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No really!

He's a tortured artist Used to be in the Eagles Now he whines Like a wounded beagle Poet of despair! Pumped up with hot air! He's serious, pretentious And I just don't care

Yes, it plays this song.

Don't see much newsworthy content here. Spotify was sign up before so nothing much changed. (Seems more free PR than anything for them.)

A change to the real competition would be news. Free streaming music without registration.
In the UK;
http://www.we7.com/

The US equivalent;
http://www.lala.com/

Eerily relevant is todays EFF Article pointing out that the Free Ad-Supported music sites imeem.com and lala.com both stream unenctrypted mp3s with the blessing of the record business. Indeed it was revealed that Warner Brothers Music invested millions of dollars in both of these (although their imeem investment looks a whole lot better). There are some speed bumps to filling your iPod with the music that fans have uploaded to imeem, but it's only sufficient to keep the honest people honest.

I was unable to download because of this error:


Getting: http://cfs-listen-32.lala.com/contentfs/content?t=NjU1MzVVNDM3ODc4NQ%3D%3D-jo0UMQoQnqEtl80cgZYgTw%3D%3D
Downloading to Genesis-I Can't Dance.mp3
sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `''
sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

But one could use wget...

Don't kill me for this search string ;)

Fucking slashdot has some but fucking limit on posting anonymously and so I cannot fucking post. Atleast earlier it used to tell how much time I should wait - not it is just a stupid fucking message (press Submit - I AM pressing submit that is why you are showing me this message)

• Content . . . may be synched to no more than five (5) la la-authorized portable devices at any one time.
  Only 5?
• Downloads of copyrightable materials purchased through the Site are downloaded to your account's Personal Server Space and include a security framework using technology that protects digital information and imposes usage rules established by la la and its licensors ("Usage Rules")
  Wait: I thought the stuff you bought was DRM-free ??
• You can upload your music to their service; but there's a catch:
  Before uploading you must register your personal computer with la la ("Registered PC"). No more than three (3) Registered PCs may be associated with your account at any one time.
• la la reserves the right to . . . change its fees and charges at any time for any reason. You agree that as a condition of your use of the Site and Services, you authorize la la or its agents to charge your credit card for any fees or charges you incur in the use of the Site or Services.
  o_O

Umm... no. Paying $0.10 adds it to your collection, which you can listen to "as many times as you like from any computer" Perhaps you should read the site in question before interjecting with ignorant, misleading comments. http://next.lala.com/#help/Web%20songs

From the TOS: "la la reserves the right to terminate or suspend your access to the Services or Site, with or without cause, at any time and effective immediately."

In other words they can take back what you thought you paid for anytime, and they won't return your dime.

a.) ironic, or

b.) a self-fulfilling prophesy?

On their "How It Works" page, they do mention that they offer DRM-free MP3s "for your iPod or other portable device" for $0.89. (Well, "79Â more"...)

CD Trading.

You are entitled to receive one CD from another la la user for every CD you successfully ship from your Have List. A shipment is deemed successful when the la la user requesting your CD notifies la la that the CD arrived within 20 days of your agreement to ship and in good condition. Without limiting other remedies, la la may elect not to credit your account for any CDs reported as lost, broken, incorrect or unplayable. In order to receive a CD from another la la user, la la must have a valid credit card on record for your account.

You may not illegally copy CDs or keep copies of CDs you trade. Your access to the Site or Services may be immediately terminated in the event you use the Site or Services for illegal purposes or make unlawful copies of CDs or unlawfully distribute CDs. You acknowledge and agree that you have valid title and ownership rights to any CDs that you make available on the Site or Services. You are aware that not all CDs are available on the Site or via the Services and that la la does not guarantee you will receive any CD nor that any CD you do receive will be in good condition.

la la will issue you a starter kit after you register and either (i) add 5 CDs to your Have List, or (ii) agree to ship your first CD. The starter kit will contain five (5) reusable CD sleeves and five (5) envelopes (collectively, the "Shipping Materials"). You agree to use the Shipping Materials solely for the purpose of shipping requested CDs. la la will automatically send additional envelopes to you as shipping occurs. You agree to reuse the CD sleeves you receive from other users when you ship. la la reserves the right to charge a fee for any additional CD sleeves la la sends to you, but la la will notify you by e-mail if it intends to do so.

A quick look at the rankings...

Hell yeah! I LOVE Various Artists!

a.) ironic, or

b.) a self-fulfilling prophesy?

