Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and music

Best of the Web of Sound 09

Potomac Avenue — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:46:58 -0800

What are some amazing virally-disseminated music songs from the internet from 2009? Every year I put together a blog post of "the list of the best/weirdest/catchiest internet-disseminated and -popularized songs from this year. They don't necessarily have to have been recorded this year, nor do they have to have an amusing video or animation associated with them, though that certainly is a major bonus.

The more obscure and memey the better: I'm not looking for just the most popular, though I can guarantee Kutiman's Thru-U is probably #1.

Thanks in advancement!

the difference it makes

four panels — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:29:22 -0800

Sort of looking for an Internet Radio Stream that plays kompakt pop/ambient kind of stuff. Thank you!

How to make the music stop skipping?

st starseed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:44:10 -0800

Calling all network experts...How can I make the music on my PC stop skipping? Greetings...okay, trying to provide all relevant details: My main PC in my den/playroom stores my entire MP3 collection. It's a fine computer, and I never have any issues playing music on it.

It is one of two PCs on my home's wireless network.

The other PC on the network is out in the living room. It's a perfectly fine, not-ancient (2005 or so) laptop hooked up to my home theater system with a sole purpose of playing music through said system.

Yet whenever it's playing, about three times per song (so about once every 90 or so seconds), the song will just stop and then pick right back up about 2 seconds later. It's almost like a buffering effect...the music is playing, then it disappears, then it's back.

Does anyone know why this is happening, and if there's any way to fix it?

Potentially key details:

1. The MP3s are not stored on the laptop; they are stored on the main PC...which shares them with the laptop. (I like it this way so I only have to maintain one library.)

2. There's a wall between the den and the living room.

3. Both machines run Windows XP (fully updated with service packs, etc.).

4. The cable modem and router are always going strong.

How to make the Mac play nice with my Sansa?

reenum — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:49 -0800

How to sync Macbook with a non-iPod MP3 player? I have a Sansa e250, and I love it. I also love my new Mac. However, I've been having a small issue with syncing music onto the Sansa.

On my old Windows machine, I used to have a Sansa folder on my hard drive and then would just sync both folders each week using a program called Allway Sync, which removed listened to MP3's and added on the new stuff I'd downloaded that week.

With the Mac, I can't find a similar program, possibly due to the dominance of iTunes.

So, Hive Mind, is there a program or method I can use to get this functionality on my Mac?

Spotify & Internet Radio?

nam3d — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:23:35 -0800

I am a keen user of Spotify which I use religiously, I am also the proud owner of a Revo iBlik RadioStation which allows me to listen to thousands of internet radio stations. I'd like to figure out someway to listen to the music from Spotify on my radio station without any wires. One way I thought I could get around this is set up my own 'radio station' on my computer and stream it to my radio. What software (on the mac (10.5) would you reccomend me using to stream spotify, and is this at all possible?

Thanks.

To podcast or not to podcast?

frosty_hut — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:22:33 -0800

How to persuade a local radio arts and music station that they should podcast? I'm a newbie at a radio station. I host a music channel that's one of a couple of others the station offers online. So it's available on HD and also from their web site.

The host of one of the other online channels, Alexa, offers interviews with artists and local mover-shakers. From what I can tell, the managers would like the channel to take off but it's been slow going.

We recently heard from a listener who said she loved the idea of an arts conversation channel, and was particularly interested in an interview with a certain artist. She knew the interview was in that audio somewhere, but she didn't have time to listen to the channel for hours in order to find it. Meanwhile, there was no information on the main web site regarding what time the interview would be playing on the air (or online), so she became discouraged and didn't want to keep listening.

I thought this looked like a huge red flag. Currently there is no web content at all associated with the interview channel--it's just a clickable link, with no clue to content, times of interviews or music, etc. This is an on online channel, but there's no information about it online. It seems to me that podcasting would help enormously. A list of labeled links with the names of the artists would be easy to produce. And podcasts aren't brain surgery. People expect content on demand, they're familiar with the technology, and it's just a no brainer.

So I typed out a simple email in response to the listener's question, and asked everyone: If the listener can't find the interview, why not make it available as a podcast from the main web site?

Alexa replied with a lengthy defense of why Podcasts Are Bad. People will only stay for a minute if they see a podcast link, whereas she wants to draw people in for one thing, and keep them there for all the other stuff on the channel.

I can see why that's desirable, but I don't think podcasting would prevent that result. If a person who only wants the Hot Young Star interview leaves the site after listening to it, he wasn't going to stick around anyway. And in the meantime, you've still got your regular listeners who benefit from the added, easy to find content. Plus, you've added a hit to your page count. Once people who are searching for that famous person start finding our site, it can only swell page hits, which I know they're keeping track of.

