There’s a new version of Songbeat, a simple but powerful desktop application for discovering music online, and I like it. When it was first released earlier this year, the client only enabled you to search for music online using Seeqpod, but the updated version lets you search more engines at once and also lets you easily play, export and download songs.
The music industry will be interested to know that the new iteration of Songbeat supports integrated search for Seeqpod, Project Playlist, SpoolFM, iASK ‘and more’. You can use the client to listen to music over the web, or listen and record straight from Last.fm. Music files can be directly exported to iTunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp or burnt on a CD, and you can download tracks or albums straight from the internet, or even a complete genre or artist thanks to integration with Mixtape. Songbeat even automatically tags your music files with lyrics and album cover art when you download them from the net.
The German company behind the Songbeat player offers the desktop app for free, so you can find and listen to as much music as you want, but you can only download 25 times. An upgrade would cost you 19.99 Euros (or $ 29.9), for which you’d get unlimited downloads.
Note that it only works on Windows XP and Vista for now. A Mac and iPhone version are under development, and should be ready by the end of the first quarter of next year.
And what about copyright infringement? Songbeat’s answer:
The downloading of music is not fundamentally illegal. However, it lies in the hands of the user to discern whether or not they have the right to download the particular music file at hand.
Oh, ok then.
You just know the RIAA will try to kill this.
This is not legal. They will be in court or shut down in the next 3-6 months I think. I have written a review over at http://routenot...ng-soon-enough/ Take a look and would be great to hear your thoughts. RouteNote is aimed to help musicians get coverage and actually make money from their music. Songbeat is just about profiting from others.
Are You kidding me? This is legal?!
Downloading songs from the “Internet”?
George, it is absolutely legal. Songbeat is 100% accurate; the act of downloading a music file is not illegal. It’s the downloading of copyrighted material that is illegal. It is not Songbeat’s responsibility to police and enforce the law. They are providing a tool to help users discover legal music – if the end user violates that Terms of Use Songbeat provides, Songbeat cannot and should not be held liable…
Now I’m a realist – of course Songbeat knows most of their traffic will come from piracy. But that’s not the point. Of course lawsuits will follow, and Songbeat better be willing to step into the ring with the recording industry. But when it comes down to brass tacks, they have a sound ToU, a sound legal statement, and a sound case.
To say Songbeat should not exist because of the legalities would be like saying YouTube shouldn’t exist.
Actually, it’s the upload rather than the download which is regulated. Copyright regulates distributors.
The downloader is never infringing. The uploading site is sometimes infringing — it lies in the hands of the the uploading site to discern whether or not they have the right to distribute the particular music file at hand.
George, I’m confused! What makes you think that downloading songs from the internet is illegal?
Kudos for Songbeat! This is very helpful and this is what I’m looking for so long. Simpler, and easier!
will there be a mac version available soon?
Yes, Q1 2009. Updated the post.
I sense a lawsuit coming on…
They are definitely gonna get sued by RIAA btw your answer :
“The downloading of music is not fundamentally illegal. However, it lies in the hands of the user to discern whether or not they have the right to download the particular music file at hand.”
is very entertaining in some strange sense.
if i download MP3s of an album that i have as CD/vinyl, that wouldnt be illegal…
Actually, it would, remember that my.mp3.com was found guilty of supplying mp3 streams to users who had the physical CD already.
Those Desktop applications are great, but not for illegal material.
I tried it. Suffers from nil-to-nebulous documentation. By the time I’d spent 30 minutes getting to know it, I’d used up ‘my’ 25 download max and got hassled to upgrade to the pay version. I didn’t even want the 25 – I was just seeing how the ‘record’ function worked and though I’d stopped the record after a few seconds, I found out later that it downloaded the whole track. The Last FM radio has always been pretty crap. You start off wanting a pre-war blues mix and 6 tracks later you’re listening to ambient Fripp.
agreed
and a search for some reasonable artists produced dismal results, very disappointing.
the radio did not understand the genre search, the “ban” this track didn’t work and i was being force fed muzak
terrible.
Cool app. You should also check out Sucubus. It works with videos too and lets you convert youtube videos to mp3. pretty useful.
thanks for the post
oh yeah the url is http://www.sucub.us
Free abundant low bitrate music for all…
Does anyone care about quality anymore?
Songbeat, no. Songbird, yes! I don’t know why anyone would bother with this when Songbird’s open source music player is leaps and bounds better.
http://getsongbird.com/
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i wonder if the ips are logged
I thought actually mamake king copies of music that is copyrighted is illegal, not making software that lets you record or download songs. Saying this application is against the law is like saying a the ability to copy and paste in a browser is breaking the law…its just not so until the user actually copies and pastes copyrighted material.
Dan-O’s Free MP3 Blog
http://www.dano....com/music_blog