiptunes (Radio)

Digitally Imported, or DI.fm as it is more commonly known, is easily one of the best online radio services on the web. Now you can chiptune whenever you want, simply by tuning in to their “Chiptunes” radio station. If you really love the service you can go premium for higher bitrates.

href="http://soundcloud.com/tags/chiptune">SoundCloud – tags/chiptune

SoundCloud is a fantastic resource for streaming video game music from a wealth of devices. Why not stumble around the chiptune tag to see if there’s anyone worth following?

Conclusion

There are literally thousands of files here for your perusal – some tagged, some just arbitrary strings of numbers and letters, so I’m not exaggerating when I say if you like chiptune you’ve struck gold with these websites. If you do discover any awesome tunes then don’t hesitate in sharing them with us, below.

Do you like chiptune? Any favourite websites? Any favourite artists or songs? Have an 8bit party in the comments!

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/rightalign1.png" alt="bizarre videos" />With the advent of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/video">online video, it’s never been easier to record a song, make a music video of it, and then put it out on the Internet. However, some of the stuff that makes it out there is just different.

Fortunately, I’ve found four videos for you to check out that are unique, well-crafted (well, most of them are), and very interesting to watch. So make sure your title="How To Meter & Manage Computer Bandwidth Usage" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/meter-manage-computer-bandwidth-usage/">bandwidth is clear, because here are four of the most bizarre music videos found on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube">YouTube.

href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hcVleGxx40">Basil Marceaux – “Come Christmas”

src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5hcVleGxx40" frameborder="0" width="580" height="325">

I just really want to go ahead and get this out of the way. The chorus of this title="5 Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas In Case You Get Stuck" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-minute-christmas-gift-ideas/">Christmas tune, which states “Christmas turns me on,” over and over, is not sexual in in any form or fashion. To be honest, I don’t think the original creators would have intended any innuendo, but it is still awkward all the same.

Perhaps you may remember href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvaeHllwtw">Basil Marceaux (dot com), the infamous candidate for governor of Tennessee (my home state) that had a rather interesting spot on a local news station about an half-an-hour from where I live. Well, it turns out that Mr. Marceaux decided he would make a home-grown Christmas video last year, and I’m sharing it with you just in time for the holidays.

href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrN3Rh55uM">The Guild – “Game On”

src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xMrN3Rh55uM" frameborder="0" width="580" height="325">

Felicia Day is definitely one of my favorite actresses (she’s just real), and she has a web series called “The Guild” that you might have heard of. The show is centered around her group of gamers for an online title="3 Ways To Prepare For The New Star Wars MMO [Gaming]" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-prepare-star-wars-mmo-gaming/">MMORPG – pretty cool idea.

The Guild will occasionally make music videos, and this one may very well be my favorite. Done completely in a Bollywood style, this video brings out the joy of gaming with an Indian flair. It’s not bizarre because it’s bad, but it’s bizarre because of its concept.

href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLAEg5aTXAE">Rhett and Link – “The Perfect Bathroom Trip”

src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sLAEg5aTXAE" frameborder="0" width="580" height="325">

Rhett and Link are probably the finest Internetainers out there, and they actually have quite a few music videos already out there. There are their epic rap battles, and then their song about pillows. However, this one takes the cake for being the most bizarre.

Bent entirely on describing the perfect bathroom trip, Rhett and Link serenade fellow YouTube star Julian Smith as he takes care of his business and during the events that follow after. Seriously, it’s terribly awkward. Oh, and iJustine makes an appearance in the water closet.

href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1P38oxSuA8">J. Kap – “I Owe?”

src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C1P38oxSuA8" frameborder="0" width="580" height="325">

J. Kap, who’s “just an artist living in the basement of his parent’s home” seems like an interesting guy, and I can relate to his worries of finances – it’s hard to choose between doing what you love and diving into something that is considered stable. Both are great choices, but they each have their pros and cons.

However, I don’t think I’d actually make a music video about my money situation. One, it costs a lot to make a music video, and that could be used elsewhere. Two, I guess I just like dealing with my title="Get Paid For Your Opinions By Completing Online Surveys For Paid Viewpoint" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/paid-opinions-completing-online-surveys-paid-viewpoint/">financial issues myself. However, J. Kap did, and you can watch it right now.

Conclusion

I love music videos, but there are a lot of crazy ones out there, and these are exclusive to the Internet. They are all fairly well done (save for Basil), but they are just bizarre!

What other bizarre music videos on the Internet do you know about? What do you think of the ones shown here?

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_logo.jpg" alt="grooveshark music" />Grooveshark has been a personal favourite music streamer for a few years now, particularly since Spotify took half their music offline to non-subscribers and nerfed the free membership. That’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ways-improve-grooveshark-music-experience/">not to say that Grooveshark is perfect- far from it. The interface has been in need of an update for a while, and finally the service has a new lease of life. Gone is the single, crammed page with umpteen scroll bars and at-times laggy response – Grooveshark just evolved! So is it any good?

Looking Good

The biggest change to Grooveshark is the multiple-page layout you’re now forced into using, which is definitely for your own good. Instead of having your music always to the left of what you’re listening to, it now appears on the My Music page. Friends and other users you follow now appear on the Community page, and Searchis fairly self-explanatory.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_navigation.png" alt="grooveshark music" width="424" height="204" />

The new Explore page is somewhat exciting, as it offers something Grooveshark has never really had before – a way of discovering new bands, artists and songs you may like (but more on that later). Each of these sections is easily accessible regardless of what you’re doing thanks to the new persistent navigation bar at the top of the page. It’s tremendously fast at switching sections even on the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-lightweight-linux-distributions-give-pc-lease-life/">ageing Linux laptopI’m using for this review. The main issue with the old Grooveshark interface was the clutter and by splitting these sections up the developers have made the website a nicer place to be and sped the whole experience up a notch.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_playlist_area.png" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="202" />

The playlist area appears rather untouched, and remains tricky to scroll using the mouse pointer alone (though obviously, it’s a cinch with a scrollwheel). I particularly like the fact that the playlist now collapses and snaps to a smaller version instead of forcing a square album-art view (though to be honest with you I might just never have noticed that feature before).

