January 7, 2014

30 Best Audio software for Windows PC in 2014

In previous articles you read about some of the best video software and in this article you’re going to read about some of the best audio software for your Windows OS which we manages to get under the same hood.

Best Audio Software for Windows

In this article of audio software you’re going to read about audio tools like Audio convertors, mixers and codec. Also you’re going to read about some cool software using which you can make your own music. And the bonus is that we also covered some softwares using which you can listen to your music collection.
So without wasting single second, let us have look at first audio software i.e.

Virtual DJ is one of the most popular Deejaying software which is used for mixing and playing digital audio and video tracks.
FL Studio is one of the common Audio players being used by us for audio recording, composing, mixing, sequencing and for the creation of professional quality music.
3. iTunes
It is the famous Audio player developed by Apple and used to Play, Download, mix, compose  and organize digital music on your personal computer. It works with Windows OS and iOS.
Zune is well featured Media player developed by  Microsoft, it organizes the media into its library and allow users to add music from CDs and downloading from the Zune market.
It is the Audio mixing console that is designed for disco jockeys. Any DJ can be used as a mixer but it has some special features that make it useful only for DJ’s. It has special knops and sliders which you will not find in any other mixer.
6. Winamp
Winamp is the Best and the most common Audio player which is highly featured, it has some awesome features like playback format, podcatcher, Media monitor, Winamp remote, Plug-ins.
It is a tool through which you can cut or remove some portion of music and also edit mp3 and WAV file, it provides features like cut, copy, paste, volume change operations, audio normalization and pause detection.
 Using this software you can download and save videos directly from YouTube, Google, Metacafe, Putfile and more. Simply copy and paste.
AC97 is the famous audio codec developed by intel.  All audio components are installed on chipset, it enables plug and play audio for users.
It is a tool through which you can split audio files into different ones and with a feature of joining you can re-join such small audio files.
It is a software developed to audio and video files conversion. It supports conversion of MP3, MP4, AAC, WAV, WMA audio file format and MP4, WMV, AVI video formats, also converts MP4 files to MP3.
12. WavePad
Wavepad sound editor is designed  for audio editing, it provides special features like fade in or fade out of a clip, mix multiple sound tracks and conversion between different file formats.
 Its one of the world’s best digital music jukebox. Download music, TV shows, movies, and more.
14. AIMP
AIMP is the popular and a superb audio player designed for windows. AIMP can play many file types like MP3, AAC, Dolby AC3, APE. It has some more features  as a Last FM scrollbar, bookmark and playback queue creation.
Jet is the most common and widely used audio players known for its awesome features, it offers metadata editing, CD ripping and burning, data conversion, sound recording, internet radio broadcasting.
 Its one of the best mixing software for personal DJs with wide variety of features and tools.
It’s a free media studio using which you can search, play music online and download music on your Windows PC
Nokia Ovi Player is free software for your Windows PC using which you can download and play music on your PC and transfer it to your mobile. You can also explore music on OVi which is already installed in this software.
It’s an easy to use software by Sony which is used for managing portable devices when they are plugged in the device in which Windows is installed.
It’s a perfect DVD and Blue Ray burning suite using which you can create data and music discs. You can also quick backup copies  and virtual disc images.
21. ALLPlayer
It is well designed media player which allow to play music with subtitles in a variety of formats, it has special features like Life Update, Integration with a reader for subtitles reading, password protection of media and it automatically  download subtitles from the internet.
22. Audacity
Audacity is one of the best available digital audio editor available for Windows, MAC, iOS. It allows recording and playing back sounds and multitrack mixing.
It is one of the first program to become popular as an audio convertor for Microsoft Windows. It is able to rip CDs, record audio coming in via mic jack, capture audio playing on the computer into different formats.
It is the well featured program which works as music converter and CD rip, it converts several audio formats mp3, mp4, m4a, WMA , AAC , monkey audio and rip CD fast, bit-perfect and secure.
It is a highly featured audio player with several special features such as it supports different type of  file formats like mp1, mp2, mp3, AAC, WMA, it provides customizable user interface layout, Gapless playback support.
It is one of the best audio players and fully featured as an advanced interface with large music collections, it provides features like ambience management, advanced rating system, file management and prepare the party.
27. Spotify
Its a digital music service using which you can stream millions of songs in different categories. This service has music for every environment all you need to do is play, discover and if you like the music, share it with your friends.
28. Mp3 tag editor Tag&Rename
It is an ultimate software for music file management that easily handles all popular digital audio formats, it has a  feature to organize your media collection quickly and easily.
29. Winamp Media Player
Winamp is the Cool and the most common Audio player which is fully featured for the advanced user, it has some awesome and outstanding features like playback format, podcatcher, Media monitor, Winamp remote, Plug-ins.
30.Songbird
It is an audio player which is the first Web Player available for Windows and MAC OS. It supports multi audio  file formats, it provides multi-platform compatibility, a skinnable interface called “feathers”.
So these are some of the best audio software worth download for Windows OS. So give a try to these and don’t forget to share your opinion about these software’s with us. You can also share the name of audio software which you found missing in the above list.

Source:  http://nerdsmagazine.com/best-audio-software-for-windows/

December 12, 2013

40 Best Music Streaming Websites [Free and Legally]

In today’s article we are going to answer the question, i.e.  What are some best music streaming websites? And if you’re the one looking for answers to the same question, then we recommend you must check this article.