I'm a newbie and a part-timer, and maybe Alexa thinks I'm a wet-behind-the-ears jerk. I still think this is a rational suggestion. Anyway, the fate of my own channel is at stake too. If everything we offer looks good to people, they're more likely to stick around long enough to click on my section of the site.

Any suggestions on how to spin this more effectively?

Best of the Web of Sound

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:32:27 -0800

What are some amazing virally-disseminated music songs from the internet from 2008? I'm putting together a list of the best/weirdest/catchiest internet-disseminated and -popularized songs from this year. They don't necessarily have to have been recorded this year (so Sonseed is definitely on the list), nor do they have to have an amusing video or animation associated with them, though that certainly is a major bonus. I'm JIMP in anticipation of your fantastic answers!

Tabs with No Ads

ageispolis — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:35:37 -0800

What are your favourite non-general guitar tab/chord sites? I'm tired of the inaccuracy of fretplay, ultimate-guitar, and all of that other shit out there that litters every google search and usually leads to:

1. the tab you're looking for, but completely off the mark in transcription
2. the tab, albeit incomplete and hidden underneath a blanket of ads
3. some video of a guy teaching you how to play a james blunt song

etc, etc.

For example, www.dylanchords.info offers excellent transcriptions of almost every Bob Dylan song. Anyone know of any other resources like this? I'm specifically looking for a Rolling Stones one, or any blues/folk for that matter. But any site that's not 911tabs, or any of those other sites, is welcome, be it classical, spanish, or what have you.

Please recommend some 24/7 classical music internet radio streams that never feature Fred Child.

Your Time Machine Sucks — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:35:17 -0800

Please recommend some 24/7 classical music internet radio streams that never feature Fred Child. Not his fault, but his voice goes into my ear and takes a shortcut to the irrational anger center of my brain. I like to code while having some classical music on, and ideally some regional American voices occasionally describing what I just heard, but I don't really care for the generic US "cultured" media accent that sounds like a combination between a Californian with strange diction, a gram of soma, and a smiling baby. In the last couple of weeks I was listening to the WGBH HD radio stream, when he came on, at which point I switched to Minnesota Public Radio, which slightly later on ran a Fred Child segment, at which point I found another station, with the predictable outcome the next day. There seems to be some kind of broadcast franchise situation there which I'm guessing is NPR-related.

So, please recommend some classical music streams to me, best case scenario a 24/7 radio station with actual radio-voice-having DJs, US regional accents a plus. If the assertion that there are US regional accents or that someone would enjoy them makes you feel an exciting urge to speak you're branes, skip this one!

Thanks for your recommendations!

Hard Rock Hallelujah Fail.

zackola — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:53:55 -0800

Where did I get this picture of a priest rocking out on a Fender Stratocaster from originally? I'm a moron and when I changed web hosts a while ago, failed to take some image files with me. They are backed up nowhere. Anyhow, one of the images was this priest rocking out on a black and white Fender Stratocaster, in what looks like a church. I LOL captioned it. You can see the thumbnail on google image search by looking up

hard rock hallelujah

Is there any way for me to get the full size image out of google's cache? And if that's not an option, can anyone help me find a copy of the original (before I captioned it). Checked lots of google images and macrochan.org, but not coming up with anything. Thanks for helping out a dumbass (me).

Where are the music videos?

god particle — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:51:17 -0800

Where on the internet can I watch/download high quality music videos?

Home Stereo of the Future, revisted

rouftop — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:34:15 -0800

Looking for a home stereo setup that supports internet radio, traditional radio, CD's and MP3's without a computer in the middle. My wife and I want to buy a nice home stereo system that can handle both the old and the new. This earlier thread from 2005 asks very similar questions to what I'm looking for, but a lot can change in three years.

My wife enjoys listening to internet radio stations using iTunes, but she hates having to leave her computer on when she's just listening to music. She also has an iPod which she uses to listen to audiobooks while at the gym, but sometimes she wants to continue them at home without having to put on earphones. And of course we still have / buy CD's. (heck, sometimes my wife pulls out cassette tapes from high school!)

Ideally it'd also be able to handle surround sound and speakers in different rooms in the house.

Any suggestions?