Discovery & Sharing

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-free-ways-discover-music-online/">Music discovery has been properly introduced in this version of Grooveshark, and it’s a great relief to finally see it implemented. Much of my previous Grooveshark use would revolve around me already knowing exactly what I wanted to listen to before visiting the service, and the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-online-radio-stations-to-get-your-music-fix/">radio servicenever really did it for me. In essence developers have added a whole new reason to visit the website and use their service – and this is most definitely a good thing.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_explore.jpg" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="274" />

The Explore page is split into three sections – Featured, Popular and Stations. The latter two aren’t too interesting, with Popular listing the most popular tracks and artists on Grooveshark right now and Stations being a portal to the radio feature which plays randomly from a genre. The Featuredpage lists both artists and new releases that the Grooveshark staff have deemed worthy of being in the spotlight. Hovering one of these new releases displays that enticing “play” logo and clicking adds the release to your playlist without moving you around the website. This is progress, as it takes only a few minutes of clicking before you’ve got hours of new music to listen to.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_explore_full.jpg" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="346" />

Once you’ve found something you like you’ve now got the option of pinning it to your pinboard, as well as the usual href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/groovylists-itunes-playlists-to-grooveshark/">add to playlist/library options you know and love. The pinboard appears on the My Musicpage and provides quick access to subscriptions, radio channels and of course anything else you fancy pinning there. Aside from this small addition, your music library won’t look much different from what you remember, and it works – so that’s a good thing.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_my_music_page.png" alt="download from grooveshark" width="580" height="278" />

Last but certainly not least there is now a faster way of sharing the music you love with friends and social networks. By clicking on a song and dragging it to the right a new menu appears with options for adding that song to your music, favourites, a playlist or a selection of social channels including Twitter and Facebook. It’s not going to change the world but it works fairly well (so does right-click).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_hover_to_share.jpg" alt="download from grooveshark" width="409" height="441" />

The Problem With Grooveshark…

I never expected a simple interface update to solve what I consider to be the main issue with the Grooveshark service: the mess. I won’t dwell on it too much but I’m referring to dud music listings, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ultimate-guide-to-fixing-your-music-collection/">bad metadataand incomplete albums or EPs. Artists appear multiple times, with multiple spellings. Some albums have repeat tracks or are missing most of the listings and the search often suggests “helpful” phrases which lead you to aforementioned erroneous results.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_bad_metadata.png" alt="grooveshark music" width="474" height="288" />

This should be the next phase for Grooveshark – the cleanup. The service is free, granted, but Grooveshark do actually charge a fee for access to Grooveshark Anywhere (the only way to ‘shark on the go) and Grooveshark Plus (ad-free) – neither of which I would consider with the library in its current state.

Conclusion

Grooveshark’s new interface and features are very much welcomed but you’re going to have to contend with the usual mislabeled messy collection whilst using the service. It’s not a dire affair, and once you’ve started to build up a music collection it becomes less of an issue. It is very nice to finally have a proper discovery section thanks to the Explore page, and overall the interface is smoother and far less claustrophobic so well done Grooveshark. What do you think of the new Grooveshark interface and features? Does the library bother you? Anything you’d like to see added to the service in future? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_logo.jpg" alt="grooveshark music" />Grooveshark has been a personal favourite music streamer for a few years now, particularly since Spotify took half their music offline to non-subscribers and nerfed the free membership. That’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ways-improve-grooveshark-music-experience/">not to say that Grooveshark is perfect- far from it. The interface has been in need of an update for a while, and finally the service has a new lease of life. Gone is the single, crammed page with umpteen scroll bars and at-times laggy response – Grooveshark just evolved! So is it any good?

Looking Good

The biggest change to Grooveshark is the multiple-page layout you’re now forced into using, which is definitely for your own good. Instead of having your music always to the left of what you’re listening to, it now appears on the My Music page. Friends and other users you follow now appear on the Community page, and Searchis fairly self-explanatory.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_navigation.png" alt="grooveshark music" width="424" height="204" />

The new Explore page is somewhat exciting, as it offers something Grooveshark has never really had before – a way of discovering new bands, artists and songs you may like (but more on that later). Each of these sections is easily accessible regardless of what you’re doing thanks to the new persistent navigation bar at the top of the page. It’s tremendously fast at switching sections even on the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-lightweight-linux-distributions-give-pc-lease-life/">ageing Linux laptopI’m using for this review. The main issue with the old Grooveshark interface was the clutter and by splitting these sections up the developers have made the website a nicer place to be and sped the whole experience up a notch.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_playlist_area.png" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="202" />

The playlist area appears rather untouched, and remains tricky to scroll using the mouse pointer alone (though obviously, it’s a cinch with a scrollwheel). I particularly like the fact that the playlist now collapses and snaps to a smaller version instead of forcing a square album-art view (though to be honest with you I might just never have noticed that feature before).

Discovery & Sharing

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-free-ways-discover-music-online/">Music discovery has been properly introduced in this version of Grooveshark, and it’s a great relief to finally see it implemented. Much of my previous Grooveshark use would revolve around me already knowing exactly what I wanted to listen to before visiting the service, and the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-online-radio-stations-to-get-your-music-fix/">radio servicenever really did it for me. In essence developers have added a whole new reason to visit the website and use their service – and this is most definitely a good thing.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_explore.jpg" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="274" />

The Explore page is split into three sections – Featured, Popular and Stations. The latter two aren’t too interesting, with Popular listing the most popular tracks and artists on Grooveshark right now and Stations being a portal to the radio feature which plays randomly from a genre. The Featuredpage lists both artists and new releases that the Grooveshark staff have deemed worthy of being in the spotlight. Hovering one of these new releases displays that enticing “play” logo and clicking adds the release to your playlist without moving you around the website. This is progress, as it takes only a few minutes of clicking before you’ve got hours of new music to listen to.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_explore_full.jpg" alt="listen grooveshark" width="580" height="346" />