Best Music Streaming Websites



Recently we added lots of articles related to music download, but every is not fan of fill up space on their hard disk and choose to stream music online. The internet is one of the best inventions created ever and where you can find anything. Whether you love greater interest in streaming general music, music discovery, Mixtapes or anything related, you can find all just by making some clicks. You might also love to read about:
We all know that there are lots of music streaming sites over the web but due to following restriction
  • Service at some sort of price
  • Restriction in loading the page due to copyright
And due to this you might hate music streaming online, but don’t worry anymore. And to give solution to this problem we’ve scraped through the lots of web services which provide music-streaming and gather some of the best, so that you’ll find out which service made the top spot. Also don’t forget to share any good web service if I missed any.

1. Grooveshark

Grooveshark is one of the best web services using which provides free music streaming, online radio stations, and lets you connect with artists and friends.

2. Last.fm

Another cool website is Last.fm, which is named as the world’s largest online music hub, powered by your scrobbles. Here you can listen to free personal music online, also find free internet radio, videos, photos, stats, charts, biographies and concerts.

3. MySpace Music

MySpace music is another best and legit site to listen to music online for free. Here you can also discover new bands and artists, watch music videos, get tour dates, music, news, other fans, and more.

4. Pandora

Pandora is counted as one of the music services available on the web, popular for its huge  library of songs. If you love to listen music then you will defiantly play those here, at Pandora. So Indian this is not available for your country.

5. Rhapsody

Rhapsody is one of the oldest digital music streaming service allows you to listen all you want from wherever you are. It’s the ultimate music cloud experience, over 16 million tracks.

6. AH.fm

Ah.fm is amazingly simple website plus forum where you can listen to Streaming techno and dance music. You can also discuss music in a forum.

7. AmazingTunes

Another cool website where you can listen music for free. Not only this you can also download music and 100% of profits go to the artists. All you have to do is search for artists you want to hear or choose from a list of stations.

8. Aol- Free Radio Station

Here you can free music streaming from actual radio stations powered by CBS Radio.

9. Deezer

Deezer is French web-based music streaming service which allows users to listen to music on various devices online or offline. You can also share music with your friends and embed music on websites

10. DI.fm

Digitally Imported is another cool website to stream music, the website is specialized in streaming dance and electronic music from all over the world.

11. live365

This is another cool website with a mixture of free stations and if you want to listen music without commercial interruptions become VIP of this website.

12.  Magnatune

Here you can listen or stream music of independent artist and guess what you can also buy them by naming your price, starting at $5.00.

13. MikesRadioWorld

MikesRadioWorld is another cool hub of over 5,000 streaming radio stations from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

14. MP3.com

Like other website this is another good website to listen and download music for free. Also in spotlight section of this website you will get a review of the music and artist.

15. TuneIn

Here at this website you can collect streams from radio stations from all over, You can browse by Music Genre and top live radio right now.

16. SHOUTcast

At shoutcast you can join people streaming radio right now. Here you can listen to your favorite Internet radio stations including Christmas, pop, R&B, dance and much more.

17. Slacker

Slacker is a cool website where you can  listen to their pre-built stations, One thing which I really like about this website is that you can create your station own.

18. Streampad

Streampad is another good website where you can search for music you want to listen. Music Player also creates a playlist the songs which you want to listen.

19. TheSixtyOne

Good website to stream music for free, I really like the stylish theme of this website. This website also allows you to purchase music via amazon.com mp3 store.

20. Yahoo Music

Yahoo Music, owned by Yahoo, which provides variety of music services, including Internet radio, music videos, news, artist information, and original.

21. RadioTuna

Another cool website for streaming music and simple search by putting your artist name and song, it will show all online radio stations that play.

22. Skreemr

Cool website where you can find, Play and download free MP3s.

23. Audiolizer

At Audiolizer you can listen to music, create playlists and upload your library to listen on the go for free.

24. Jelli

Is amazing crowdsourced radio – everyone gets a say, but no-one’s entirely in charge. This can make for some pretty interesting listening.

25. Dilandau

In dilandau you can share, listen and download all your favorite music in MP3 format.

26. MOG


Another cool website for streaming music and one thing I really like about this website is the sound quality of its music selection. MOG’s entire music selection streams at 320kbps.

27. SoundCloud

Create, record and share the sounds you create anywhere to friends, family and the world with SoundCloud, the world’s largest community of sound creators.

28. Google Music

Google rolled out a personal streaming music option called Google Music Beta. Only for US citizens.

29. 8tracks

Listen to the best internet radio, crafted by people who know and love music. Or you can also legally share your own online mix, a streaming playlist with 8 or more tracks.

30. PureVolume

PureVolume is another cool website specially for rising artists to hot their mp3 music and get exposure. You can stream music here for free, this website also showcases unsigned artist, independent labels, and major label artists.

31. Pump You Up

This is another cool website which promoting Indie, Small Label free dubstep, free techno, free house music, free trance and best electronic music downloads. You can also stream those for free.

32. 22tracks

22tracks is the perfect guide in a crowded musical landscape.

33. Hype Machine

This website is another cool place to find new music on the web. Hype Machine also featuring different categories like tracks, artist, twitter, remix and no remix. Now it’s up to you from which category you want to hear music.

34. Jango

Free internet radio, just like Pandora only fewer ads and more variety. Listen to hundreds of genre stations or create your own with your favorite music.

35. Musicovery

The easiest way to listen to your own music library and discover new songs, wherever you are

36. Tweewoo

Tweewoo is the best place online to listen to all the best new music and songs on our hundreds of free internet radio stations.

37. Accuradio

AccuRadio is a customizable online radio. Over 500 free Internet radio stations: Rock, Pop, Classical, Country, Jazz, Oldies, Broadway and more!

38. Just Hear It

Search and listen for any song in the world for free. You can also buy music if you need.

39. DeskAmp

Another cool website to stream mp3 music for free, also you can watch video of the song you listening.

