Lala - The Dark Horse of Online Music Streaming

Everybody Knows - John Legend

This post is about music so why not listen to some while you read? And why not make it John Legend - Awesome. I am constantly exploring online music services. I dig music. I dig music that is free. I dig sites that deliver free music in a unique way. I have previously mentioned sites like Pandora, PureVolume, SadSteve, B-Sides, iTunes, Soundunwound, Soundflavor, and others, which are all good to listen to music and learn about new music. Recently I found the darkhorse of online music services...

Lala is an online music service that allows listeners to choose songs they like, create a queue (a playlist of sorts) and listen to music that they choose and love. In that regard, Lala is not a very unique service. In fact, if that is all that the site does, I wouldn't be posting about it. A better way to describe Lala is as an online music repository. What does this mean? Two things really:

1. Lala is a place where you can purchase and accumalate music to which you have a right to listen to as if it were your own. Purchase? Yeah, purchase. Songs cost $.10 and you get the right to listen to the purchased track as much as you want, whenever you want. You do not get to download it to your own computer unless you pay the usual, iTunes standard $.99. So what is so special about that? Basically, you buy music online AND you get to store the music online AND download it to your computer. A lot of people buy music from the iTunes store. I would argue that this method allows you to back up your entire music collection for FREE. Further, this method allows you to access your files online, anytime. I think thats pretty fantastic.
2. Lala is a place where you can store music that you ALREADY OWN and accumulate music that you purchase. Thats right! You can upload your entire music library to Lala for free - have access to it from anywhere in the world with internet access. That is a unique concept that makes Lala worth trying out.

How does it work: When you set up an online account, the site gives you 50 free music credits. These are credits that you can use to go out and "purchase" any song. I use the term purchase loosely in this context because there are two types of purchase of a song on Lala: a strictly online purchase and an online purchase that allows you to download and keep the file. So you can accumulate music in two ways, strictly online (less expensive) or online and on your computer (normal cost of music).

Music Mover: Lala has its own software that searches your computer for music and uploads it to Lala. Basically, the site matches your music with online music and then automatically gives you the right to those songs which you already own. Honestly, this is what makes Lala one of the most amazing onlines services on the web becuase of the possibilities. Think about it:

• Do you have a large music collection on your home computer but don't want it to take up all the space on your laptop? Or is your laptop a work laptop? Or do you just want to access your music from a public computer or from someone else's computer. Lala makes it so you can access your music library without storing it on your computer at all! Better yet - you can do this from anywhere with access to the internet.
  
• Own an iPhone or iPod touch but hate that you can't fit your whole collection on it? Get the Lala app and connect to your music on the interweb. This App is forthcoming but check out the amazingness of the concept.

Music Mover in action - you know, just doin' its thang

My music collection post Music Mover upload - after it did its thang.

More About Music Mover: Music Mover is a small program you download. To use it, you simply specify the source location of your music library and begin the upload process to Lala. Music Mover will go through a rather time consuming process of uploading all your music (unless it is unrecognizable) to Lala. Depending on the size of your music library, this process can take a long time or a short time. I have around 6000 songs and it is taking hours and hours and hours. Right now I have access to around half of my music and it took the program about 3 hours to accomplish. In my opinion, that is a small price to pay for having access to your music anywhere, anytime!

More About the Site: The site's interface is clean, straightforward, and very easy to use. Searching for music is very simple. Once your library is uploaded, your view of your music is similar to what iTunes used to look like when it wasn't so album art-based. The music player streams music with ease and maintains a position on the top of your screen while you browse their site.

That is the Lala homepage for my account

This is what the Queue looks like - You can also make playlists - even on iTunes then upload them.

Lala has a very simple "share" app allowing you to share any song on your own site, facebook, or whatever. Here is another great tune.