Once you’ve found something you like you’ve now got the option of pinning it to your pinboard, as well as the usual href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/groovylists-itunes-playlists-to-grooveshark/">add to playlist/library options you know and love. The pinboard appears on the My Musicpage and provides quick access to subscriptions, radio channels and of course anything else you fancy pinning there. Aside from this small addition, your music library won’t look much different from what you remember, and it works – so that’s a good thing.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_my_music_page.png" alt="download from grooveshark" width="580" height="278" />

Last but certainly not least there is now a faster way of sharing the music you love with friends and social networks. By clicking on a song and dragging it to the right a new menu appears with options for adding that song to your music, favourites, a playlist or a selection of social channels including Twitter and Facebook. It’s not going to change the world but it works fairly well (so does right-click).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_hover_to_share.jpg" alt="download from grooveshark" width="409" height="441" />

The Problem With Grooveshark…

I never expected a simple interface update to solve what I consider to be the main issue with the Grooveshark service: the mess. I won’t dwell on it too much but I’m referring to dud music listings, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ultimate-guide-to-fixing-your-music-collection/">bad metadataand incomplete albums or EPs. Artists appear multiple times, with multiple spellings. Some albums have repeat tracks or are missing most of the listings and the search often suggests “helpful” phrases which lead you to aforementioned erroneous results.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/grooveshark_bad_metadata.png" alt="grooveshark music" width="474" height="288" />

This should be the next phase for Grooveshark – the cleanup. The service is free, granted, but Grooveshark do actually charge a fee for access to Grooveshark Anywhere (the only way to ‘shark on the go) and Grooveshark Plus (ad-free) – neither of which I would consider with the library in its current state.

Conclusion

Grooveshark’s new interface and features are very much welcomed but you’re going to have to contend with the usual mislabeled messy collection whilst using the service. It’s not a dire affair, and once you’ve started to build up a music collection it becomes less of an issue. It is very nice to finally have a proper discovery section thanks to the Explore page, and overall the interface is smoother and far less claustrophobic so well done Grooveshark. What do you think of the new Grooveshark interface and features? Does the library bother you? Anything you’d like to see added to the service in future? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" title="sound sunday" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/recurring/sound-sunday.png" alt="free music" width="210" height="210" />Sound Sunday is an effort to share great free music and support independent artists. Independent musicians thrive on hearing their work is appreciated and they support their work with album and merchandise sales and touring. If you have anything to share, whether it’s a reflection on the music in this edition, a dollar for a great album, or a band or musician who has not been featured on Sound Sunday, yet, please contribute! You are most welcome to share your thoughts and post your feedback in the comments. I also welcome album suggestions and genre requests via email [tina at makeuseof dot com]. All input appreciated!

title="Matt Stevens Homepage" href="http://www.mattstevensguitar.com/">Matt Stevens – Relic

Genre: acoustic, instrumental, post rock, progressive rock

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=411765482/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From the album press release: “Matt Stevens is an instrumental guitarist from North London. He has created a following online using Facebook, Twitter, Torrents, Forums and a network of enthusiastic Bloggers and Podcasters and viewers on Ustream for streaming online gigs. He has often asked his followers to copy and torrent his music to allow the audience to grow through word of mouth. (…) Matt Stevens release[d] his third album Relic on the 26th September, the follow up to the critically acclaimed Ghost. (…) It features guitar instrumentals with additional drums, bass, strings, glockenspiel and Mellotron. (…) The release of the album will be followed by live performances across the UK and beyond. Relic is released on Matt’s own label Spencer Park Music. Many of the songs were written during a period when Matt seriously injured his back and was confined to the floor of his home.” /> Matt’s music was previously featured on Sound Sunday with the title="Sound Sunday Edition August 7th 2011" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-awesome-free-albums-independent-artists-labels-sound-sunday-august-7th/">Spencer Park Music Label Sampler and his title="Sound Sunday Edition September 25th 2011" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/11-free-independent-music-albums-sound-sunday-september-25th/">previous album Ghost.

Relic is a name your price download from title="Matt Stevens - Relic" href="http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/album/relic">Bandcamp.

title="And the Giraffe Homepage" href="http://www.andthegiraffe.com/">And the Giraffe – Something for Someone

Genre: indie, ambient, folk, psychedelic, post-rock

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1673728683/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From their title="And the Giraffe - Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/andthegiraffe?sk=info">Facebook page: “And the Giraffe is made up of best friends, Nick Roberts and Josh Morris. Together they make ambient dream-folk music and hope to continue doing so for as long as time allows.”

Something for Someone is a name your price download from title="And the Giraffe - Something for Someone" href="http://andthegiraffe.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp.

title="William Chaffin Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/#!/@kcmojobag">Vitae & The Pale Horse – 4 Track Recordings 12″

Genre: blues, folk, lo-fi, pop, rock

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3099686148/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From the album description: “In 1993 the Tascam Porta02 Cassette 4-Track was a machine that would open up my musical world. Hours and hours and years and years of music was made on this machine. It was the machine that taught me how to write and record music. You learned by doing. You placed mics, double-tracked vocals, and overdrove the trim knobs to get effects. It forced you to be creative because effects weren’t a mouse click away. (…) I’ve left the mistakes on these tracks on purpose. I used minimal overdubs. All three songs were written and recorded in 3 hours. I spent an hour on each song. I worked fast and minimal like I did almost 20 years ago. This album is dedicated to my friend Ian Thomas. The man who taught me the beauty of recording on a 4-Track machine. RIP Hammond B.” /> Also check out the two other 4-Track Recordings albums released: title="Vitae & The Pale Horse - 4 Track Recordings Vol?.?2 12" href="http://vitaeandthepalehorse.bandcamp.com/album/4-track-recordings-vol-2-12">4-Track Recordings Vol.2 12″ and title="Vitae & The Pale Horse - 4 Track Recordings Vol?.?3 12" href="http://vitaeandthepalehorse.bandcamp.com/album/4-track-recordings-vol-3-12">4-Track Recordings Vol.3 12″. /> Vitae & The Pale Horse is a music project by William Chaffin, who was title="Sound Sunday Edition May 1st 2011" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-free-mp3-albums-download-sound-sunday-40/">previously featured on Sound Sunday with the album Ice Cold Dream by CV.