40. FratMusic

Fratmusic is another good and last website of this article. You can search and stream music here in the different featured category. Also you can submit your playlist, they’ll email you if we choose it.
So finally we are done, these are some of the best music streaming website which I found are better according to our niche. If you feel that I forget to miss some good name, also if you have any suggestion don’t forget to leave comments.

November 26, 2013

How to Turn Your Old Gadgets into Cash (So You Can Buy New Gadgets)





Whether you want to sell off your old smartphone to pay for the new one, add a little cash to your fun money pile, or to put the proceeds towards Christmas, we’re here to help. Read on as we outline the best ways to turn your old gear into money.
When it comes to turning your older gadgets into cash, there are three main venues to explore: trade-in programs, auction sites, and local sale. Each of these venues has distinct advantages and disadvantages which, after reviewing our breakdown of the venues below, you’ll need to balance against your own desire for speedy resolution, amount of cash, and degree of risk you’re willing to take.

Converting Gadgets Through Trade-Ins

When you want the money right now and you don’t want to have to wait for someone to actually purchase your device, trade-ins are the best option. Instead of listing your device on an auction site or haggling back and forth with a buyer on Craiglist, trade-in services allow you to simply say “You’ll give me X amount of money for my old iPod? Great. I’ll mail it in right now.”
That’s the huge upside to the trade-in system, assuming you describe the condition of your device accurately when submitting it for a trade-in (e.g. you don’t claim your cracked screen iPad is mint condition) it’s a frictionless process. They offer you the money for the gadget, you accept, you mail it to them, and you receive your payment for the gadget.
The downside to the trade-in system is pretty straight forward: the resellers you’re trading the gear into want to profit from the exchange so of course they’ll offer you less than the open market (eBay or Craiglist, for example) would bear. What could sell for $300 on eBay might only fetch $200-250 on the trade-in sites.
So what do the sites look like and what can you expect when you use them? We put the five biggest trade-in sites through the paces using four common last-generation gadgets many of our readers would potentially sell: an iPhone 4S (16GB/ATT), an iPad 3 (32GB/Wi-Fi only), a Samsung Galaxy SIII (16GB/ATT), and a Kindle Fire HD (7″/32GB/Wi-Fi only).
Here’s how we fared checking the trade-in values at the sites. Listed prices are for the previously mentioned items in like-new condition:

Gazelle
Gazelle specializes in Apple products (iPhones, iPads, iPods, as well as Apple computers) as well as smartphones and tablets from other major companies.
Trade-In  Breakdown:
iPhone 4S – $170
iPad 3 – $230
Galaxy SIII – $126
Fire HD – $49
Total Trade-in Value – $575
Shipping: Gazelle foots the bill for shipping on any item worth more than $1 (why you would pay to ship them an item worth less than a dollar is a mystery).
Local Trade-In: No.
How You Get Paid: Gazella will cut you a check (you’ll be waiting on the mail for this option), PayPal you the money (instant), or convert it into an Amazon Gift Card (also instant). It’s nice to have options; we definitely appreciate organizations using PayPal.


Amazon Trade-In
Amazon Trade-In is as diverse as you’d expect any Amazon offering to be. Although we only tried it out with the electronics we’re using for this roundup, you can trade in just about anything: books, DVDs, routers, video games–you name it.
Trade-In  Breakdown:
iPhone 4S – $200
iPad 3 – $241
Galaxy SIII – $140
Fire HD – $116
Total Trade-in Value – $697
Shipping: Free. If there’s anything Amazon has on lock down, it’s the shipping industry. You trade it in, they pay the shipping bill for you.
Local Trade-In: No.
How You Get Paid: If you expected anything buy Amazon gift cards at your payment, well, we don’t know what to tell you. You trade it to Amazon and, whether Amazon pays $10 or $1000 for your loot, you get it all back in the form of an Amazon gift card. In light of how many things you can by on Amazon and through the Amazon checkout system on participating web sites, it’s about as close as a gift card can get to cold hard cash.


Nextworth
NextWorth offers a more diverse spread of categories than Gazelle and includes not only smartphones, tablets, and laptops but also digital cameras (including DSLRs), video games, and game consoles.
Trade-In  Breakdown:
iPhone 4S – $135
iPad 3 – $217
Galaxy SIII – $140
Fire HD – $65
Total Trade-in Value – $557
Shipping: Free. There’s a pattern developing here. Clearly the trade-in shops know that most people will balk at spending $20 on shipping for their old gadgets.
Local Trade-In: Yes; NextWorth has partnered with over 1500 retail locations (most notably Target) so you can trade your gear in without the hassle of packing and shipping it.
How You Get Paid: You can collect your payment via PayPal, Target gift card, check, or with a NextWorth branded prepaid Discover card.


Best Buy Trade-In
Best Buy
Trade-In  Breakdown:
iPhone 4S – $99
iPad 3 – $220
Galaxy SIII – $126
Fire HD – $50
Total Trade-in Value – $557
Shipping: Free.
Local Trade-In: Yes; you can walk in to any participating Best Buy location (pretty much any major location, barring small holiday satellite stores) and they’ll assess your gear and either accept it or offer to recycle it.
How You Get Paid: You guessed Best Buy Gift Cards? You guessed right. Great for buying yourself or your loved ones more gadgets, not so great for paying the electric bill.