Collaborating On Music Live Over The Internet?

sparkletone — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:10:29 -0800

I want to collaborate in real time (or not far off) on some music with someone who lives far away from me. I am working on a project with someone in another country. We've traded files back and forth a bit. However, that's proven to be somewhat limiting for a couple reasons. If we can find a way, it would be better to set things up so that he can hear (and possibly even see) what it is I'm doing in something approaching real time.

I know I can route audio from whatever program I'm using in to Skype, but I think the sound quality when doing that would not be worth it. I also have a copy of Nicecast, and can set up a stream that the other person can listen to while we work. I've streamed DJ sets to small groups of friends before, but I kept the stream there relatively low-quality. So, I'm not sure what kind of sound quality I can get from a Shoutcast stream before lag becomes an issue on either end.

Does anyone have any suggestions for doing this sort of thing?

As far as seeing what I'm doing goes: Does anyone know of a good cross-platform way to show the other person what's on my screen? I'm on a Mac, which I know has built-in VNC stuff, but I've never tried to make that work over the Internet, just on my home wifi. Tips on doing that? Recommendations for PC VNC clients?

what are some excellent places on then internet to talk about music?

messiahwannabe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:43:51 -0800

i want to find some good music forums online. i'm a musician/dj, and i live in the 3rd world. thus, i dont get to hear a lot of new music in random places (clubs, stores, record shops, radio stations etc) like i would in a big city or college town. the best way i've found to keep up with various music scenes, as well as finding good random recommendations, is through music forums, such as this one:

forums.SOHH.com

however, i'm pretty dissapointed with the results i'm getting from google. the above forum seems ok, but none of the ones i've found seem as good as the few i used to hang out on (before they changed for various reasons)

i figure it's probably a word-of-keyboard thing, so i'm asking you guys if you can recommend some good ones. i'm specifically looking for a good forum for each of the following genres/concepts:

1. rap/r&b
2. dance music (house/electro/minimal/d&b etc)
3. indie/alternative
4. world music
5. professional musicians talking about their jobs

ideally they would cover both popular and obscure/edgy ends of the genre spectrum (though one for mainstream and one for edgy would be ok) and be populated by interesting, friendly, knowledgable people with better stuff to do than start flame wars or spam me with ads.

i'm sure they're out there! any ideas?

ps. i did google "genrename forum" for each genre, and wasn't too impressed after digging around in the sites towards the top of the results - i basically spent an entire evening googling, clicking and bookmarking, but didn't come up with any forums that really wowed me. though if i'm being too hasty to dismiss something obvious, feel free to let me know i'm not giving it enough of a chance.

Internet Sound and Music Recorder!

Wayman Tisdale — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:54:30 -0800

Can you explain to a non-computer nerd the best way to record music from the internet? It seems to me that there must be a way of recording the sound from say, a You-tube clip or a music video that I play on the internet, and then it somehow gets converted to a mp3 or something that I can then play on itunes or burn on a CD. I call this device or program "An Internet Sound and Music Recorder." So, where can I get such a device/program? And also which one gives really great sound quality?

Yes, I am sure that this question has been asked previously. But I couldn't understand any of the answers I found, so I am asking you. I know nothing about computers or technology but I do know that I like music.

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet?

Lockeownzj00 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:56:34 -0800

Are there any essays or studies naming and analyzing the concept of 'freedom' as developed on the internet? What I mean to say is, there seems to be a strain of ideology that is prevalent amongst serious Internet users: in this highly utopic fashion, it says that things "should" be free. Software "should" be free, operating systems "should" be free, filesharing "should" be free, music "should" be free*. My question is:

What is the source of this? Why are people so easily motivated to become part of it? How does it differ from political ideologies which are so similar and yet so reviled (communism/anarchism)? How has it inoculated itself and separated itself from the bad stigma of aforementioned ideologies?

I know there have been sociological studies on "da internet" before, but I'm looking for something particularly on this topic. If you've any ideas yourself, feel free to contribute.

*not that i disagree with any of this. i'd number myself with them. which is precisely why i want to know why i think this way.

Where can I find bpm databases?

ageispolis — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:29:45 -0800

On the prowl for online databases that list BPMs of popular music. When remixing and sampling popular music, it's handy to know the BPM of the song you're working with. This askmefi question solves that problem by providing software that can analyze songs and determine the BPM automatically. However, I am not getting the accuracy I need to synchronize and layer material. Tap Tempo sometimes works as you tap the tempo manually, however, for some songs this can be a struggle for accuracy (especially when the tempo has decimals in it).

With all that out of the way, I am looking for databases, archives, text files, forum threads, or anything that lists a large selection of songs with their respective BPMs.

