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Free, legal and music streaming are words which you don’t often hear together…until now.  Spotify is a free program that you can download.  It lets you stream (listen to) millions of songs for free!!  You could type in loads of current bands and find all their albums ready to listen to.  You’ve also got all the golden oldies there for your pleasure if that floats your boat.  The only catch is that you have an advertisement every 30 minutes or so.  But for what you’re getting it is well worth it!

Its really simple to use too!  Just download the software, register and then you’re ready to start listening.  When you want to listen to music just log in, search a song/album/artist and click play!

Spotify has many great features available:

• Searches – it remembers your recent searches and compiles them in a list on the left-hand side (see image for example).
• Top Lists – Check out what songs everyone else is listening to in Top Lists.  It shows you a list of the most popular songs and albums in your country and the entire world.
• Radio – Select the decade and genre then Spotify generates a playlist of great songs from that era for your listening pleasure.
• Playlists – Make your own playlist from your favourite songs on Spotify
• Play Queue – Add albums and songs to your Play Queue to save searching for a new song every time one finishes!

If you really like Spotify you can buy their ‘Day Pass’ or ‘Premium’ Package.  The Day Pass allows you to 24 hour access with no ad’s for just 99p!!  The Premium Package will set you back £9.99 per month but gets you unlimited access with Spotify invites and no Ad’s!

Like the idea of Spotify?  Want to find out more?  In which case check out their Website, their Video or post us a comment!

Searchme is a Search Engine like no other.  The physical search is the same but the style in which the results are presented is completely different.  The results are shown in what I can only describe as like a cover flow view similar to iTunes.  You can search the web, videos, images and music.  To make your web searches more specific you can type in what you wish to search and a genre for that search.

The Music Search is something we really like, you can listen to full length  songs for free, and if you really like the tune there is a link to the song on iTunes and Amazon.  The Video Search searches the web (in particular YouTube) for videos specific to your search.  You can then either watch the video direct from the original website or through Searchme.  With having the flow for pictures it is much easier to view images and choose one right for you.

Another cool site which is similar to this is Viewzi.  However, we have found Viewzi slow and to not have delivered as good results as Searchme.  The reason Viewzi is slower is because it searches through other websites search engines.

What do you think of Searchme?  Know any other cool ways to search the web?

Brandstar have recently released a brand new Software page!  The software page attempts to tackle the problem of not knowing which software is worth buying and downloading.  After all, there are so many options to choose from!  It covers a variety of both free and commercial products in the genres of Computer Security, Media, Office Applications and System Tools.

It’s worth checking out!

Apple have released the latest version of the music software iTunes.  iTunes isn’t something we give much time to but credit has to be given to Apple really because it is a brilliant bit of kit and if you have an iPod it works seemlessly. Allowing you to fully manage your music, videos and podcasts!

Their latests version I have to say I am very impressed with, which is why I thought it warrented a mention in today’s tip!  I haven’t played with it properly but iTunes Genius claims it can create great playlists based on the song you are listening to! So far I have been impressed but let me know what experiences you have had!

The other thing they have done is changed the way we browse our music, implementing a grid view which is far more graphical that the old big long list!

But this is a quick tip…head over to the Apple iTunes Site and download it for yourself, or just read about it

Enjoy!

I think a large majority of us have downloaded a track or two in the past before buying it but there are some who download a little more than one or two tracks!

You are probably aware from the press this week that the government is talking about plans to require Internet Service Providers to take action on users that are downloading music and films illegally. Will it happen? I will believe it when I see it, however I do think it would be a good thing!

People just say that the record labels and some artists are just being greedy but in my opinion they are working for that money and none of us would be hugely impressed if we weren’t getting money for work we were doing!

After listening to a show about this on the radio during the week I thought I would share some of the “excuses” that people give for downloading illegally and my responses!

• I don’t want to spend money on a whole album when I only like a few of the tracks.
  • Download legally from somewhere like iTunes then!
• Record labels and artists are loaded, they don’t need the money
  • True there are some very rich artists and record companies, and I believe it is their responsibility to use that money wisely and generously. Not our right to prevent them from having it. Plus what about the little record labels and new artists…
• I have an 80GB iPod and it would cost thousands of pounds to fill it.
  • So over time spend the money or don’t have a full iPod. The 80GB iPod has the ability to have movies on it as well as music and photos so how about putting some pictures of your loved ones on there. <note sarcasm>

Ok, so my responses might be a bit harsh there, but I just thought those excuses were the ridiculous!

My advice…get itunes and an iPod and start downloading a few at a time! If you are used to downloading all the latest albums as soon as they are released then it is time for a change of mind unless you have a large amount of disposable cash!