4 Track Recordings 12″ is a free download from title="Vitae & The Pale Horse - 4 Track Recordings 12" href="http://vitaeandthepalehorse.bandcamp.com/album/4-track-recordings-12">Bandcamp.

title="Yuni In Taxco Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/yuniintaxco?sk=info">Yuni In Taxco – Slow Charade

Genre: alternative, experimental, indie, pop, rock

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3967476198/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

Yuni In Taxco is the band of five guys from Seattle, Washington. From their title="Yuni In Texaco Last.fm" href="http://www.last.fm/music/Yuni+in+Taxco">Last.fm profile: “Yuni In Taxco’s music is a swirling blend of world rhythms, surf pop and rock. (…) Their debut full-length “Sanpaku” was released in February of 2011.” They announced on their title="Yuni In Taxco Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/#!/yuniintaxco">Twitter stream that they “have every intention of putting out 3 albums this year.” Slow Charade is number two.

Slow Charade is a free download from title="Yuni In Taxco - Slow Charade" href="http://yuni.bandcamp.com/album/slow-charade">Bandcamp.

title="Drunk Mule Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Drunk-Mule/145570852125671?sk=wall">Drunk Mule – Crash Test Y’self

Genre: alternative, indie, blues, rock

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=634121466/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From their AmazingTunes biography: “Hailing from Glenrothes & Paisley in Scotland Steve Simpson & Rich Morris are Drunk Mule. We started writing & recording together in May 2010 & have amassed quite a hefty number of mule tunes since then. We just hope we get you dancin’ about yer place, get a wee toe or two a tappin’ or even put a smile on yer face. Cheers for givin’ us a few moments of yer time & hope you like our mulage.”

Crash Test Y’self is a free download from title="Drunk Mule - Crash Test Y'self" href="http://drunkmule.bandcamp.com/releases">Bandcamp.

title="Chilly Willy SoundCloud" href="http://soundcloud.com/chilly-willy">Chilly Willy – Feel Good Summer Jams

Genre: indie, electronic, beats, chillwave, funk, psychedelic, pop

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3335058241/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From his SoundCloud profile: “Hey guess what I’m Chilly Willy and I make natural-sounding lo-fi electronic music. My goal is to make slappin’ beats that not only make you shake yo phat ass, but also touch your heart. And since I own a laptop, I also do mashup dance mixes, like Girl Talk.”

Feel Good Summer Jams is a name your price download from title="Chilly Willy - Feel Good Summer Jams" href="http://chillywilly.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp.

title="Crazy Atoms Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/#!/thecrazyatoms">Crazy Atoms – Human Relativity

Genre: alternative, indie, acoustic, folk, pop

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3698064645/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

Crazy Atoms is a minimalist folk duo comprised of singer/songwriter Deanna Quijada and title="Mark Alan Dooley Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/#!/markalandooley">Mark Alan Dooley, a guitarist, engineer, and publisher. They hail from San Diego, California and Human Relativity is their debut album.

Human Relativity is a name your price download from title="Crazy Atoms - Human Relativity" href="http://crazyatoms.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp.

title="Breanne Düren Homepage" href="http://www.breannedurenmusic.com/splash_may.php">Breanne Düren – Sparks

Genre: alternative, pop

From her NoiseTrade page: “Breanne Düren remembers what it’s like to be a teenager. After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that the singer, known to many as the female voice behind Owl City’s Adam Young on some of his most striking songs, was in high school herself, turning to music to give voice to her emotions. Now she has recorded songs that do the same for others, as she deftly displays on her debut EP, Sparks, due out May 3rd. Produced by Mike Daly (a former member of Ryan Adams’ band Whiskeytown who has worked with Rachael Yamagata, The Pernice Brothers, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals), Sparks showcases her self-assuredness as a vocalist and talent for crafting a unique blend of pop. It’s her passion for and acceptance of the swirling instability that comes with life in music that promises to serve Düren well as she begins what promises to be a long-lived career.”

Sparks is a free download from title="Breanne Düren - Sparks" href="http://noisetrade.com/breanneduren">NoiseTrade.

title="The Rockettops Homepage" href="http://www.rockettops.com/">The Rockettops – NoiseTrade Sampler

Genre: indie, pop, rock

From their title="The Rockettops Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/rockettops?sk=info">Facebook Biography: “We are four guys who want to play music, travel the world, meet people, have fun and maybe make someones life a little bit better along the way. We create Passionate Rock Indie-Pop by blending influences such as: Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, Muse and Radiohead to conjure a distinct, ear-friendly sound.”

The Rockettops’ NoiseTrade Sampler is a free download from title="The Rockettops - NoiseTrade Sampler" href="http://noisetrade.com/rockettops">NoiseTrade.

title="Lifescreen Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/lifescreenmusic?sk=info">Lifescreen – Connexions

Genre: alternative, rock, metal

style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3095196445/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" frameborder="0" width="400" height="100">

From their title="Lifescreen Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/lifescreenband">Facebook profile: “Lifescreen are a power trio from Leeds, United Kingdom. Formed from the ashes of Nerve Engine, they have been honing their sound since early 2007. (…) With a natural, honest and highly energetic live show, Lifescreen have been swiftly building on a loyal fan base and winning over newcomers at every gig. With professional standard recordings, artwork and videos, they’ll continue hitting the road to spread the word.”

Connexions is a free download from title="Lifescreen - Connexions" href="http://lifescreen.bandcamp.com/album/connexions-2010">Bandcamp.

New to Sound Sunday? Past editions of Sound Sunday are available title="Past Editions of Sound Sunday" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/soundsunday/">here.

Feel free to get in touch with me [tina at makeuseof dot com] to share free material, suggestions, and feedback or simply add your comments below.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/youtube-lyrics.jpg" alt="youtube tool lyrics" />Do you love watching music clips on YouTube? It has become real fun lately when more and more pop stars and groups have been creating official YouTube channels where you can find their latest music clips. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If you love listening to music, the chances are you love singing as well. While you can find millions of music clips on YouTube that you can watch, very often it’s hard to make out the exact lyrics.