BuyMyTronics
BuyMyTronics, a subsidiary of GameStop, offers something that none of the other major trade-in shops offers: they’ll buy broken electronics. For example, you won’t get the like-new price of $191 for selling them an iPad 3 with a broken screen but they will offer you up to $60 for it. If you don’t want to deal with repair costs on older gear, it’s worth seeing if they’ll offer you anything at all for it.
They buy ebook readers, camcorders, GPS units, and a wide variety of electronics in addition to the typical smartphones and tablets. What’s strange about their offerings beyond the typical smartphone/tablet listing is that 90% of them are “recycle only”. Why they felt the need to make two dozen listings for different BlackBerry models just to tell us that it was old and they didn’t want to do anything but recycle it is rather puzzling.
Trade-In  Breakdown:
iPhone 4S – $149
iPad 3 – $191
Galaxy SIII – $138
Fire HD – $55
Total Trade-in Value – $533
Shipping: Free.
Local Trade-In: Yes; but the system is only partially deployed. All GameStop locations accept trade-ins for store credit when dealing with game consoles and video games (as they always have) but very few GameStop locations are fully equipped to accept the wide range of electronics you can trade in through the BuyMyTronics web site. Call ahead to see if your local GameSpot is participating.
How You Get Paid: Check (3-5 mailing time) or PayPal (instant).
With all these variables at play, you really have to weigh what is most important to you. If you want money to spend on Christmas gifts right now, taking advantage of the in-store systems offered by Best Buy and NextWorth make it worth losing a few bucks over a better offer from Amazon, for example. Regardless of the system you use, however, the real benefit of the trade-in system is that (whether you get a lot or a little) you’re going to get cash for your gear.

Auctioning and Listing Your Gadgets


If the upside of the trade-in sites is that you get your money quickly, the downside is that you definitely don’t get the market value for your gadgets. If you want to get top dollar for your gear, you’re going to have to take the harder route and sell it on an auction site (like eBay) or list it on moderated listing sites (like Swappa) or local listing sites (like Craigslist).
The upside of taking such an approach is that you can get top dollar. The downside is that getting top dollar is completely dependent on someone purchasing the product you’re trying to sell and, in the case of site like eBay, you lose some of the money to fees.
So how do auction sites and listings stack up? We compared the biggest auction site, eBay, against the biggest cellphone and gadget listing site Swappa. Because Craigslist doesn’t have any sort of historical price tracking feature and has more volatile prices, we can’t offer concrete numbers on how much or little money you’d make.

eBay Instant


eBay used to have a legitimate trade-in program like the ones we were just discussing, known as eBay Instant. They stopped the trade-ins in March of 2013, but they kept the Instant portal. Now, instead of allowing you to send your loot to eBay for sorting and a pay out, the Instant portal serves as a ridiculously fast way to list gadgets you want to sell as quickly as possible. If you’ve skipped using eBay in the past because you didn’t want to deal with the hassle of making a listing, you should really trying eBay Instant out. You search for your item, eBay tells you what the current average sale price for the item you’re trying to offload is, and you can click a single button to preview the listing (and another to immediately list it). We went from looking at iPhone 4S prices to creating an iPhone 4S listing in under 30 seconds.
You can always use the regular eBay interface, of course, but the eBay Instant interface was most like the trade in sites and offered similar convenience. Here’s what eBay suggested we’d likely get for our various listings:
Average Sale Prices: 
iPhone 4S – $260
iPad 3 – $362
Galaxy SIII – $280
Fire HD – $172
Total Sale Value – $1074
Now, those of you that have been keeping a running ledger as you’ve read along are likely saying “Over a thousand dollars! eBay is for me!’ You will definitely make more money on eBay, no doubt, but there are some additional expenses to consider. eBay takes 10% as a fee for most electronics sold (for both auction and buy-it-now format). That’s $107 right there. Let’s also assume we’re going to spend $5-10 packing and shipping each item. That’s $20-40 making sure that iPad and friends is securely packaged. So by conservative estimate we’ve burned up $127 worth of our profit right there and brought the average price down to $947. Never the less, assuming we can move all the product we’ve listed on eBay, we’ve still made around $250 more than our best trade-in option for the total sale.

Swappa
Swappa is site dedicated to buying and selling smartphones and tablets. You can’t sell your old Xbox 360 or Macbook Air here, but you can get eBay style efficiency without eBay’s listing fees. You are, however, still at the mercy of the market and if nobody is looking for what you’re selling you may not even make the $50 Amazon and the like was offering you. Swappa does do a nice job giving you the average sale price of the item you’re listing over the last few months. Here’s what we could expect to make off our loot:
Average Sale Prices: 
iPhone 4S – $240
iPad 3 – $283
Galaxy SIII – $231
Fire HD – $155
Total Sale Value – $909
You’ll still need to fork out for shipping the items you sell, but you won’t lose any money on listing/auction fees. Assuming you spent $20 shipping the gadgets we listed above, you’d walk away with around $890.

As we mentioned early on the in guide, you have to find the venue that provides the right balance of return for your effort and convenience. If you want the money right then to spent on a new iPad, driving to a nearby store for an in-store trade is as fast as it’s going to get. If you want maximum return for your money you can try your luck with a buy-it-now eBay auction and eat the auction fees in order to get potentially 50-100% more than the trade-in venues would offer. Regardless of how you move your old electronics, though, it’s still better to find yourself with cash in your pocket than a drawer full of rapidly depreciating last-gen gear.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/176204/how-to-turn-your-old-gadgets-into-cash-so-you-can-buy-new-gadgets/

November 21, 2013

How to save Internet Radio Stations in WMP

I've been comparing the various media players and still enjoy Windows Media Player. iTunes is a memory hog. Foobar is lightweight and does not play video. WMP does not take up much memory and has a lot of features. I listen to a lot of free Internet Radio and like to save my favorite stations in the playlists. Below is info on how to do this.




You can search for Radio Stations from the Seach Bar.