Gravity - John Mayer

Things I think will improve the site: the site will benefit from a better interface for music collections. Right now, its a little old looking and difficult to use when there are a lot of songs in the library. Also, I think a pop-out music player would be awesome. Right now, you can't navigate away from that page (which isn't so bad) and that makes it difficult to see what you are listening to or change a track while looking at a different site.

A BONUS: If you want to check out Lala without going through the uploading process, just leave a comment on this post and I will hook you up with access to my collection. Obviously, I will only give access to people I know and trust...

IMDB and IMDB... for music

IMDb - Internet Movie Database. If you want to know about movies, you go to the Internet Movie Database. Its a massive collection of pretty much every movie ever made. You have probably stumbled across it anytime you have googled a specific movie or even star. You can get plot summaries, cast listings (even click on specific stars and get all their career information), ratings (even specific information about exactly what is in movies), reviews, and a host of other information. I love to look at the top 250 movies and get ideas of movies to see or re-see. Well that's all fine and good...

BUT, WHERE IS THE OTHER IMDb (Internet MUSIC Database)? While various resources exist which definitely resemble an online music database, the most straightforward answer is that there really isn't one yet. Arguably, it seems only logical that there should be a database of information about music, bands, songs, or whatever. Compared against movies however, music is a much more complex animal. Think about how many groups and artists there are. Think about how many labels exist for each of them. Think about the vast complexity of information - from concerts to album releases to band members - that exists in the world of music. Truly, compiling a database for music is an extremely daunting task - especially in terms of what IMDB offers.

So what are some of the resources that can help in the quest for information about music:

1. Google: obviously - this isn't the most all-in-one solution for information. Using it to get information about Music is more time consuming and daunting a task than other options on the list.
2. iTunes (Amazon)- want information about music - go to where its sold! iTunes is one of the most vast compilations of music for sale on the web. Not only dones iTunes bring you information about artists and songs, it brings you information about artists and songs that are alike, thereby giving you a means to conceptualize what kind of music you are looking at and find more music that fits your taste. See Genius Sidebar. As for Amazon, same concept, just a little more difficult to use - in my opinion.
   
3. SoundUnwound - this is Amazon and IMDB's early attempt at making a music database. Its in the beta stage of its development but to me, it seems to be a pretty darn good start. You can search any person, group, or band and it shoots back a list of results for what you might be looking for. I searched the band U2. There were thousands of matches for the band, but I knew from looking that the first option was the band summary. The site then provides the following: profile, discography, members, and "like U2... well check out..." Go check out a band or person you want and see how you like it. The benefit of using SoundUnwound to iTunes is that you get information about each individual in the band and you can use that to find what other band or music that person has influenced. I have a feeling I will be talking about this again in the future.
4. Soundflavor - if you've heard it, they probably have it - Soundflavor compiles music by genre, decade, lyrics, songs, and artists so that you make music and video playlists. Postable on Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, blogs, and other websites, Soundflavor's more than a share-site, it's a place to discover. Search over the extended musical listings and discover new artists and sounds. Did I mention that some free music tracks are downloadable? With 30,000 songs and climbing, Soundflavor is definitely a resourceful guide to music! I will likely be re-visiting this site as well.
   
5. Pandora - are you looking for music similar to music that you like? Why not just listen to some music on Pandora for awhile, pay attention to what you hear, and take note of what you hear?
6. Any other ideas? Let me know!

So there you have it, IMDb and IMDb for Music! Search, Learn, Discover, Enjoy!

iTunes: using iTunes to manage my music

Today is probably my last post for a little while about music. Today is all about music management. Music management is important because it leads to better organization. The better your music is organized, the easier it is to navigate your music and enjoy it. So that seems pretty simple to understand, lets learn some simple ways we can manage our music. Basically, this post is a crash course on using iTunes. It contains information and small tutorials that I think are good for new and old users alike. A lot of people have been using iTunes for years and years and don't know some of the simple wonders it can do!