That’s where the browser extensions we review today come in really handy. They allow you to listen to songs on YouTube together with href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/lyrics/">lyrics.

Lyrics for Google Chrome™

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oglbipcbkmlknhfhabolnniekmlhfoek">Lyrics for Google Chrome™ is a fun Google Chrome extension that loads lyrics for the current song on request. Lyrics are automatically fetched from href="http://lyrics.wikia.com/">LyricsWiki™.

When you open a music clip on YouTube, notice the extension icon that appears in the Address Bar (omnibox). Click it to load the lyrics right next to the video and start singing!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/youtube-lyrics-01.jpg" alt="youtube tool lyrics" width="550" height="388" />

If nothing was found in the database, you can do a manual search.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/youtube-lyrics-02.jpg" alt="youtube lyrics" width="339" height="127" />

The options page lets you choose whether you want to load lyrics next to the YouTube video or open it in a new tab.

The extension also supports: Last.fm™, Google Music™ and Grooveshark™

Besides, the extension adds lyrics quick search that lets you search for lyrics from the omnibar by typing “lyrics …” + a title, artist or a couple words from the lyrics.

Another great thing is that the extension is actively supported as the developer answers all the comments on the extension page and seems to quickly implement all the suggestions (full support is provided href="https://github.com/haampie/Lyrics-for-Chrome">here).

Obviously, it won’t fetch lyrics for any song under the sun, so it won’t always work. Besides, LyricsWikia isn’t licensed to display the full lyrics for some popular songs. However it ran pretty smoothly and found lyrics for most music clips I came across.

Here’s another similar extension that seems to be a little bit more simplistic: href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kggldhblikkmmnbkeococbeoaacgelkf?hl=en-US&hc=search&hcp=main">Lyrics for YouTube™

Music Video Lyrics for YouTube

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hbegdicajmjmehcembhmpijdfdofobbh">Music Video Lyrics for YouTube is another similar extension that seems to have a bit smaller database of lyrics.

It installs an icon in the toolbar that signals when a YouTube page has some lyrics in the database (thus it saves you a few extra clicks as you only click the icon when it claims to have the associated lyrics).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/youtube-lyrics-03.jpg" alt="youtube lyrics" width="300" height="128" />

It will also change the icon and load the lyrics even if you have opened the YouTube page in the background tab.

Clicking the icon will fetch the lyrics on the foreground of the page:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/youtube-lyrics-04.jpg" alt="youtube tool lyrics" width="550" height="566" />

Unlike the first extension on our list, this one promotes itself more actively offering you to rate and share it each time it loads the lyrics.

Are there any other fun extensions for Google Chrome to offer that almost Karaoke experience? Please share them in the comments!

Other web-based applications to find lyrics we have previously covered at MakeUseOf:

• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/youlyrics-youtube-songs-with-lyrics/">YouLyrics: Listen To YouTube Songs With Lyrics
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tubeoke-song-videos-with-lyrics/">TubeOke: Find Song Videos With Lyrics
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/lyrics-song-lyrics-with-video/">Lyrics.com: Song Lyrics With Videos

Image rel="nofollow" href="http://www.ninjaphoto.net/SixteenthNote/photo/478">NinjaPhoto

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/spotifylogo.jpg" alt="" />For everyone who has been waiting patiently to get into Spotify but couldn’t get an invite, fear not because the wait is finally over. Spotify is now available for anyone to join without an invite, if you live in the US, UK, Finland, France, Norway, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Simply head over to href="http://www.spotify.com">Spotify, register for a free account and you will be ready to go.

Spotify offers three plans, one is free, one costs $5 a month and the last costs $10 a month. The free plan allows users to stream music with ads. The $5 plan removes ads and time limits from the site. The $10 plan removes everything, and allows users to download the music from the service and play it on a personal device without being connected to the Internet.

According to MacWorld, in Europe where Spotify has some 50 million subscribers, only 1 million of those opt for the paid portion of the service. Clearly the free option is the most popular, and now that Spotify is available to all in the USA I don’t see those figures changing. The $10 price point is right on par with similar music streaming services, so I would expect them to be competitive with them.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/spoty.png" alt="" width="502" height="410" />

If you are interested in checking out Spotify, href="http://www.spotify.com">go sign up and let us know in the comments how you like it.

Source: href="http://www.macworld.com/article/162465/2011/09/spotify_music_service_opens_to_all.html#lsrc.rss_main" rel="nofollow">MacWorld

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/piratedmusic_intro.jpg" alt="pirated music" />We have to admit that href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/poll-buy-software-prefer-cracked-version/">people pirate a lot of data. Whether it’s for video games, movies, professional and costly products, or operating systems, people pirate stuff and there is no end in sight. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to your own opinion.

One highly pirated form of media is music. In fact, there’s a pretty high demand for music as it doesn’t take much before you’ve already spent $100 to fill your iPod by about 5%. So here comes an interesting thought – what kind of music do people want the most, or in other words, which are the most pirated?

In case you’re wondering how I got my results, I simply organized a list of current href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/torrent/">torrents by the number of seeds each one has. A seed is a system that has the complete torrent on their system and is ready to upload any parts of it to other systems. The number of seeds represents the number as tracked by the torrent site, but there are more than likely plenty more seeds when combining other trackers. As for where I got my list of torrents from, you can do some Googling to find out if you don’t already know, or look href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/torrensurf-search-14-leading-torrent-engines/">here and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-6-torrent-alternatives-to-pirate-bay-downloads/">here.

The Top 10 List

The following top 10 list are torrents, so some may be complete albums while others are just songs.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne (Deluxe Version) [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Watch_The_Throne.jpg" alt="pirated music" width="180" height="180" />

The combination of Jay-Z and Kanye West seems to be pretty popular as this album hits the top of spot with 9,495 seeds. This is pretty impressive, considering that there aren’t that many torrents that reach a seed number that high.

2. Lil Wayne – The Carter IV (Deluxe Version) [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Lil_Wayne_-_Tha_Carter_IV.jpg" alt="bittorrent music" width="180" height="180" />

Lil Wayne has always had success, and this is proven again as his album The Carter IV is the second most pirated music torrent. His genre, like most on this list, is Hip Hop and Rap.