   
How to Add a Radio Station to Windows Media Player:

a. Click the Windows "Start" menu and click "Windows Media Player" to launch your media player.

b. Click the "Guide" tab located on the top to access the Windowsmedia.com Media Guide. Click the "Radio Tuner" link to launch the Radio Tuner.

c. Click the radio station name you want to add to Windows Media Player and click "Add to My Stations." Click the "Guide" button to return to the radio stations list.

d. Click the "Library" button as your radio station is playing if you want to add your radio station to a playlist. Click the "Now Playing List" and click "Save Playlist as." This launches the "Save as" dialog box.

e. Type a name for the radio station in the "File name" dialog box and click "Save." The playlist for your radio station is saved in the "My Playlists" folder.



 

You can also refer the following links for additional information:

Step 1:

Listen to radio in Windows Media Player:


   
Here is a YouTube video how to it:


November 3, 2013

14 Websites To Find Free Creative Commons Music

We’ve at MakeUseOf.com have introduced you to a variety of quality image sites where you can find Creative Commons images, but the Creative Commons license goes far beyond just images. Different types of content are licensed online using Creative Commons — videos, music, and even blog content. You’ll find plenty of it online to share, remix and use commercially. When it comes to Creative Commons music — there are certainly no shortage of websites with audio you can use for any occasion.

With Creative Commons licenses, you do have to be sure to take a careful look at the specific license which will show you exactly how you can use the content that has been provided for free. There’s no better place to learn about the various CC licenses than the official Creative Commons website.  


SoundCloud

SoundCloud


SoundCloud is a great resource for people looking to share their music, podcasts, and more, so it’s no surprise that you can find a lot of decent Creative Commons recorded sounds as well. There are a few ways you can find CC tracks on SoundCloud. The easiest way to find quality sounds is by going to the moderated Creative Commons group, which currently has over 3,000 clips. There are also some accounts that share tracks including we are cc and Crazy Language. To find out more about the service, check out our in-depth review of SoundCloud.  


JewelBeat

JewelBeat provides its users free-to-use music, which you can use in your online videos, ads, and more — the only requirement is crediting the site by adding a credit link to the website. You can also let them know, via Twitter or Facebook, where you used the music. There isn’t too much to choose from, and no way to search the site, but the complete lack of restrictions make it a good place to start if you’re looking for totally free music.


Jamendo

Jamendo


Jamendo boasts a library of over 400,000 tracks, but not all of them are licensed under Creative Commons, so when selecting music from this site, be sure to choose only the tracks that are available to use for free. While you can’t filter your search results to show only CC-licensed results, any tracks that aren’t free to use will have a ‘pro’ button next to them so they’re easy to spot. The license for the tracks are listed at the bottom of the page, so be sure to scroll down to the very bottom to check exactly how you can use the audio.


Audionautix

Audionautix


Audionautix features only music licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 unported license. That means you are free to share and remix the audio, and use it commercially. A nice feature that Audionautix brings to the table is allowing you to search for tracks not only by genre, but also by mood and tempo. This could make it much easier to stumble upon the perfect track for your work.


Free Music Archive

FMA


The Free Music Archive’s tagline is one that will appeal to anyone who’s been on the hunt for decent Creative Commons music — “It’s not just free music; it’s good music.” As you search for music, by genre or curator, you can open up each track or album to see what kind of license its creator has shared it under. Genres include spoken, international, rock, hip-hop, electronic, and more.


FreeSound

FreeSound


FreeSound allows its visitors to search music by tags. A huge tag cloud will give you a place to start if you’re not entirely sure what type of song you want to use. You’ll need to sign up for a free account to download audio files, and as always, be sure to take a look at the exact license listed on the track’s page so you know how you can use the audio.


Incompetech

Incompetech is a good place to find full-length Creative Commons tracks, and like Audionautix, you can search the library by genre or by mood (or feel as they call it). Music on this site is licensed under the Attribution 3.0 Unported license, meaning you are free to share, remix and use commercially, as long as you credit the site. If you’d rather not credit the site, Incompetech allows you to pay a nominal fee to do so.


CCMixter

CCmixter


Another major Creative Commons library that is not to be missed is CCMixter. The site is packed with music that is free to download, sample and share. As is the case with all sites, you should take a close look at the license on each clip so that you adhere to the license restrictions — particularly as far as using the music in any sort of commercial way. To find out more, check out our in-depth review of CCMixter.


Bumpfoot

Bumpfoot describes itself as ”a non-profit netlabel in Japan,” which releases full albums under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license — meaning you can share and remix their tracks, as long as you credit Bumpfoot and this is one site which explicitly states that you cannot use their tracks for commercial purposes. The tracks are mainly techno, house, ambient, and IDM. (A netlabel, for those of you who were wondering, is an online label).


Musopen

Musopen


In its own words, Musopen is a “non-profit focused on improving access and exposure to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.” If you’re looking for a piece of classical music for your project or video, they provide recordings, as well as the sheet music. You can browse by composer, performer, instrument, period, or form.


CCTrax

CCTrax


CCTrax allows you to search an entire Creative Commons library of music by genre. Genres listed on the site include electronica, dub, hip hop, house, jazz, piano, and modern classical. They also have a handy flowchart that breaks down the Creative Commons licenses so you can better understand what each individual license means and, if you want to share your music, which one is right for you. 


Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a place you can go to find a lot more than just free music, but one section of the site links to a bunch of netlabels, including Bumpfoot among many others.


iBeat

ibeat


iBeat offers free tracks which you can browse by genre — alternative,  urban, pop and more. In addition to browsing tracks by genre, you can also browse by instrument.




Audiofarm

AudioFarm


Finally, Audiofarm provides its visitors with Creative Commons tracks, and in addition to finding music of various genres, you can also download voice recordings, if that happens to be what you’re looking for. Voice recordings included on Audiofarm are voice acting, comedy, and news. This is another site where you need to check the license as not all content shared on Audiofarm is licensed under Creative Commons.