First things first
You need to be letting iTunes manage your music for you. This sounds strange. It won't actually manage your music beyond organizing it into folders for you. YOU will be doing the management BUT you will be doing it through iTunes which is the easiest way I know to organize and manage your tunes. To turn this feature on:

1. go to Preferences (or Settings)
2. go to the Advanced Tab
3. Make sure that the "Keep iTunes folder organized" box is checked
4. Make sure that the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" box is checked.

The iTunes Music folder
Now that its managing your music, let me explain something. iTunes will now copy any music you add to your iTunes Library to the iTunes Music folder where it will be managed. So if you buy something from iTunes, that music will be put directly into your iTunes folder. If you rip a CD using iTunes, that CD will also be placed directly in your iTunes folder - you don't have to worry about those. IF, however, you have music that you got from a backup device or from a friend or whatever, that music will be COPIED to the iTunes music folder, meaning two copies will exist once you add it to your music library: the one in your iTunes Music folder and the original. The BEST way to add music that is in a format like this is: simply grab and drag the folders where the music is and drop it in the iTunes window. You will see iTunes process it and then it will show up on your screen.

At this point, you no longer need the original to play the music in iTunes because it is IN iTunes. So, unless that folder is on a backup device, you can delete it becuase you have a copy of it in your iTunes folder and you will be managing it through iTunes. All the music you have will now be stored SOLEY in your iTunes Music Library. It can be easily retrieved from that location, so don't worry, iTunes didn't steal it from you.

Managing your music
The next thing to explain is that ANY changes you make to your music in iTunes (i.e. track name, number, genre, etc) will be made TO THE FILE ITSELF. This means that your album art will be saved as well. Now, lets talk about editing a song, songs, or album information.

1. First, information can be edited on any level: song-by-song, songs-by songs, album-by-album, albums-by-albums, etc.
2. You can click on one or many songs or albums and press Command+i (Mac) or Control+i (PC).
3. You can also right click and select Get Info. Either way, this brings up the song's information.
4. You can edit this information by exploring any of the tabs.
5. The most common change I make is highlighting multiple songs or albums, editing the info, and changing the genre of that music so it is all Rock, for example.
6. Another common change you might need to make is to distinguish an audiobook from music. To do this, press command (control) + i on the should-be book, select the "option" tab, and change the "Type" to "audiobook."

A CAVEAT (warning): Do not change information for multiple tracks unless you want all those tracks to share that same information. For example, NEVER change the track title of multiple tracks or all the files will be titled the same. Items you might want to change on a general level: genre, type, rating, album name, etc.

Album Art

The last thing I want to talk about is Album Art. If you have music in you iTunes library that doesn't have album art (i.e. the album in "album view" shows up as a question mark) then you are missing out on one of the best aesthetic feautures of iTunes. To remedy this:

1. first try right clicking the album and selecting "Get Album Artwork." Thats the easy and obvious way.
2. If the artwork doesn't show up, its becuase the album is titled in some way that iTunes is not able to recognize. Album art works based on album titles. You should try going to the iTunes store to find that album and see what it is called in iTunes.
3. Change the name of the album by clicking on it or all the songs in it and pressing command (control) + i. Then change the album title. That should do the trick (make sure you right click and select "Get Album Artwork" again).
4. If not, then the last method is a sure fire way. Simply google the album,
5. go to images,
6. find an image that matches the album,
7. save it to your desktop,
8. highlight all the music that should have that image,
9. then drag and drop the image into the bottom left corner window that says "Drop Image Here" or something like that.

That will attach the image to all the files you selected. You can do this with music that you know doesn't have artwork on iTunes and you can put in whatever picture you want. That's me next to Robin Thicke:

Well, thats it for today. I know it was a lot of reading but I hope you are now an expert on the basic iTunes music managment techniques!

iTunes: Using the Genius Sidebar

Holy cow another post about music stuff. Today we are talking about the Genius Sidebar. Named after these nerds:




Its okay to be a nerd though. Genius Sidebar is pretty awesome - I'll just let that cat out of the bag right now. However, it does have its limitations. We will address all of this as we talk about how you use it and how you benefit from it. (By the way, I am making the assumption that everyone has and uses an updated version of iTunes... its like water - you need it to live.)

