Streampad is a Web-based media player that gives users access to their digital music library from any computer. Similar to Songbird, it streams your personal library from the Internet but it runs completely inside any browser.
Streampad is a free service. Users download a Java desktop application that stores the metadata from all MP3 and AC3 files (protected and unprotected) it finds on your computer, including those that come from iTunes. Then, when that same user logs into Streampad from another computer, they can listen to music streamed directly from their home computer.
“The song is streamed from your own computer when you request it,” said Daniel Kantor, founder of Streampad. “When you run the Java program, it continues to run and act like a Web server so the request is going to your own system. It’s like how a peer-to-peer system would work. As you’re choosing the music, all that info is coming from Streampad, my server, but when you play that music, it comes from your computer.”
So users have to leave their home computer on in order to access their library remotely, which is not preferable for everyone. Or users with an MP3tunes account can store their music on MP3tunes and then log into MP3tunes through Streampad and play music from their “locker.”
There is a social referral aspect to the service but it’s not as good as Last.fm. Basically users can see who is streaming music and what they are listening to. If the file is a public file on the Web, like say for example, a podcast, then clicking on the URL would allow me to listen to what my friend is listening to. If it is not public but I also have it in my library, I can click on the song and Streampad will find my copy for me. If neither of these things are true but I still want to listen to what my friend is listening to, it’s up to me to go out and find it via iTunes, or some other way.
Streampad was created and funded by Kantor using PHP and MySQL as a database. It has been live for a year but Kantor officially launched a version he is proud of in May. There are approximately 5,000 users so far.
I wonder if the Java app takes a lot of memory?
It doesnt really matter Gaurav!
“it runs completely inside any browser.”
“Users download a Java desktop application”
o_O
“It doesnt really matter Gaurav!”
As far as I understand, the java app will run in background and stream music. If it is lightweight as Shoutcast, it would be good.
Also, streaming quality would depend on your home internet connection.
Its cool and Dan is cool. Great widget.
why dont they offer sth similar to mp3tunes? not everyone will open their pc open just to be able to listen to their music library from other computer.
why cant i listen to the song that other user is listening to a lot? cant they set up sth like preview play? sometimes you dont remember the name of song but you recall it when it plays…
btw, what is the policy of streaming music to the web, i mean generally, with what kind of license do i have to buy a song to be able to let my visitors listen to it whenever they want. i mean just listen, not download or copy.
by sth similar to mp3tunes i meant storing copy of my library on their servers.
Sounds good - but my BIG question, which you havent address Natali is BANDWIDTH ?
I can imagine that streaming songs from a PC is extremely bandwidth intensive?
If the computer acts as a “web-server” does this mean that you have to pay for both uploading and downloading bandwidth?
OR only uploading and Streampad pays downloading?
If you have to pay for all the bandwidth, not sure about it ? Rather just take my ipod with me…………………
elvirs - try our Tunefeed product if you want to stream music to the web in general. Tunefeed handles all licenses and royalty payments for you. Tunefeed also allows you to upload music to a locker on our servers - so you don’t need to leave a home machine turned on.
Tunefeed and the whole faces.com site is getting a new coat of paint in a few weeks too, so your photo sharing and music sharing will be a more pleasant experience - not that it is bad now of course
A link to Tunefeed might help :-)- for music sharing try http://www.tunefeed.com
For a long time I wanted something like this. Now I think Pandora and Ipods have pretty much made me give up on trying to build my own library and making it available elsewhere.
I expect that eventually no one will have their own MP3 files as the value of subscribing to a service and getting your preferred songs on all of your chosen devices seamlessly will far outweigh the value of having it on your own drives.
Way Way back when Winamp was just a baby, someone wrote a plug in for it that let you control winamp from a web page that was generated by the plug-in’s built in web browser - a nightmare of a security risk but an idea ahead of its time. I used this and another plug in that would stream whatever I was listening to as a stream I could play from my winamp at the office. Combine this with some DynamicDNS magic and viola! all my music at the office. This worked well for about a week, as the stars had to align perfectly for it all to work well.
Fast forward a bit and a company called Mediacode launched Muse.net - it was amazing, just what I needed it was a service that coordinated all these things for me. I wonder why they went away, if they could have kept their doors open for one more year, they could have been great today.
Their old page circa 2004 is archived here - http://web.archive.org/web/200...../muse.net/
So I have been looking at this problem for a long time and if their homepage gets a little sexier, I may check out StreamPad - but in the meantime where is my Pandora in Random…
Don’t get this idea.
If user has to leave his computer on and runs a web server just for streaming purpose, it will pose some serious security threats. Who knows how secure the java web server is.
And if the computer is behind a firewall, most users don’t know how to set up port mapping for the web server.
A nice alternative is VibeStreamer: http://www.vibestreamer.com/
However it is Windows-only.
Larry, I think that’s a decent insight. I had a friend saying almost as much the other day, and I doubt it’s far off.
Peter, that contradiction sort of screamed out to me too.