You can be sure that there are more music libraries out there. Can you think of any other sites to add to the list? Do you use Creative Commons in any creative way? Let us know in the comments.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/14-websites-to-find-free-creative-commons-music/



Honorable Mentions:


Noisetrade.com







Bandcamp.com



October 28, 2013

Free Music: Five Places to Find It Online

By Wendy Boswell, 10-16-2013

Who doesn't like free, right? There are plenty of sources online for free libraries, databases, and catalogs for music of all kinds, from Top 40 pop to classical to music made especially to use in production-type settings. The following sites are great for discovering new styles, new genres, and new artists; all are completely free or ask for something very minor in return, like a link or some kind of credit to the original artist. Note: always check the fine print on every website before downloading any music to make sure that there are no restrictions. 

  1. FreeStockMusic: Features everything from Acoustic to Urban, with everything you can possibly think of in between. Need production music for a video you're making? This is a great place to turn something up. A royalty-free music license here means that you can use the music in anything you want, without any fees, forever. Categories range from Cinematic Classical to Rock N Roll and everything in between. The site is easy to use, easy to search, and can be used as a go-to resource for video projects that need the help of a little background music.
  2. Jamendo: Amazing site full of high-quality music from all over the world. Over 400,000 tracks are available here for streaming, downloading, and sharing with friends. This is a great source for discovering the "next big thing" - and if you are an artist looking for an online venue on which to share your music with a large audience, this is a good place to check out. Definitely a good choice if you're looking for music that is off the beaten path.
  3. Audionautix: Pick a genre, pick a mood, pick a tempo, and hit "Find Music" - you're off and running at this site that features an incredible variety of music available for both personal and professional usage. All that is required if you use it somewhere online in a project is a simple link back to where you found it; not bad for the quality and selection of the music you can find here. 
  4. Newgrounds Audio: Known mostly for games, Newgrounds Audio gives artists from all over the world a chance to showcase and share their music, as well as a great resource for users to download and listen to great music - mostly techno and game-related - themselves. Plus, who doesn't love a little game time with their music, right? 
  5. Classical Music Online: From Chopin to Scarlatti to Bach to Mozart, you'll be able to find great works from classical composers here. Search by composer, genre, or concert; there's an alphabetical list of both composers and artists that can help you track down what you're looking for quickly. Click to play music in your browser; you'll see a pop-up window that gives you the option to download the piece of music you're listening to direct to your computer. Many songs also offer a video link of the actual song being performed, which is a nice touch. Search through Collections to see "hubs" of music by orchestra or artist all in one place. 

October 15, 2013

Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier

Those who love to hear music and have lots of  data in their system, generally face problems with respect to storage space. Many users try to compress the MP3 file to fit more songs on their portable hard disk or iPad, but unfortunately end up with the poor sound quality of that particular file. As a music lover, you never want to hear a bad sound quality audio track, but certainly want to know the way to reduce MP3 file space. MP3 Quality Modifier is the right application for those who have to deal with a large amount of music data present on the system.

Reduce MP3 file size

MP3 Quality Modifier is a simple, fast and an easy way to reduce MP3 file space. This software is meant to reduce the size of the file without damaging its sound quality. The application interface is user-friendly as the design,and command icon present on the application is quite simple to use and understand. Modification of MP3, MP1 and MP2 files can be done very quickly and efficiently with MP3 Quality Modifier.
MP3 Quality Modifier 1 Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier
Key Features of MP3 Quality Modifier
  • MP3 Quality Modifier makes modification in bitrates mode, rate, stereo rate and frequency gain disk space. So, it does not affect the sound quality of the music at all.
  • It allows you to create your own profile.
  • It displays the saved space and does the comparison between input and output files at a same time.
  • MP3 Quality Modifier also allows you to cancel the modification if it is not up to the mark.
Check how MP3 Quality Modifier is an easy way to reduce MP3 file space with constant sound quality.
  • The files are added in the list using the ‘Add Files’ button that is present on the top of the window. A folder can also be added by clicking on ‘Add Folder’ button present on the top.
MP3 Quality Modifier 2 Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier
  • Click on ‘Process’ button to start the processing procedure. As you click on ‘Process’ tab, a window appears showing the progress status. You can shut down your system after all processing is done. For this, you just need to check the ‘Shutdown after process’ checkbox.
MP3 Quality Modifier 3 Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier
  • Once the processing is done, a new window will appear on the screen showing the summary in which following things are mentioned:
    • Files Handled
    • Total file size change
    • A ‘Created files’ section which displays % Size change, Original size and Created size of the files.
MP3 Quality Modifier 4 Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier
  • If this modification suits you, then click on ‘OK’ button.
MP3 Quality Modifier 5 Reduce MP3 file size with MP3 Quality Modifier

MP3 Quality Modifier download

MP3 Quality Modifier works by making changes in the file’s Bitrate Mode and Rate(kbps). The Frequency can be changed together with Modus to reduce the size of the file without affecting its quality.
The best thing about MP3 Quality Modifier is that it is a freeware, which means you don’t need to pay anything to download the application.
Source: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/reduce-mp3-file-size-mp3-quality-modifier?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheWindowsClub+%28The+Windows+Club%29

October 13, 2013

Beat the Bloat! Try These Lightweight BitTorrent Clients

Guns don’t share illegal files. People share illegal files. Or, wait, how does it go again? What I mean to say is, BitTorrent has a bad reputation for its piracy potential, but it shouldn’t. BitTorrent is a tool that allows people to share and receive files with other people and there are legal uses for BitTorrent unrelated to downloading illegal files.
Torrenting is so popular that there are dozens of great clients out there, but many of them are packed with bloat and extra features that the average user will never use. What if you want a clean, simple, and easy client instead?
Sometimes you want to pop open your torrenting client and download a range of items as soon as possible. Maybe you want to do this on an old computer that rattles and whines with every spin of the hard drive. Maybe you just don’t care for all the bells and whistles. A lightweight BitTorrent client is exactly what you’re looking for, and thankfully there are several good ones from which you can choose. Here are the ones I’d recommend.
Note: If you’re a complete newbie to the concept of torrenting, fear not. We have a fantastic beginner’s guide to BitTorrent written by our very own Saikat and it’ll get you started off on the right foot.