Using it: Well its pretty basic really. Start by making sure that its turned on:

1. If its not already prompting you to turn it on (it would be doing this on the right side of your iTunes window - it shows up as a sidebar)
2. then you need to go to iTunes preferences (or settings) and under the "General" tab,
3. click the box next to "Genius."
4. Boom baby - its on!

Next, let it do its "thang." It will go through all of your music and get a feel for what you like. Don't worry, there is nothing creepy about this (its not like iTunes is the Government). After it knows you and your music, it will be able to do a few amazingly simple and awesome things for you:

1. Tell you what you want: Genius can now recommend songs and albums to you that you probably like based on what you already have. Generally, it just tells you what it recommends. Specifically, you can click on a song and it will tell you, based on that song, what you might like. This is beneficial to you because now you can discover new music or just remember music that you like but don't have. This is beneficial to iTunes because you are likely to use it to buy the music - the link is right there for you to click and buy it. Darn clever Apple... If you don't have money, you could always use Sad Steve.
2. Make cool playlists: So lets say you are listening to a great song and you wish that there was some way you could hear other songs like it without having to go through your whole library to find the tunes. Just have genius do it for you. Seriously, 99 times out of 100 (I don't guarantee this number, but thats how I feel) it will hook you up with tunes that you really wanted to listen to. This is how: click on the song that you like, then click the genius icon (its in the bottom right hand corner of your iTunes window). Presto! There is your Genius playlist, intelligently playing the songs that you love.
3. Do you have a new iPod? (New as in pretty darn new - latest generation new). Well, it should be able to use Genius too. I've only done this on a new iPod Nano. You can click on a song using the center button (as if you were making an on-the-go playlist, and it will give you the option to create a Genius playlist - JUST LIKE iTunes DOES FOR YOU!!) I imagine its even easier with a iTouch or an iPhone. Holy Cow!

So what are some disadvantages? Well, I wish that I could save some of the Genius playlists I have listened to. There may be a way to do this but I haven't figured it out. Things with iTunes are usually blatantly easy to figure out and I haven't yet which leads me to believe that it is impossible. You can export a song list to a text document and do something called "Copy to Play Order" but what the heck does that mean anyway. The other thing is that I wish it was more like Pandora and gave you the option to add variety to the playlists that you are listening to. I mean, what if I want more than one genre. Honestly, I would think that these features are forthcoming in the future versions of iTunes. So make sure you keep updating when that pesky updater pops up. Anyway, hope you enjoy using Genius!

I Like B-Sides... and I Do, or Do I?

Do you like Pandora? Do you use iTunes? Well good, I have something that meshes the two together pretty well: i like b-sides (they don't capitalize it). Basically, it uses a web-application to scan your iTunes library and then tell you track that you will probably like but that you don't have. Okay, most of you know this but what's a b-side? A b-side is just the less important side of an album - think records. Typically, artists put their best stuff on the A-side and the B-side is left to the less popular stuff. Now, however, artists sometimes refer to B-sides as being music that never even found its way to an album. Anyway, hopefully that sheds some light for those that didn't understand the somewhat esoteric name (well, not that esoteric).

Before I go much further, I'm sure all of you are like: "but doesn't iTunes, like, have the Genius Sidebar?" and I'm like: "well, yeah..." and you're like "soooo, why don't we just, like, use it?" and I'm like, "well duuuuuh, if I am, like, posting about it, there is probably, like, a reason." And then you're like "ahkay!" and I'm like "like, totally ahkay!"

So, like, now that that is covered, lets talk about how to use it, what it does, and how to benefit from it.