Overall, this space appears to have some potential, but will have a lot more if it can be dumbed down more. Damn I always feel like I’m underestimating the consumer, but a pessimistic intuition of this kind seems correct fairly often
this isn’t like songbird at all; songbird is built with XUL and C++ using mozilla browser as a base.
Dan from Streampad here. Thanks to Natali and Techcrunch for writing. I’ll try and answer some of your questions and concerns below.
Gaurav - The Desktop app is a lightweight Java application that runs in the background. You most likely will not even notice it.
Rick - It’s not a contradiction. Streampad is fully functional without the Desktop app. You can listen to a ton of music from the web, whether it be from podcasts, mp3blogs, concerts or your online locker.
elvirs - Streampad can access your locker from MP3Tunes. If you do not want to run the Desktop or keep your computer on all day, then you can get a locker from MP3Tunes and play your music through Streampad.
Notsure - most people (in the US at least) do not pay for bandwidth. They pay a flat rate to their ISP and can upload as much data as they want. Not sure how it is in other parts of the world though.
Larry - I agree with you although I don’t think we are there yet. Most people still own their music and store it at home. But, I do think people will move towards storing their music in the cloud, whether it be a locker like MP3Tunes, or a subscription service like Rhapsody. We are positioning Streampad for both - locker is in there now, Rhapsody is coming soon. BTW - I believe Muse was sold to Yahoo a few years ago. I could be thinking about another product though. I hope you’ll check out Streampad. We have all of the DNS stuff down, no need to worry about that.
lemon - Streampad is like Songbird in the way it is meant to play the web, not in its underlying technology. Streampad treats URL’s as first-class sources of music and allows you to do some pretty cool stuff with them. Check out this screencast for an overview of the web section - http://www.streampad.com/screencast/web.html
There is also an application overview screencast here - http://www.streampad.com/screencast/overview.html
Dan,
Thanks for the clarification, always a classy move when the subject of a writeup responds here.
I didn’t mean to imply that you were putting out contradictory information, just that the wording of the post sort of “clashed” like stripes and polka-dots. Not an oversight on your part, possibly Natali’s, but even more likely a case of me needing to look at things more closely.
It’s’ too bad the site doesn’t work right now. I tried in I/E and Firefox and the site won’t load. Can’t register or click on any links.
Their logo looks a lot like Skype only shorter.
Winamp recently put out it’s own version of this called “Winamp Remote”. I tried it, and it’s as un-user friendly and poorly implemented as it is annoying to use. Which is a pity, as Winamp is my favourite media player (and has been for the past six years).
I think I’ll be using Streampad… at least until college blocks it that is.
What’s the advantage to this over using Orb? With a plug-in, Orb can play protected iTunes music, plus has streaming video / TV features?
Hmmm…I commented the same on another article this morning…Great…bout what the same functionality on my cell phone??
http://www.revafinancial.squarespace.com
With the advent of large USB drives, you can take your music with you anywhere there is a PC.
I do not believe in renting music, I do not believe in 30 second snippets, and I do not feel any of these music web sites that are creating a database about you and your downloaded music are worthwhile!
Thanks Jonathan but i already have tested faces”s tunefeed and did not like it much because using a tunefeed you can not listen to the song you want, you have to keep clicking on “next” till it comes to the song you want.
p.s. look at my tunefeed, i have embedded it to my googlepages testpage.
http://elvirs.googlepages.com/
Hi Elvirs, unfortunately your problem stems from the limitations from copyright rules and the licensing of music. If you don’t own the music - for example when one of your site visitors listens, they can’t select music “on demand” and you can’t reveal what music is “coming up next”.
I can’t speak for Streampad or other sites, but we comply with all the laws/rules/guidelines/complexities of music streaming including paying royalties to the recording industry.
If you want to listen to your own music in the order in which you create the Playlist (Tunefeed) just select “keep me logged in” on the Faces login page or login to Faces prior to listening to your music. That way you will always get music streaming to you in the order in which you created it and in high bitrate.
I also think you are going to like the new look Tunefeed player and features which will be released in a week or so.
I think this service is pretty cool. I just tried it out on my two home computers and it worked flawlessly. Interface is a little buggy but I can look past it. I even tried using songs I had bought from iTunes and had no problem.
To all those ppl that complain about leaving their computer on, I leave my computer on 24/7. I don’t understand why ppl turn their computers off.
Another option to try is SlimServer from the people that make the Squeezebox. You install a lightweight server on your pc, and can then access it anywhere through iTunes, Winamp, or any other audio player capbable of streaming music. There is also a nice web-based control panel and integration with Last.fm. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now and love it. It handles my 1.6Tb music library without any hiccups at all.
hi jonathan, that’s what i do when i am on faces.com…
yes, that policies of music industry does not let music to make its move on the web.
but, i think, that’s useless, music industry acted similarly when fm radio stations were coming up. they thought music sales will stop as the music is already for free on the radio but that did not happen.
i hope music on the internet will be more free…