Anybody interested in finding out how to get those tracks for free? Turns out these are mp3s, downloaded normally over http. The url something like

http://cfs-listen-80.lala.com/contentfs/content?t=long-list-of-random-chars

Unfortunately, the song seems to not getting stored anywhere on the local hard disk. And when one tries to start downloading the url a second time, a "not found" message is given. Anybody interested of analyzing it some more? :-D

http://next.lala.com/

It actually has a nice Web 2.0 interface and is currently playing FREE music if you want to try it. However it doesn't have my favorite Yngwie Malmsteen CD, but has a good selection. Oh, and if you don't know who Yngwie Malmsteen is, then go listen for free right now.

But they have Men without Pants

http://next.lala.com/api/AutoComplete/songAutoComplete?prefix=bt

Pass URL encoded downloadToken to:

http://next.lala.com/api/Player/getTrackUrls?flash=true&webSrc=lala&widgetId=LalaHeadlessPlayer&T=

url gives you the mp3 url, it's not a full mp3, sounds backwards, but it's a start to downloading from them.

http://next.lala.com/api/AutoComplete/songAutoComplete?prefix=bt

Pass URL encoded downloadToken to:

http://next.lala.com/api/Player/getTrackUrls?flash=true&webSrc=lala&widgetId=LalaHeadlessPlayer&T=

url gives you the mp3 url, it's not a full mp3, sounds backwards, but it's a start to downloading from them.

You're talking about free full-length streams?

Right now (supposedly) there's free.napster.com, last.fm, and lala.com, but I've only had success with the first. The other two don't seem to have much of a selection. When I try to stream an album, they'll give me a couple songs from it, or 30s samples only, or something like that.

For my more valuable unwanted CDs, I sell them on Amazon marketplace, which also works very well.

When I went away to college, it turned out conservative Cincinnati actually had a greatradio station, WOXY (AKA 97X), which has sadly left the airwaves in the last couple of years (although they're still alive on the web). 97X was even within walking distance of my dorm (albeit a long one). When I moved to Wisconsin after college I made a point of listening to WXRT on my way through Chicago, another great radio station.

Ah, the good old days--when were they again?

http://www.lala.com/ Where you *trade* CD's, not buy and sell?

Well this whole music RIAA lawsuit crap is really grating on my nerves. I love music, so maybe I'll just learn to play an instrument, drop my ISP, and entertain myself in my basement...or at least until it's unlawful to entertain one's self in the basement. ;-)

But it's not clear where to go from there, since free copying tends to encourage exactly one pricing model: give it away. It may be the only model, given how ineffective DRM is compared to the old "press it into vinyl" model.

Copyright law still protects the artists' work. I'd hate to see that go away given how well the GPL has worked.

So the problem in digital duplication is figuring out who violated Copyright law. There's an easy solution to that - watermarking. I wrote about this a few weeks ago - watermarking technology is such that it's robust and does not impair quality for lossily-compressed music. I'm not about to violate copyright law with the music I buy online, but the current DRM schemes aren't about copying, they're about control. I lost a disk with my iTunes Library on it just after purchasing a song, and I had to re-purchase it again, I couldn't just download it again, and that's where the real money is - repurchasing. Ironically, it's the only time I've used iTunes since JHymn stopped working. Yeah, I'm only out $1 extra, but the principle sucks. Lala has a much better model.

Executive summary: Watermarking combined with Copyright Law is an effect copy control measure, but DRM is about repurchasing, not preventing copying.

You can always try recycling your music by turning to the second-hand market:

http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.lala.com/

There goes WOXY... Again.

I have had some success scoring CDs that I have been hunting ages for from swapping them on http://www.lala.com/ - $2 per trade, and I am able to get rid of CDs I no longer want.

when I can get a real CD on Amazon for $10-12

Why not get your real CD's on lala for $1.75?

I have no affiliation with lala, except for that I joined last week, and have since shipped one old CD I don't want, and received two shiny new ones I did want, for a grand total of $3.50.

You may not be able to get everything you want right away, but hey, you can't beat the price.

And although they don't have to, they still pay musicians.

And their emailed Christmas card said "Fa la la la la ... lala.com." Gotta love it.

OK, OK, you don't have to love it. I thought it was funny. Leave me alone.

There is a service at lala.com that takes this CD sharing idea to the next level, though they explicitly discourage ripping. You input a list of your CD collection and then you will start to see requests from other users for CDs in your list. If you decide to send a CD, simply put it in the provided shipping case & envelope. When you request a CD and it gets sent to you, you pay $1.70 or thereabouts.

I joined a while ago and haven't even gotten around to uploading my collection, but a friend of mine uses lala exclusively and loves it.
-f

Sorry - Lala's already gone. http://www.lala.com/

I just wanted to mention here about lala. It is like an online used-record store. Each album costs only a dollar and 20% of the proceeds of every trade goes to the artist. It is a much cheaper way to find music *and* pay artists instead of these record-companies.