HOW TO USE IT: all you do is go to your iTunes music folder (in your music folder) and find a document called: "iTunes Music Library.xml." Right click that file, select "send to" then "compressed zipped folder." Then, select browse on the b-side website, upload the zipped file and POOF!, you are in business (its pretty much the same for Mac, except you just right click, select "compress" and POOF! you are in bussiness, too. The site has instructions, I just told you too so that I get more reading time out of you. It will output a list on the left that looks like this - these are my suggested tracks:
Okay, so far - not better than Genius Sidebar... Well, ultimately, I don't think it is better than Genius sidebar, but it does do THIS:
Those are the "cool" tracks in your library that you might be ignoring because you forgot you had them or something. So thats kinda cool... I mean, its not like you can do that in iTunes, right? WRONG, all you have to do is sort your music by least-to-most played (either by number of times played or by date last played, or whatever). The only thing this does is compare your possibly ignored music with a list of "cool" tracks that they have so that they only tell you stuff that is "cool." I assert, however, that if the music is IN your iTunes library, its probably cool (to you). If it isn't cool, sorting your music in iTunes like I just told you will at least tell you what you need to delete. Am I right or am I right or am I right, right, right, right?

BING!

I will tell you all about Genius Sidebar in my next post, by the way. Either way, I say that its worth a try. Give it a shot, see if you like what it tells you. If not, leave it alone. If it does, then use it to find music. The only other problem with it is that it links you to Amazon.com to buy music... Amazon.com. So that troubling. But either way, you could just search the new album or artist you want in iTunes. Not rocket science. So i don't really like "I like b-sides" but I think its worth a shot.

Sad Steve

That ugly dude to the left is Steve... Sad Steve. He represents today's featured music site: www.sadsteve.com. (Special thanks to Sam for this site!) Sad Steve is another online music site. It is not like Pandora or PureVolume at all. Its not a radio site and its not an artist bio site (although the site does do featurettes on some bands). So what is it? Well, its a site where you can look up specific artists and songs and listen to them. So why would you use Sad Steve instead of Pandora or PureVolume? The answer lies in HOW Sad Steve works. Sad Steve indexes (just think of a library index) music on the internet. The index is large although not exhaustive. So what this means is that you can use Sad Steve to hear a song or artist that you want to listen to. Specifically. For example, on Pandora you search an artist and it brings back a song, specific to what you wanted or not, and plays it. Sad Steve allows you to play only the song you want. Obviously, comparing Pandora to Sad Steve is like comparing really tasty grapes "and really bad eggs" (respectively).


Either way, Sad Steve has its benefits.

• You will notice that when you search for a song in Sad Steve and play it, a pop-up window appears. That window has a simple little media playing script that begins playing your song.
  
• You will notice a list of links below said script: Download, E-mail to Friends, Lyrics, Album Art, Share on Facebook. Hmmm, those sound useful. Let's discuss them, last to first.
  
• The Share on Facebook link, simply places a link of that song on your Facebook profile. I did this on my profile if you know me and want to see it in action.
  
• The Album Art link is not useful.
  
• The Lyrics Link shows the lyrics... kinda cool.
  
• The E-mail link does what the facebook link does except through your e-mail address... that's kinda cool too.
  
• The Download link downloads the song...

What? Downloads the song? Is that legal?

On that question, Sad Steve's "What?" page - basically its Q & A about page - states:
Q 3. Is this legal? Will I get in trouble for downloading?
A. Yes, the site is legal. Sad Steve works by indexing mp3 files from all around the Internet. So, for example, if the website for John's California Surf Club hosts a Beach Boys song, that file is indexed and made available to the you, the user.

No, you won't get in trouble for downloading. Sad Steve's traffic monitoring tools do not log users' IP addresses, physical addresses, e-mail adddress, or any of that garbage. In fact, there is no record anywhere in our system of what files are downloaded, how many times, or by who. So whether you download zero, ten, or a thousand songs, nobody knows.

HUH?


The verdict: apparently yes and no... It is legal for them to index music on the internet. The strange things is that the site says its legal, then goes on to tell you how there is no way to monitor who uses it (i.e. who downloads from it). So... It legal for them to index the music, "yada yada yada" you can download to. My opinion: its legal to listen to the music. About the other stuff i don't know.