Tixati [Windows, Linux]

 

 

lightweight-bittorrent-tixati


As of right now, Tixati is my BitTorrent client of choice. I’ll admit that it’s not the most beautiful client around – frankly speaking, it’s actually quite ugly – but it certainly gets the job done without hogging too many resources. Just look at the screenshot above and you’ll get a sense of what Tixati is all about: sharing files! You’ll find no built-in media managers, social networking, or web browsing here.

With regard to performance, I’m impressed. I don’t know if it’s all in my head or what, but my own experience is that Tixati’s speeds are faster than other competitive torrenting clients. When prioritizing files, they do indeed download much faster than files with low priority. Perhaps it has something to do with Tixati’s special algorithms for efficient peer selection. And best of all? No spyware, no malware, and built-in encryption for improved security.


Hadouken [Windows]

 

 

lightweight-bittorrent-hadouken


Hadouken is one of the more recent creations in the realm of BitTorrent clients. The thing that separates Hadouken from pretty much every other client is that it runs as a headless Windows service, meaning that it doesn’t have an actual program interface that shows up in the taskbar or the system tray. In fact, the only way to use Hadouken is to install it, then interact using its Web-based interface.
The cool thing is that the Web-based interface is actually based on uTorrent’s Web UI, which means Hadouken’s interface will be familiar to a lot of you. On top of that, Hadouken has a powerful plugin system that can be used to implement a whole slew of features – sending emails, unpacking files, mounting images, etc. – at your whim.
Once Hadouken is installed, you need to go to your browser and type in the following to access the Web-based interface:
URL: http://localhost:8080
Username: hdkn
Password: hdkn


MiniGet [Windows]

 

 

lightweight-bittorrent-miniget


At first glance, MiniGet doesn’t look like anything spectacular. There’s no real eye candy and it looks about as barebones as it gets when it comes to torrenting clients. Well, that’s what we’re looking for, right? Like its name implies, MiniGet is all about being as small as possible while still providing power and efficiency in file sharing, and it accomplishes this by throwing out ALL features that aren’t absolutely essential.
MiniGet can handle the HTTP, FTP, and BitTorrent protocols. It can handle Magnet links, DHT, web seeds, as well as NAT traversals (also known as NAT punchthrough). And, of course, it can pause and resume downloads. Those are the core features deemed necessary by MiniGet. You won’t find much more, but at least it results in a tiny CPU and RAM footprint.

qBittorrent [Windows, Mac, Linux]

 

 

lightweight-bittorrent-qbittorrent


Ever since µTorrent sold out and went down the drain, qBittorrent was considered to be its replacement. There are a lot of similarities between the two, namely that they’re both simple, straightforward, and lightweight (this is before  ÂµTorrent began to bloat up). This is no surprise since the creator of qBittorrent originally intended qBittorrent to be the µTorrent for Linux as there were no good alternatives at the time.
qBittorrent handles all of the core features you’d expect in a torrenting client – encryption, priorities, IPv6, etc. – as well as some neat advanced options, such as sequential downloading and remote control of the client through a Web-based interface. All this comes wrapped up in a package that’s lightweight and easy on the resources, which is why qBittorrent remains as one of the best torrenting clients ever.


Conclusion

Sometimes you need a big all-in-one torrenting solution, and there are plenty of options out there if that’s the case, but when you need little more than the core functionality of a client, the ones listed here will serve you well if you ask me. And if none of these fulfill your torrenting needs, you could always check out these lesser-known but still effective BitTorrent clients.
Which BitTorrent clients do you use when you want something lightweight and easy on the resources? Are there any that I missed? Please share them with us in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/beat-the-bloat-try-these-lightweight-bittorrent-clients/


uTorrrent




Although the latest version of the best BitTorrent has advertising built-in, you can get an older version. Try version 3.0 here:

http://www.oldversion.com/windows/utorrent-3-0-2

October 6, 2013

MP3jam Review: Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Downloads


MP3jam is a music search and download app for Windows that uses music videos as the source for digital audio. Once installed on your computer you can use the program as a streaming music player or download the audio as MP3 files. The publishers of this useful tool, MP3jam Ltd, say that their application doesn't use any illegal sources on the Internet, such as BitTorrent sites or built-in P2P algorithms, and so is legal to use.




Additionally, MP3jam gives you the ability to easily download whole albums as well as single tracks to enhance the speed that your offline music library is built up. This free music app also has other features too, like: multi-threaded download support, a downloads history tab, and social media sharing via Facebook and Twitter.
To find out more about MP3jam and if it's worth installing for your particular needs, read on for the lowdown.


Pros:
  • Streaming audio is free from advertisements.
  • The audio from music videos can be downloaded as MP3 files.
  • No need to use a particular online music service to listen to the latest songs.
  • Built-in player for previewing / streaming.
Cons:
  • Annoying software extras bundled with the installation package -- you'll need to un-tick each one if you don't want them installed on your system.
  • Can't create playlists for streaming content from the cloud or playing your downloads.
  • Limited genre list -- can't search for genres which degrades the app's usefulness as a music discovery tool.
  • Program points to a free unlock code (for album downloads), but is confusingly hidden via a 'Buy' button.

