Tunes in The Cloud
February 2, 2011 1:41 PM Subscribe
How can I listen to my music, anywhere?
I'd like to listen to my large music collection from my home computer, my work computer, and my iPhone. I have a large collection (~70GB) at home, and I can't listen to it on the go. I use (and pay for!) Pandora, instead, so I have something to listen to on my commute.
Ideally, I'd love a service that scanned my collection, kept track of what I own, and let me play it with an iPhone client, or a desktop client, or a web client, or whatever. Ideally, I wouldn't upload all 70GB of what I own, just the stuff that is more rare.
I don't mind paying for this.
Requirements:
- I don't want to host my own music/run my own streaming server.
- I don't want to make playlists, just shuffle through all my music.
Complications:
- I use (Ubuntu) Linux.
Bonuses:
- The service surfaces and allows me to discover new music.
- The service has social features of *some* sort.
- The service will scrobble what I listen to to Last.fm
- It can stream in stereo over 3G.
- Smart shuffling a la Pandora that doesn't jump from classical to punk rock, but instead transitions somewhat more smoothly through the genres.
- The company won't get sued out of existence, or acquired and shut down.
Does something like this exist yet? What are my options?
I'm looking at http://bitspace.at and http://audiobox.fm for now - is there anything else?
I'd like to listen to my large music collection from my home computer, my work computer, and my iPhone. I have a large collection (~70GB) at home, and I can't listen to it on the go. I use (and pay for!) Pandora, instead, so I have something to listen to on my commute.
Ideally, I'd love a service that scanned my collection, kept track of what I own, and let me play it with an iPhone client, or a desktop client, or a web client, or whatever. Ideally, I wouldn't upload all 70GB of what I own, just the stuff that is more rare.
I don't mind paying for this.
Requirements:
- I don't want to host my own music/run my own streaming server.
- I don't want to make playlists, just shuffle through all my music.
Complications:
- I use (Ubuntu) Linux.
Bonuses:
- The service surfaces and allows me to discover new music.
- The service has social features of *some* sort.
- The service will scrobble what I listen to to Last.fm
- It can stream in stereo over 3G.
- Smart shuffling a la Pandora that doesn't jump from classical to punk rock, but instead transitions somewhat more smoothly through the genres.
- The company won't get sued out of existence, or acquired and shut down.
Does something like this exist yet? What are my options?
I'm looking at http://bitspace.at and http://audiobox.fm for now - is there anything else?
I'm fairly obsessed with Rdio. I use it everyday on both of my computers and on my phone. It has social features, Last.FM scrobbling, allows you to sync songs to your mobile device, and has a large library of music. You won't be able to scan in your entire collection, though, just the stuff the service already has available. It's worth checking out the trial.
posted by naju at 2:01 PM on February 2, 2011
posted by naju at 2:01 PM on February 2, 2011
Response by poster: Rdio doesn't work for me for two reasons, as far as I can tell: I can't quite listen to all my music, and I can't randomly listen to music in my collection. There is no shuffle mode.
MusicWithMe seems to require iTunes. Also, it doesn't stream, it downloads. Also it requires playlists.
I've looked at Subsonic. The iOS apps don't exactly impress, and I'm not sure it has anything over BitSpace or AudioBox.
posted by bkudria at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2011
MusicWithMe seems to require iTunes. Also, it doesn't stream, it downloads. Also it requires playlists.
I've looked at Subsonic. The iOS apps don't exactly impress, and I'm not sure it has anything over BitSpace or AudioBox.
posted by bkudria at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2011
70 GB isn't a lot anymore. You can put it all on an iPod Classic, or on four or five 16GB MicroSD cards; put one in a $40 Sansa Clip and the rest in your wallet, and don't worry about media services, phone bils or dropped connectivity.
posted by mhoye at 4:35 PM on February 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 4:35 PM on February 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
You know, Grooveshark might work, but you would have to go through and add everything. I really wish they had a feature to match an itunes account to a Grooveshark account.
posted by Calypse at 4:53 PM on February 2, 2011
posted by Calypse at 4:53 PM on February 2, 2011
I am loving audiogalaxy. Don't know if it has a Linux install though.
posted by reddot at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2011
posted by reddot at 6:58 PM on February 2, 2011
I don't know if it meets your specific requirements (particularly the "not running a streaming server part") but I have a large music collection that I access pretty much everywhere on pretty much everything with ZumoCast. It's not limited to music, either.
Looks like they're making some enhancements to their download so service is temporarily unavailable for new users. It looks like it'll be back soon, though. It's totally free, btw.
Just my $.02.
posted by karizma at 8:37 PM on February 2, 2011
Looks like they're making some enhancements to their download so service is temporarily unavailable for new users. It looks like it'll be back soon, though. It's totally free, btw.
Just my $.02.
posted by karizma at 8:37 PM on February 2, 2011
I had a bad experience with grooveshark. It flagged a lot of files I had as "stolen" or "unauthorized" or whatever they term it and shut my account. I don't have files which weren't directly ripped from CD or downloaded either through a merchant or through a "download our new single free" link from the record company, but there is no appeals process that I could find.
This is what LaLa.com did before Apple bought it and shut it down. Readwriteweb suggested these alternatives, which I have not yet tried.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:05 AM on February 3, 2011
This is what LaLa.com did before Apple bought it and shut it down. Readwriteweb suggested these alternatives, which I have not yet tried.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:05 AM on February 3, 2011
Rdio does have a collection shuffle feature, but it is (somewhat) hidden. To get to it, go to your Collection Page and find the "Play Rdio Station" button/drop-down. There are options to select the length of playlist, and whether it should begin playing immediately or add songs from your collection to the current playlist.
posted by thadman at 11:44 AM on February 4, 2011
posted by thadman at 11:44 AM on February 4, 2011
Response by poster: Update:
I tried going with Bitspace, but I eventually settled on Rdio. Uploading 70GB over a slow connection isn't fun, so I just scanned my music and added it on Rdio manually (started with my favorite artists.)
The one thing I wish for a "Collection-wide Shuffle" on the mobile app. Everything else is actually pretty good. Thanks guys!
posted by bkudria at 12:19 PM on March 5, 2011
I tried going with Bitspace, but I eventually settled on Rdio. Uploading 70GB over a slow connection isn't fun, so I just scanned my music and added it on Rdio manually (started with my favorite artists.)
The one thing I wish for a "Collection-wide Shuffle" on the mobile app. Everything else is actually pretty good. Thanks guys!
posted by bkudria at 12:19 PM on March 5, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by iamabot at 1:43 PM on February 2, 2011