Check out Sad Steve and see if you like. Download some music if you like.

Pandora - Online Radio

I am guessing that many of you readers out there have heard about Pandora. I hope that you have. Its not that new to me either - my friend told me about the site a long time ago. Either way, maybe you could use a refresher.

Pandora is the music Genome project - it's like, mapping the genes of like, music, and stuff. Less hippy, Pandora is a free online dynamic radio service that matches music you choose to listen to with other music that you like or are bound to like based on your tastes. How does it work? The service has a large database of music that has been classified according to artist, genre, sound, and other features that allows their servers to combine favorable music lists. It bases its information on information from thousands of users that provide a simple thumbs up or thumbs down on each song on a station.



The site is SUPER easy to use. It has a really clean look (not a ton of ads, simple design, good flow, etc). As I said, its free to listen and you don't need to setup an account. However, setting up an account is easy (requires simple information like e-mail, password, DOB, Zip) and once you set up an account you will be able to save "stations" that you made and continue to listen to them later. Basically, the site is brilliant!

This morning, in honor of today's post, I started a new station. I searched the band "Audioslave" and it pulled up a great song by the band. The next song was Pearl Jam, then Nirvana, Incubus, Audioslave (again), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bush, Foo Fighters, and on and on. Holy cow! Good Listening!! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS SITE?! I would be bathing in coins, Ducktails style.

A good thing, by the way, is that you can advance to the next track on the station if you don't like a song. You should remember to rate the music that you hear (thumbs up or down) so that the server gets smarter and smarter and you get better and better music. THE BIG BONUS: you get to learn about music that maybe you didn't know you like but that you do! That's huge for all you stagnant music listeners out there! DYNAMIC RADIO is just what the doctor ordered. The only bad thing that I can think of is that it won't let you go back to previous songs. I kinda hate that. But oh well, small price to pay for brilliancy!

PureVolume

Are you are Rock/Punk/Alternative fan? Want to find new bands? PureVolume is a site devoted to the discovery of new music. Here is what their "about" page says:

PureVolume is a website for the discovery and promotion of new music and emerging artists. Each artist has a profile that typically contains basic info, updates, photos, shows and music for streaming. Artists have the option of making each of their songs available for free download. Listeners and fans can also create profiles to interact with artists and each other, as well as track and share music they like.

I have used the site to find all kinds of bands that I currently enjoy. As stated above, the artists will commonly make their music available for free download. So you get to preview and keep some of the music that you find. The site is really for rock/punk/alternative fans so keep that in mind if you check it out. Don't expect to find Beyonce on there. Here is a link to a band that I just found using PureVolume: Dizzy Balloon.

The site has a polished design, good tunes, free music, and lots of music to listen to, so check it out!

MP3 Fiesta

For a review of the site, click here. Well I am back from a vacation during which I was unable to post cool sites. Hopefully that doesn't mean that I lost my two site viewers (although I know I lost one, my wife, because she was with me and also unable to access the internet). As a coming back present for you, I have a really, freakin' sweet site that will save you money: MP3 Fiesta.

Its a fiesta baby! An MP3 Fiesta. I love iTunes for obvious reasons (music, accessible, inexpensive). I could probably spend hundreds of dollars a week on music if I had my way. Well, I don't. I need an alternative to spending $.99 a song to save on pennies. The alternative: MP3Fiesta. MP3 Fiesta is an online music store much like iTunes that costs a significant amount less than iTunes. I honestly don't know a ton about where the site is based but assume that it is based out of Europe where they don't have copyright laws like they do here. So, that means cheaper music without DRM (digital rights management).

So how cheap is it? The new Death Cab for Cutie album costs $1.98. Cost per song: $.20. Legal? Nothing is 100% but it is legal in Europe and the "internet" has no national boundaries. Check it out. I love it. My thanks to Nate for the idea.