 

 

Getting Started With MP3jam

 

Before You Download: The application can be downloaded free from the MP3jam website and is a freeware program. It runs on Microsoft Windows and is compatible with OS versions: 8, 7, Vista, and XP. In order to run the program, you'll also need the .Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile installed -- this component is usually installed automatically if not already on your system.


Installation: When installing MP3jam, we observed that the installation package also came with some extra software bundled with it. Although developers often slipstream these additional programs in order to keep their software free, you may still find it annoying. The Amazon browser bar and Tuneup Utilities (trial) will need to be carefully de-selected if you don't want them installed on your machine.

 

Using MP3jam

MP3jam Search Screen
MP3jam main search screen
Image © Mark Harris - Licensed to About.com, Inc.


Interface: The application has a well designed user interface that is not only visually smart, but also intuitive to use. It's a very simple interface enabling you to dive straight in without having to learn your away around. There are two menu tabs near the top of the screen. The first one is used for searching and downloading music, while the second tab gives you a view of your past activity -- ideal for easily locating your downloads. Below these two menu tabs is a large search box to type in your search terms and below this is a small selection of genres to click on.


Finding Music: Most of the time you'll probably find that using the search box is the most convenient way to look for music. MP3jam gives you the option to type in the title of a song, a band / artist's name, or album title. To help you find what you're looking for, the app displays suggestions as you type. This is a nice added feature that saves time on typing and gives you ideas on other artists, songs, etc. that you might not have thought about.
For a quick look at a particular music style, you can also click on one of the genres displayed on-screen. This selection is quite limited and we'd have liked to see a lot more options. Unfortunately, there's no way to search by genre using the search box -- this addition would make MP3jam an even more useful tool for discovering new music. That said, MP3jam still manages to serve up plenty of results using the genres available.


Downloading: one of the most standout features of MP3jam is its download facility. You can choose to either download single songs or whole albums. The app does this by extracting the audio stream from a YouTube video in real-time and creating an MP3 file on your computer. MP3jam does a good job of finding the highest bitrate available for songs. Most downloads are good quality, however this will always depend on what is available on YouTube at the time.
You can also download complete albums using MP3jam. This is a one-click process that is a great time-saver as opposed to manually compiling an album. This function works well and the correct album art is also downloaded too. However, after using the app for a while you may see this feature with a mystifying padlock symbol. Clicking on this brings up a 'Buy' button making you think that this might suddenly be crippleware, and not completely free after all. However, the 'Buy' button actually points to a free unlock code (on MP3jam's website) rather than you having to pay a fee. We would have liked this button to read 'Free Unlock Code' for example rather than 'Buy' as it could deter users from continuing to use MP3jam.

 

 

Conclusion

If you're looking for a free desktop application that will transform videos into audio, then MP3jam does an excellent job. You can use the app to either stream free and legal music, or use it as a YouTube to MP3 downloader. The program sports some great features such as a flexible search system, but falls a little short on making it easy for the user to search by genre. Playlists would have also been a nice addition to enable the organization of found music and MP3 downloads.


The sound quality of streams and downloads via MP3jam are generally very good, with MP3s being generated from the highest bitrate available on YouTube. One of the most standout features is being able to download whole albums. This facility works well, but you may see a 'Buy' button appear on future album downloads. This simply points to a free unlock code on MP3jam's website, but could deter some users in using this app.
Overall, MP3jam is a good desktop software program for Windows that gives you a way to listen to songs on YouTube and download them without the visuals.

Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Digital Music Guide

Source: http://mp3.about.com/od/audiotools/fr/Mp3jam-Review-Convert-Youtube-Videos-To-Mp3-Downloads.htm


Another Review from a1-downloads.phpnuke.org:

MP3jam is a P2P utility which allows you to download unlimited MP3 tracks as well as music albums in a moment.
With this utility you will be able to search and get MP3 files in an easy way, without the need of introducing weird codes or waiting for hours till the programs connect to an available server.
As an exclusively specialized in music software, MP3Jam guarantees good quality audios , and it only includes files that suite this requirement. Nevertheless, if your experience with other tools has made you a little bit suspicious, this program allows you to hear a version of the song while downloading it so you know you are getting exactly what you are looking for.

Some useful functions

Although it is free software, as soon as you download it you will see that it is not only complete and effective, but also does not fail at providing a good and trustful service. MP3Jam downloads music files or albums in just seconds.
However, this program not only transfers songs into your computer, MP3Jam also allows you to listen to them by streaming. Thanks to its multi-thread technology, you will be able to download multiple songs at a time, or even whole music albums.
Another feature this program includes is the possibility of sharing your own downloads or the music you are listening to on social networks such as Twitter or Facebook.

Similar programs

Nowadays, peer to peer utilities to download all sorts of files are booming, so you will find many alternatives to MP3Jam. For instance, the most common program for listening music in streaming is Spotify; however it does not include the option of downloading the songs you are listening to.
Another possibility is Ares, a P2P software which presents itself as one of the faster downloading tools. Nevertheless, Ares does not include the option of listening to music in streaming but lets the user download movies, programs or other files.

Features

Here you can check the main features of this application:
  • Streaming music service
  • You can get the online files in your computer
  • Pretty updated
  • No need of external plugins or players
  • No advertisements
  • It integrates some functions for your social networks
  • Detailed and easy interface
  • Export the audio from the videos
If you want to check more features about this program visit its official website .

Conclusion

If you are searching to listen and download good quality songs in just seconds and do not want to be fooled, then MP3Jam is the software you have been looking for. Get in the touch with the music you like on a dime.

Source: https://a1-downloads.phpnuke.org/en/c386176/mp3jam-free-download-full-review