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online music

SonicSwap Review (iTunes Playlist Widget)

SonicSwap is described as an iTunes playlist widget. It’s an add-on to iTunes for OS X that provides extremely simplistic usability for even the beginners amongst us. The app features several useful features that all worked extremely well for me and best of all, it’s available as a free download from the downloads section of the Apple website.

Basically, the main feature of the widget is the simplification of the iTunes interface. It sits neatly upon your desktop and allows you to control your tracks and volume etc. without having to bring up the bulky and sometimes laggy iTunes interface.

I have to say, that it doesn’t feature such an attractive look as most other OS X apps, it just doesn’t follow the usual style of apps. However, its functionality is key and it delivers all that it promises. Ok, so you could just leave the iTunes mini player upon your desktop, it would provide the same basics, however, with SonicSwap, not only are the navigational buttons displayed, artwork and track details are listed too without taking up a sizeable chunk of your desktop.

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Sky Songs – Online Music Streaming and Download Service

According to a journalist for the Telegraph, Sky Songs has the potential to rival iTunes as an online music provider. The concept is not a new thing; downloading and streaming music is widely available online including the increasingly popular Spotify. But coming from a trusted source such as Sky, who provide television, telephone and internet for many households already, gives this service a head start over other options.

The principle is simple. You visit the Sky Songs website, sign up and you have access to 4 million songs. You can choose whether or not to download albums, singles or even mix and match songs creating a ‘music pack’. Most albums or music packs are available for £6.49, rivalling the prices of the likes of Amazon MP3 Download Store and iTunes for top titles.

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Spotify Adds Offline Song Playback For Premium Members

As it moves from strength to strength Spotify has really made an impression over the last year, and with the recent introduction of the Spotify iPhone app (and also the Android version) allowing it to be used when on the go one can only see its popularity increasing.

The most recent addition to their arsenal comes in the form of the ability to now play certain playlists whilst offline – a feature already present on the mobile versions of the app but will now be available on desktops/laptops as well.

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Songbird Review (Free iTunes Alternative Music Player)

No matter how much Apple try to improve iTunes, there are still missing features that people want… Say hello to Songbird, a free music player / iTunes alternative with a web browser built right in, available for Windows, Linux and OS X.

When you start Songbird for the first time, you have the option to import all of your songs from your iTunes library, and install various plug-ins that come with Songbird, including Last.fm and the 7digital music store. Installation of plug-ins (I chose all available) and iTunes integration took about 30 seconds. Regular playlists were imported, but my own smart playlists weren’t.

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Share Spotify Playlists With ShareMyPlaylists.com

Listening to free music online has now become really popular thanks to Spotify and the service has many benefits, including now having a Spotify iPhone app to listen to your music on the move. You can search for songs and artists that you’re a fan of and add that music to your playlist; however, there is one limiting factor I’ve found and that is actually how you find new music or add large numbers of songs at a time that you like.

Thankfully there is an answer to just this problem in the form of Spotify allowing you to export your playlists as a URL to share with other people, combined with a specific website that has been set up to make it easier for you to do just that – ShareMyPlaylists.com!

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Spotify Invites Required Again (UK)

Spotify invites are now required again! The great new online streaming music service had been free for anyone (in the UK) to sign up to since they ditched using invites for us British people, however with the recent launch of their mobile services, specifically their Spotify iPhone app as well as an equivalent for Android users, they’ve had to go back to being invite-only. The exception to this is being if you want to sign up to being a premium member paying a subscription…obviously!

If you don’t fancy signing up to paying a subscription without first trying it out, you can either sign up to the waiting list or if you’re lucky enough to have some friends with some Spotify invites left, then obviously that would be the best way of getting onto the service for the time being.

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Spotify iPhone App – Is It Worth It?

Well the Spotify iPhone app has been released, it’s finally here after Apple actually approved it (a surprise in itself to some people), but has it been worth the wait?

I’m a big fan of the Spotify music-streaming service and usually have its music playing in the background as I work (or play) on my main desktop computer and have been perfectly happy just sitting back and using this free service listening to the occasional advert between songs. With the release of the iPhone app, it’s given me cause to think a bit more about this service, here’s my thoughts…

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Spotify News Roundup – A Music Service Streaming Ahead!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed that in the last 8 months (since our original post back in January on not needing Spotify beta invites in the UK) that the ‘free’ music service Spotify has been popping up pretty frequently here on Zath as its popularity increases and the company goes from strength to strength.

So as you can imagine even within the last week there have been quite a few movements forward in the world of ‘Spotify’, so we thought we should bring them all together for both Spotify lovers and virgins alike in one special post: so here it is, and I think it makes sense to go in chronological order!

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Spotify iPhone App Preview

The Spotify iPhone app has now been submitted to Apple for approval to the App Store, I’m sure I won’t be the only one out there who’s hoping that it gets approved and quickly so that music fans can start listening to their Spotify playlists on the move and away from their desktop computer, laptop or netbook.

Spotify has had quite a successful rise as a streaming music service so far, especially for those of us here in the UK where we were one of the first countries where a Spotify invite was not needed and we also covered the news that the Spotify streaming music service was officially legal.

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Opera Unite Jukebox

Yesterday we had a look at Opera Unite’s attempt to ‘revolutionise’ the web and although it’s hard to gauge its long term success at this moment in time, it does look like it could well change the way we use the internet as they’ve promised.

An integral part of the Unite idea is the apps which run on it, so we thought we’d have a look at one of the most popular ones and see what it is, how it utilises Opera Unite and whether it is actually worth using, and the one that caught our eye first was the Opera Unite Jukebox.

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