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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!

This Month’s Site Of The Month brings some very sad news…This will be the last ever Site Of The Month!  But don’t worry, we have come up with a NEW idea to replace Site Of The Month for the forthcoming year.  All will be revealed on 31st January 2009!  As it is the last ever Site Of The Month we have decided to give you a quick reminder of what our Site Of The Month’s have been over the past 12 months:

January: Xpanity

February: Eurosport

March: AllMusic

April: Moonpig

May: Bill Bailey

June: PetrolPrices.com

July: Number Logic

August: MSNBC Spectra Visual Newsreader

September: SU2C

October: Searchme

November: Money Saving Expert

Which website has been your favourite?  Let us know by commenting below!

I always think of this track at Christmas…important to think of others at Christmas and those less fortunate than ourselves. When the 2004 version came out I remember me and friends buying copies for all our family to support it! A great way to remind people of what is going on in other parts of the world!

and the 2004 version…

Over the past 12 days we’ve recommended 12 different retailers to you for Christmas present ideas.  As we are at the end of it all we thought it would be a good idea for us to do a quick review of who the 12 retailers were.

1. Apple
2. 123-Reg
3. Dell
4. Amazon
5. AVG
6. Misco
7. CD WOW
8. Dabs
9. HMV
10. PC World
11. The Carphone Warehouse
12. I Want One Of Those

Which retailers have you used?  Who is your favourite retailer?

The ninth retailer of Christmas is HMV.  HMV are mainly know for their shops spread around the country but they also have a good Internet order and delivery service.  They sell DVD’s, CD’s, Games, Blu-Ray and much more!  They also allow you to pre-order items so you can have them in your hand the day they are released for sale!  They always have some great deals going on so they are well worth a look!

Our fourth recommended retailer for Christmas presents is Amazon.co.uk! You name it, Amazon sell it! Amazon have a wide range of products available for very reasonable prices! Products vary from Books to DVDs to Cd’s to Games Accessories to Garden Equipment to Jewelry and much more! A great way to get your last minute presents is their voucher system where you can choose to either email, print off or have your vouchers posted to the recipient.

Check it out!

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?

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!

You may or may not realise that Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista piece of Ultimate includes Windows DVD Maker.  Windows DVD Maker is a software which enables you to create DVD’s which are not just personalised but look professional too!

You can add a variety of media, such as; pictures, music and movies.  However….the DVD Maker doesn’t support some media format, for example: it doesn’t support music file formats which itunes use.  A way to over come this problem is on itunes make a playlist of the tracks you would like on the DVD, make a copy of the playlist on a CD.  Then import the CD using Windows Media Player ensuring that you don’t protect the files because that would prevent from being used in the DVD Maker.  Then insert the tracks that you imported through Windows Media Player.  (Make sure you don’t break any copyright laws when doing this!)

The thing I found most fustrating in the DVD Maker was that your ability to modify the actual movie/slideshow was very limited.  You don’t have much influence on the chapter/scene organisation and the transition between features.  I suggest that if want to produce a detailed and very personalised DVD then produce the actual movie on Windows Movie Maker and then import it into Windows DVD Maker to produce the menu’s and the physical DVD.  I’ll take this moment to remind you that if you don’t have a DVD burner you won’t be able to put the movie onto the disc.

You can download Windows Movie Maker for free for Vista or for XP.

Some ideas for using DVD Maker:

• Make a holiday DVD
• Birthday presents
• Birthday DVD
• Wedding DVD
• Baby Photos

We think using DVD Maker is a great way of bringing the nation to the 21st century, why not watch a DVD of your holiday snaps instead of everyone crowding round the pack of photos!  It’ll probably work out cheaper too!

How do you make your DVD’s?  Would you like a tutorial?

March’s Site Of The Month is ‘AllMusic‘. The site has pretty much everything and anything that you could ever want to know about Music. With biographies on thousands if not millions of artists of the past and today. There are also detailed sections on various styles of music with links to famous artists, albums and songs of that genre. Also it shows the different variations of the style, for example, within rock music there are styles such as Indie-Rock and Hard Rock, all with their very own sections showing their style variations. In the biographies of artists you can read articles on the artists/members of the band, listen to some of their tracks, view their influences and much much more!

I can recommend this to anyone, it has something to everyone! I have used this site for help with my GCSE music, checking out various artists, genres, albums etc! It has also lead me to find some of my favourite bands over the past few years. AllMusic also has some sister sites which are ‘AllMovie‘ and ‘AllGame‘.

What do you think of it?