3. Adele – 21 [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/21Adele.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="180" />

Adele is the only artist on this list that doesn’t have too much in common with any of the others. Instead, this album has pop, soul, blues, rock, alternative, R&B, and indie rock as its listed genres.

4. David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj & Flo Rida – Where Them Girls At [Song]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/David_Guetta_-_Where_Them_Girls_At.jpg" alt="bittorrent music" width="180" height="180" />

Where Them Girls At is the first song on our list of torrents. Therefore, it can probably be described as the most pirated song, as most of the others are entire albums.

5. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem [Song]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Party_Rock_Anthem.jpg" alt="bittorrent music" width="180" height="180" />

LMFAO is the only artist group on this list that does hip hop and a number of electro and techno genres. Party Rock Anthem‘s genre, for example, is electro house.

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/RHCP_Im_With_You_Cover.jpg" alt="bittorrent music download" width="180" height="162" />

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a household name for quite some time now. This recent album is proving to be a success for them as well.

7. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pit Bull – On The Floor [Song]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/On_the_Floor_Jlo.jpg" alt="bittorrent music download" width="180" height="180" />

Jennifer Lopez has lots of fans as her career is currently at one of its peaks. She produces some great music, and having a song that features Pit Bull is also a plus. This song has elements of dance-pop and electro-house.

8. Black Eyed Peas – The Beginning (Deluxe Version) [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Official_Album_Cover_Thanx_to_romey.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="180" />

Yes! The Black Eyed Peas do in fact have something in this top 10 list! By the time a song or album has been well received by the public, it doesn’t take long before they have something new to offer. Their latest album is pretty popular in the 8th spot on our list.

9. David Guetta – Nothing But The Beat [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Nothing_But_the_Beat.jpg" alt="bittorrent music download" width="180" height="180" />

This is the second torrent in our top 10 list where David Guetta’s work appears. His music is very popular, and that trend won’t be going away anytime soon.

10. Rihanna – LOUD [Album]

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Loud_-_Rihanna.jpg" alt="pirated music" width="180" height="180" />

In the last spot on our top 10 list is Rihanna’s latest album. She’s been a household name just like Red Hot Chili Peppers, and her career is still going strong. Her album barely made the top 10 list, which is still a good “achievement”.

Conclusion

Overall, the list is pretty impressive, considering the number of seeds they have. You can see that Hip Hop and the like are well-sought after, which for me isn’t such a surprise. However, if you go outside of the top 10, you’ll start to see other genres appearing.

What are your thoughts about pirating in the music industry?  Should being in the top ten most pirated list be considered an indicator of an artist’s popularity or success? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: href="http://www.stutterstock.com/pic-60902926.html" rel="nofollow">Shutterstock

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class="align-right;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/screenshot1180.png" alt="" />The popular music streaming site href="http://mog.com/">MOG announced on Thursday that it would be launching a service called FreePlay, which means that subscribers to the site would be able to get free access to MOG’s 12 million song catalog. This new service follows on the heels of the European-based, ad-supported, music streaming service, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/musicstreaming-service-spotify-finally-arrives-news/">Spotify, that reached the US market starting in July.

MOG writes on its href="http://blog.mog.com/post?num=638183703">news blog that FreePlay subscribers “will receive 60 days of ad–free music service, with the ability “to earn free music in perpetuity, simply by listening, sharing with friends, making playlists, and exploring MOG“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/screenshot1178.png" alt="Screenshot1178" width="390" height="310" border="0" />

MOG further says that “the service is designed so that the more you listen, share and explore the service, the more free music you’ll earn. We’ll continue to expand the ways in which users can earn more free music”.

The advantages of subscribing to a music streaming service means you do not need to download music files to your computer, and thus not have to worry about archiving and backing up songs. You access your music in the cloud. MOG, like other similar services, does provide the option to purchase MP3 songs and albums from the site.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/freeplay_home-11-1024x1017.png" alt="Freeplay home 11 1024x1017" width="580" height="576" border="0" />

You can sign up for the FreePlay service via MOG’s Facebook Connect registration process, or by simply creating an account without using FC.

MOG of course offers premium paid accounts which are totally ad–free, with options for streaming music via its mobile apps for the iPhone and Android.

Source: href="http://blog.mog.com/post?num=638183703" rel="nofollow">The Mog Blog

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/googlemusic_iphone.jpg" alt="" />Google Music finally has a more elegant way to listen to your music on the iPhone. This is some news that Google Music users who own an iPhone have been waiting for since the beta launched. You could always listen to your music in Google Music on your iPhone, but it was in the standard interface and it was not a very pleasant experience. Fortunately this is rectified by a new, beautifully done web app, which is up and running now.

It is one of the better done web apps that I have seen on the iPhone. In fact, it feels so well done that it does not feel like you are using the app in the browser at all. It feels like a real iPhone app, not one running in Safari.

Even still, I would prefer to see an actual Google Music app in the app store just because I don’t like having to use the browser to play my music, but at this point beggars cannot be choosers and I will take what I can get.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_6783.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

To use the web app, just point your browser to href="http://music.google.com/">music.google.com on your iPhone and it will automatically launch the mobile version of the site. It will take a few seconds to initialize your library and you will be ready to go.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_8908.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

The interface is clean and easy to navigate, and it feels very much like using the standard iPod application on the iPhone.

Source: href="http://lifehacker.com/5838535/google-music-now-available-for-ios-in-webapp-form" rel="nofollow">Lifehacker

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/googlemusic_iphone.jpg" alt="" />Google Music finally has a more elegant way to listen to your music on the iPhone. This is some news that Google Music users who own an iPhone have been waiting for since the beta launched. You could always listen to your music in Google Music on your iPhone, but it was in the standard interface and it was not a very pleasant experience. Fortunately this is rectified by a new, beautifully done web app, which is up and running now.

It is one of the better done web apps that I have seen on the iPhone. In fact, it feels so well done that it does not feel like you are using the app in the browser at all. It feels like a real iPhone app, not one running in Safari.

