Wednesday, July 11, 2007
GREAT FREE MUSIC -- AND HOW TO SAVE IT
Here's Internet radio's "killer app" -- totally free software called "BOOMbox Internet Radio," that allows you to select from thousands of stations, and, then, simply, click on the "Super Duper Recorder" and it captures the streaming audio, separates them into separate tracks with song/artist ID and saves it to your hard drive. CAUTION: don't click on the casino software that comes bundled with the program, but it's left blank in the set-up, so if you just go through the standard set up, it should work fine...Worth looking into. Here's the program's download site and reviews, plus a thoughtful write up by the radio expert at about.com. Happy listening....but, again, stay away from the casino program....
A great way to hear concert music for free is to check out these classic concerts by superstars at Wolfgang's Vault. You may need to register your email address, but practically anyone you've ever admired, from Bob Marley to Van Morrison to Springsteen to Dylan (I believe), are on this website for hours of in-person live music.
Another resource to check out is my friend Tom D'Antoni's radio show, every Saturday night West coast time, 10 pm to 1 a.m., featuring jazz and blues at this cool Portland station, KMHD. See http://www.kmhd.fm/. Here's a long excerpt from his latest blues and funk tribute show I managed to record off the air, then convert to an Mp3 file (call or write if you want to learn how to record and store streaming music) , including a full-length album of the Neville Brothers very last live appearance at New Orleans Jazzfest. (When you see the speaker icon comes up, double-click on the speaker icon, and a player bar comes up and you can start playing it.) Here's his own blog, with a complete playlist of his show and pictures from the Portland jazz festival, plus links to his other writings and his amusing book, Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent and Other Sensational Stories from A Tabloid Writer.
Tom knows more about jazz and R&B than anyone I know, and could probably go head-to-head with Elvis Costello (and Garry Giddins) in a match over obscure artists. For a sample of his eclectic array of musical interests, check out Tom's CounterPunch magazine playlist, and search on that website for his other listings. As many of you know, I'm a music buff (well, fanatic), and I invariably find that Tom's been playing not only some artists that I never heard, but never even heard of -- and welcome the chance to discover. So will you.
As for my tastes, you can sample them at my Yahoo radio station, although you may need to press down your control button while left-clicking on your mouse to avoid a pop-up blocker, or possibly even download a valuable software program, Yahoo Music Engine, to hear my eclectic roots music artists. (I'm not sure if that link works, but give it a try.)
For $6 a month, the Yahoo Music Unlimited service is the best streaming music deal on the web, and I recommend it.Go here for a free 14-day trial of the service. You can select full-length albums by artists you like ,program your own "radio station," and even pay cheaper-than Itunes rates to download songs. (If you want to know how to capture for free any streaming music for a permanent .mP3 file to burn onto a CD or download to your computer, call or write me.)
And speaking of New Orleans, probably the greatest music radio station on earth is WWOZ, the New Orleans public radio station, mixing blues, funk, R&B, jazz and whatever else sounds great. It's worth supporting with donations and presumably has links to other worthy New Orleans causes.....
Right now, Pandora.com offers the best selection of free music in stereo you can select that matches your taste. (If you're interested, I can email you my radio stations on that site I've programmed, geared to artists who share the sound and spirit of Alison Krauss, John Coltrane, Van Morrison, Skip James and other personal favorites. )But their services, as with those provided by Live366.com, the most wide-ranging array of music on the web, including world music, are all threatened by a ruling by an obscure copyright royalty board that threatens to bankrupt and silence them all if they're not stopped this month from implementing their draconian new rates. So write your Congressman and Senator through this coalition website,SaveNetRadio.org, designed to protest the ruling and save Web radio.
So take action, and, check out the Web for happy listening!
Here's Internet radio's "killer app" -- totally free software called "BOOMbox Internet Radio," that allows you to select from thousands of stations, and, then, simply, click on the "Super Duper Recorder" and it captures the streaming audio, separates them into separate tracks with song/artist ID and saves it to your hard drive. CAUTION: don't click on the casino software that comes bundled with the program, but it's left blank in the set-up, so if you just go through the standard set up, it should work fine...Worth looking into. Here's the program's download site and reviews, plus a thoughtful write up by the radio expert at about.com. Happy listening....but, again, stay away from the casino program....
A great way to hear concert music for free is to check out these classic concerts by superstars at Wolfgang's Vault. You may need to register your email address, but practically anyone you've ever admired, from Bob Marley to Van Morrison to Springsteen to Dylan (I believe), are on this website for hours of in-person live music.
Another resource to check out is my friend Tom D'Antoni's radio show, every Saturday night West coast time, 10 pm to 1 a.m., featuring jazz and blues at this cool Portland station, KMHD. See http://www.kmhd.fm/. Here's a long excerpt from his latest blues and funk tribute show I managed to record off the air, then convert to an Mp3 file (call or write if you want to learn how to record and store streaming music) , including a full-length album of the Neville Brothers very last live appearance at New Orleans Jazzfest. (When you see the speaker icon comes up, double-click on the speaker icon, and a player bar comes up and you can start playing it.) Here's his own blog, with a complete playlist of his show and pictures from the Portland jazz festival, plus links to his other writings and his amusing book, Rabid Nun Infects Entire Convent and Other Sensational Stories from A Tabloid Writer.
Tom knows more about jazz and R&B than anyone I know, and could probably go head-to-head with Elvis Costello (and Garry Giddins) in a match over obscure artists. For a sample of his eclectic array of musical interests, check out Tom's CounterPunch magazine playlist, and search on that website for his other listings. As many of you know, I'm a music buff (well, fanatic), and I invariably find that Tom's been playing not only some artists that I never heard, but never even heard of -- and welcome the chance to discover. So will you.
As for my tastes, you can sample them at my Yahoo radio station, although you may need to press down your control button while left-clicking on your mouse to avoid a pop-up blocker, or possibly even download a valuable software program, Yahoo Music Engine, to hear my eclectic roots music artists. (I'm not sure if that link works, but give it a try.)
For $6 a month, the Yahoo Music Unlimited service is the best streaming music deal on the web, and I recommend it.Go here for a free 14-day trial of the service. You can select full-length albums by artists you like ,program your own "radio station," and even pay cheaper-than Itunes rates to download songs. (If you want to know how to capture for free any streaming music for a permanent .mP3 file to burn onto a CD or download to your computer, call or write me.)
And speaking of New Orleans, probably the greatest music radio station on earth is WWOZ, the New Orleans public radio station, mixing blues, funk, R&B, jazz and whatever else sounds great. It's worth supporting with donations and presumably has links to other worthy New Orleans causes.....
Right now, Pandora.com offers the best selection of free music in stereo you can select that matches your taste. (If you're interested, I can email you my radio stations on that site I've programmed, geared to artists who share the sound and spirit of Alison Krauss, John Coltrane, Van Morrison, Skip James and other personal favorites. )But their services, as with those provided by Live366.com, the most wide-ranging array of music on the web, including world music, are all threatened by a ruling by an obscure copyright royalty board that threatens to bankrupt and silence them all if they're not stopped this month from implementing their draconian new rates. So write your Congressman and Senator through this coalition website,SaveNetRadio.org, designed to protest the ruling and save Web radio.
So take action, and, check out the Web for happy listening!
Comments:
Post a Comment