This particular thread offers a ton of hip-hop BPM's which is perfect for when you have the vocal track of a popular rap song and you want to create a mash-up or whatever your remixing heart desires.

Other than that, the only real resource I've found is the BPM Database which doesn't have a whole lot yet, although it's been helpful in one or two occasions.

Obviously it's difficult to find a comprehensive list of the BPM of every song in the history of popular music but the more resources bookmarked the better. Thanks for your help.

indie music ahoy!

gilsonal — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:54:46 -0800

any suggestions on how i can get an indietorrent invite code without knowing anybody already on the site? Id love a good way to get an idea of whats going on in the indie music scene. I have a tv torrent invite but I'm not sure if there are sites out there that people swap them on? Thanks!

So I'm starting a podcast.

bamassippi — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:51:38 -0800

So I'm starting a podcast. I'm beginning a podcast and I want to do put on the most professional show... but with a limited budget.

I own a new-er Toshiba computer with most of the bells-n-whistles. What recording software should I use? Do I need to download software? I want to insert snipets of songs from my iTunes list.

...basically anything I need to know will help.

I need my music fix!

tdreyer1 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 07:17:10 -0800

Poor student needs music service suggestions. Ok Mefites, come help a poor(ish) student out. I love music, but I don't really want to pay a buck per song on iTunes. What ( legal ) music services out there offer downloads cheaper than iTunes. More specifically I'm looking for a monthly (yearly is ok) subscription that will get me the most songs for my money. What I'm not looking for are internet only services like Pandora, or illegal sources like limewire. Bonus points if I can use the files on any computer easily. Thanks!

How HTML met Email

provolot — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 04:47:25 -0800

Email to Web? Or, help me play songs on my computer with my cellphone. On a whim last night, I thought, "wouldn't it be nice to play songs on my computer, queued from my cellphone?" To have a favorite song waiting as I walk in from a rainy day.. et cetera.

Anyhow inspired by that, I whipped up a quick hack: a cronjob running a program that downloads a file off the internet, checks via md5 whether it has been updated, and if it has, grabs the string containing the song name and uses applescript to play via iTunes. (I'm on a Mac.) So far it works, except for the file off the internet part -- I've been using dodgeit.com for anonymous email, so I can send a text message to the email address, there's no authentication process and therefore the rss file can be accessible with a shell script.

The problem is that the anonymous email has a long (read:5min) delay in recieving emails for this to be any real fun. I'm sure it's the anonymous delay, because gmail recieves email-texts sent from my phone almost instantaneously.

-----

Long story short -- I need to be able to somehow post an email on the internet, as a text file preferably -- but somehow so I can access it without having to hop through any touchy authentication processes.

Any ideas how I can do this?

Thanks!

P2P client with Magnet Protocol?

horseblind — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:53:25 -0800

Can you recommend a P2P client that uses the Magnet Protocol? There are many that use the Magnet Protocol (Limewire, Gnutella, Kazaa, etc.) I need a recommendation for one of them. My use is as follows: I collect and share many live concerts. Live Music Archive allows use of clients with Magnet Protocol to download the files. This would be an easy and convenient way to get these files. A secondary use would be to download the odd song that is out of print and I can't seem to find a copy to buy or that I might want to sample and can't find a sample via Amazon etc. And a tertiary use might be to download shows for timeshifted viewing. I do not want something that is loaded with spyware, adware, malware, etc.

Internet radio streaming of full albums etc.

empedia — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:26:03 -0800

Short and simple. I'm interested in finding out if there are any internet radio stations which broadcast full albums. Alternatively any free/pay services which allow you to listen online to full albums rather than just individual tracks. I'm not at this point interested in buying music just listening to it. Please bear in mind I am in the UK and services such as Rhapsody etc. aren't available here AFAIK. Many thanks.

Show me their money!

Mutant — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:32:41 -0800

How much does Apple Computer gross for every dollar spent on iTunes? I'm taking an Executive MBA, and one of my case studies is focused on digital music distribution in general, and iTunes specifically. I'm trying to find Apple's gross margin because I'm really interested in the Label's share of each $1. I've got access to Lexis/Nexis and a variety of academic database's, but haven't been able to find this information. I could probably noodle out a guess from Appple's annual report, and I'm currently slogging my way through their most recent 10K, but would prefer to benefit from someone else's work in this regard.

Anyone got a citable source?

Best rap blogs

fijiwriter — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:26:50 -0800

Looking for the best blogs or other online informative websites aimed at the growing rap and hip-hop community of listeners. What are the sites you read for news, record launches, upcoming concerts, gossip, etc.?