Even still, I would prefer to see an actual Google Music app in the app store just because I don’t like having to use the browser to play my music, but at this point beggars cannot be choosers and I will take what I can get.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_6783.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

To use the web app, just point your browser to href="http://music.google.com/">music.google.com on your iPhone and it will automatically launch the mobile version of the site. It will take a few seconds to initialize your library and you will be ready to go.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_8908.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

The interface is clean and easy to navigate, and it feels very much like using the standard iPod application on the iPhone.

Source: href="http://lifehacker.com/5838535/google-music-now-available-for-ios-in-webapp-form" rel="nofollow">Lifehacker

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/googlemusic_iphone.jpg" alt="" />Google Music finally has a more elegant way to listen to your music on the iPhone. This is some news that Google Music users who own an iPhone have been waiting for since the beta launched. You could always listen to your music in Google Music on your iPhone, but it was in the standard interface and it was not a very pleasant experience. Fortunately this is rectified by a new, beautifully done web app, which is up and running now.

It is one of the better done web apps that I have seen on the iPhone. In fact, it feels so well done that it does not feel like you are using the app in the browser at all. It feels like a real iPhone app, not one running in Safari.

Even still, I would prefer to see an actual Google Music app in the app store just because I don’t like having to use the browser to play my music, but at this point beggars cannot be choosers and I will take what I can get.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_6783.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

To use the web app, just point your browser to href="http://music.google.com/">music.google.com on your iPhone and it will automatically launch the mobile version of the site. It will take a few seconds to initialize your library and you will be ready to go.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMG_8908.png" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

The interface is clean and easy to navigate, and it feels very much like using the standard iPod application on the iPhone.

Source: href="http://lifehacker.com/5838535/google-music-now-available-for-ios-in-webapp-form" rel="nofollow">Lifehacker

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" title="sound sunday" src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/recurring/sound-sunday.png" alt="free music" width="210" height="210" />I have likely said this before, but each and every Sound Sunday is a challenge. I should add that each edition also holds a revelation and is a pleasure to compose. I would like to thank all of you who have shared their feedback and sent in suggestions, your participation is appreciated very much!

By the way, if anyone tried to download The Unknown Stuntman’s album The Best Of…Everyone Else from SoundCLoud href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-free-music-albums-sound-sunday-august-28th/" title="Sound Sunday Edition August 28th 2011">last week, let me share with you that it never was a download from SoundCloud. You can, however, download the album for free from href="http://www.theunknownstuntman.co.uk/" title="The Unknown Stuntman Homepage">The Unknown Stuntman’s Homepage. So if you haven’t done so yet, please go ahead and get the album now. Sorry for the confusion!

As always, please post your feedback in the comments or send me an email [tina at makeuseof dot com]. I promise to listen!

title="Dan Freeman YouTube" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/freemandan23">Dan Freeman – Blaster

Genre: indie, rock, electro pop, rock’n’roll

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1251739003/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://danfreeman.bandcamp.com/album/blaster">Blaster by Dan Freeman

All songs on the album were written, recorded, and performed by Dan Freeman. This alone sounds amazing, but even more so if you listen to the entire album. With every song, Dan demonstrates an impressive variety of talents and great skills. You will hear different genre flavors from melancholic electro pop with classical elements to pure rock’n’roll. As a vocalist he commands the smooth pop voice (The Color Of Your Eyes) as well as the rough rock voice (Walkin’ Out The Door). Blaster was suggested by Dan’s good friend Nate, who writes that Dan never charges anything for his large collection of really good music.

Blaster is a name your price download from title="Dan Freeman - Blaster" href="http://danfreeman.bandcamp.com/album/blaster">Bandcamp.

title="Artmagic Homepage" href="http://www.artmagicmusic.com/">Artmagic – I Keep On Walking

Genre: alternative, electronic, pop, post-punk

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=946898046/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://artmagic.bandcamp.com/album/i-keep-on-walking-ep">I Keep On Walking EP by Artmagic

From their Homepage: “Artmagic is guitarist Richard Oakes and producer / vocalist Sean McGhee. Richard Oakes is best known for his work as guitarist and songwriter with Suede. Sean McGhee has recorded and mixed #1 singles for Britney Spears, sung with Alanis Morissette, and worked with Robyn, Sugababes and Imogen Heap.”

I Keep On Walking is a free download from title="Artmagic - I Keep On Walking" href="http://artmagic.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp.

title="The Tambourine Club Homepage" href="http://www.tambourineclub.com/links/home">The Tambourine Club – Lo-Fi Feeling

Genre: indie, alternative, lo-fi, pop, rock

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3711002727/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://tambourineclub.bandcamp.com/album/lo-fi-feeling">Lo-Fi Feeling by the tambourine club

The Tambourine Club is a solo project of a Kansas City based artist, who apparently prefers to remain rather private, although you can href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tambourine-Club/53923138962?sk=info" title="The Tambourine Club Facebook">follow band news on Facebook.

Lo-Fi Feeling is a free download from title="The Tambourine Club - Lo-Fi Feeling" href="http://tambourineclub.bandcamp.com/album/lo-fi-feeling">Bandcamp.

title="Unkind Facebook" href="http://www.facebook.com/UnkindHardcore?sk=info">Unkind – Yhteiskunnan Pikkuvikoja

Genre: crust, hardcore, sludge, metal, metalcore

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=283790761/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://unkindband.bandcamp.com/album/yhteiskunnan-pikkuvikoja">Yhteiskunnan Pikkuvikoja by Unkind

From their href="http://www.last.fm/music/Unkind" title="Unkind LastFM">LastFM profile: “A Finnish crust/hardcore punk band with dark atmosphere in lyrics and sound. Used to be called Speedapple in the late 1990s, before they changed their name to Unkind.”

Yhteiskunnan Pikkuvikoja is a free download from title="Unkind - Yhteiskunnan Pikkuvikoja" href="http://unkindband.bandcamp.com/album/yhteiskunnan-pikkuvikoja">Bandcamp.

title="Terius Nash Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/#!/MrTeriusNash">Terius Nash – 1977

Genre: hip hop, R&B

width="580" height="465"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EsGKxiFeuEs?version=3&hl=en_US"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EsGKxiFeuEs?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="465" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

From his href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-dream/id259369321?showBio=1" title="Terius Nash iTunes">Biography on iTunes: “R&B singer/songwriter and producer Terius Youngdell Nash, better known as the-Dream, was born in Rockingham. (…) Nash’s singing career got off to a slow start once he graduated from high school, but he found success in selling song lyrics after he met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001. (…) Paired with producer Chris “Tricky” Stewart (Laney’s brother), he continued to write songs for various artists over the next four years, such as the Britney Spears/Madonna duet “Me Against the Music.” His watershed moment came when he and Tricky created Rihanna’s 2007 international smash hit “Umbrella.” Several labels began approaching him so he could churn out more hits for their artists, particularly Def Jam, Rihanna’s label, which was reluctant to sign the singer/songwriter at first. [After releasing several successful solo albums...] The-Dream declared that Love King would be his final solo album, but he retracted the statement prior to the disc’s June 2010 release. Even while recording his own material, he managed to dish out songs for a wide range of popular artists, including Mary J. Blige (“Just Fine”), Mariah Carey (“Touch My Body”), Beyoncé (“Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It]“), (…) Justin Bieber (“Baby”), [and more]”

1977 is a free download from title="Terius Nash - 1977" href="http://www.radiokillarecords.com/">Radio Killa Records.

title="Grip Tapes Homepage" href="http://griptapessite.com/">GRPTPS vs href="http://www.potluckfoundation.com/" title="Potluck Homepage">PTLCK – Round One

Genre: compilation, pop, rock

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1886971974/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://grptpsvsptlck.bandcamp.com/album/grptps-vs-ptlck-round-one">GRPTPS vs PTLCK: Round One by GRPTPS vs PTLCK

From href="http://trianglemusic.blogspot.com/2011/08/griptapes-potluck-records-give-away.html" title="Triangle Music Article">Triangle Music: “Local record labels Griptapes and PotLuck have teamed up to celebrate the Hopscotch Music Festival next week. They’re giving away a 13-song compilation titled GRPTPS vs PTLCK: Round One, which features a number of bands playing the festival. /> It features songs from Old Bricks, Gross Ghost, North Elementary, Heads on Sticks and Organos who are playing the festival as well as Schooner who is playing a few day parties. The other bands on the comp are Joshua Carpenter, Jphono1, Juan Huevos, Corey Pallon, Logan Pete, The Grapes and Doctor.”

Round One is a free download from title="GRPTPS vs PTLCK - Round One" href="http://grptpsvsptlck.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp.

title="Jezus Factory Records Homepage" href="http://jezusfactory.bigcartel.com/">Jezus Factory Records – Jezus Factory Records Sampler

Genre: art, rock, folk, punk

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3680385240/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://jezusfactoryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/jezus-factory-records-sampler">Jezus Factory Records Sampler by Jezus Factory Records

From their Bandcamp page: “It’s been over 5 years since the label began and it’s nice to look back at what a varied but compatible group of music we have released. Please download and share and please consider making a purchase of a nicely packaged physical release that can help us keep supporting good independent music.”

The Jezus Factory Records Sampler is a free download from title="Jezus Factory Records - Jezus Factory Records Sampler" href="http://jezusfactoryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/jezus-factory-records-sampler">Bandcamp.

title="Face Melt Chicago Homepage" href="http://facemeltchicago.com/">Face Melt Chicago – Chi-Sound

Genre: compilation, bass, dubstep, electronic, instrumental, hip hop

width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=2562392709/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> href="http://facemeltchicago.bandcamp.com/album/chi-sound-presented-by-face-melt">Chi-Sound. Presented by Face Melt by Face Melt Chicago

From their Bandcamp page: “This compilation, presented in conjunction with Ground Lift Media, aims to define the ‘Chi-Sound.’ With so many producers in Chicago, and being as spread out as we are, different sounds develop. For Volume 1, we’ve producers spanning a couple generations in Chicago Bass & Hip-Hop music.”

Chi-Sound is a free download from title="Face Melt Chicago - Chi-Sound" href="http://facemeltchicago.bandcamp.com/album/chi-sound-presented-by-face-melt">Bandcamp.

title="Graham Colton Homepage" href="http://www.grahamcolton.com/">Graham Colton – Pacific Coast Eyes

Genre: indie, pop, rock

Graham Colton was href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-free-mp3-albums-country-folk-special-sound-sunday-12th/" title="Sound Sunday Edition June 12th">previously featured on Sound Sunday with his Twenty Something EP. On the introduction for Pacific Coast Eyes on NoiseTrade Graham writes: “Due to the overwhelming response to my Twenty Something EP I am once again partnering with Noise Trade offering my new CD, ‘Pacific Coast Eyes’ as a direct download for a very short time only. This is my first independent record since my first self titled album and it took everything I had to make this album happen. Thanks so much for your support! Oh yeah…tips are greatly appreciated!”

Pacific Coast Eyes is a free download from title="Graham Colton - Pacific Coast Eyes" href="http://noisetrade.com/grahamcolton">NoiseTrade.

title="Sloan Homepage" href="http://www.sloanmusic.com/">Sloan – Select Singles 1992 – 2011

Genre: alternative, rock, pop

From their NoiseTrade page: “Four men, ten albums, twenty incredible years: ladies and gentlemen, Sloan! Sloan is a Toronto-based rock quartet formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1991. The band is known for their sharing of songwriting from each member of the group and their unaltered line-up throughout their career. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, Sloan just released their 10th album, The Double Cross and are offering a NoiseTrade exclusive 14-song collection, Sloan select singles 1992-2011.”

Select Singles 1992 – 2011 is a free download from title="Sloan - Select Singles 1992 - 2011" href="http://noisetrade.com/sloan">NoiseTrade.

New to Sound Sunday? Past editions of Sound Sunday are available title="Past Editions of Sound Sunday" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/soundsunday/">here.

Feel free to get in touch with me [tina at makeuseof dot com] to share free material, suggestions, and feedback or simply add your comments below.

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