Streaming music from cloud

[dsa1971]

what are the best apps for streaming my own music from the cloud? I know about mp3 tunes and grooveshark. any better ones? I know Google purchased simplify media so they will have that option soon but that requires your computer to be on all the time. since Google docs now allows uploading any file type are there any apps that will stream music from Google docs?

 

[SoFLO]

I use mSpot but it's currently in beta and invite only. There's also HomePipe.

 

[marctronixx]

thx for the tip on mspot. hadn't heard of that. just sent them an email to see if i can get in...

 

[marctronixx]

mspot is now open to the community at large....

 

[sitlet]

orb

 

[JunBringer]

mspot is now open to the community at large....

Man I was pumped about this but it only does 2GB for free! Lame!

 

[dvduval]

Is it easy to put your own music somewhere in the cloud without too much concern for copyright? Ex. It is my music and I am the only one listening to it.

 

[JunBringer]

From what I saw after installing everything you can put whatever you want.

 

[EarlyMon]

Is it easy to put your own music somewhere in the cloud without too much concern for copyright? Ex. It is my music and I am the only one listening to it.

Not sure what you mean by your music.

If they're your own compositions, why not protect them under the Creative Commons license?

You can do that, publish it for everyone, and download mp3 music legally at:

Free and legal music downloads - Jamendo

Otherwise - if you're referring to copyrighted music under the purview of the RIAA - I wouldn't chance it. Those jerks are suing everyone - and I mean everyone - that they can get their hands on for anything whatsoever.

Want some horror stories on that?

Recording Industry vs. The People

For those unfamiliar with Ray - he's not some ambulance chaser or Chicken Little - for the past few years he's been one of the few guys trying to protect your rights.

You never own anything you buy other than a restricted license to use it, according to the RIAA.

I hate 'em, I really, really do.

And like most people I don't pirate or copy a thing - but according to the RIAA, any of us doing anything with music we bought that they didn't think of makes us all thugs.

 

[frankiepapa]

mspot is now open to the community at large....

have you used this on the evo yet? i tried looking at a couple of trailers and wasnt too impressed, very choppy...

 

[marctronixx]

yes i used the beta also. it works for me in wifi 3g and 4g. i have nto yet experienced any hiccups or delays...

 

[jhale83]

Anyone know if mSpot is able to play Zune Pass songs?

 

[frankiepapa]

yes i used the beta also. it works for me in wifi 3g and 4g. i have nto yet experienced any hiccups or delays...

thats great because it seems like a nice application....

 

[dvduval]

Otherwise - if you're referring to copyrighted music under the purview of the RIAA - I wouldn't chance it. Those jerks are suing everyone - and I mean everyone - that they can get their hands on for anything whatsoever.

Yes, I was referring to music that I have purchased over the years that I store on my personal computer. It would not be safe to make it available to myself in the cloud?

 

[marctronixx]

mspot does not upload DRM'ed music.... no rules will be broken by using this program.

 

[aldo]

I use subsonic. Streams your collection to your phone (app in the market), or any PC.

 

[r3dDaWn]

Don't know if you would qualify it in the same category as to what you were asking about, but I use Dropbox to stream all my music, haven't had any issues with any of the songs I've uploaded, currently have about 4GB of music there.. It's not the most ideal method, but works well for me, as most other stuff I've tried including orb, just don't work all that great..

 

[EarlyMon]

Yes, I was referring to music that I have purchased over the years that I store on my personal computer. It would not be safe to make it available to myself in the cloud?

IANAL and even if I were, IANYL (I am not your lawyer).

Consider the young woman who lost against the RIAA where they were awarded $54 million. The settlement came down - but only to the point where she'll be bankrupt for years. She evidently knowingly did the wrong thing and shared music - they did just hit her for what she didn't spend on music time some reasonable multiplier - they hit her for the projected copies of copies that would spread, pyramid style. Ridiculous.

Then there are all of the university freshmen nationwide that were given an opportunity to settle out of court for something like $5~15k a few years back - all because they were on a subnet where music was downloaded (the RIAA having no sense of dynamic IPs). Ridiculous.

Or the grandmother with an AOL account she hadn't used in years because of a non-working computer. Even though she hadn't used the internet, much less downloaded any music (nor did her family), because of bad lawyering, she lost and only recovered on appeal, and help from strangers.

There have been recent cases of music in the cloud - but I apologize, I can't remember the outcomes clearly - that's why I posted Ray Beckerman's link, above.

At issue in the case I'm thinking of, the defendant hadn't taken sufficient precaution to protect outsiders from casual download.

I think that that was lost, and then turned around - but I'm just not sure.

Would you be breaking the law if you kept it all to yourself?

As I understand the law, no. It's like a copyrighted book that you bought where you just read it in one place at a time.

But - that's the logic they ignored when trying to outlaw (literally, through lobbying efforts) cd copying and so forth.

Perhaps most people would say I'm overreacting - just read the horror stories.

I personally know how to make my own streaming server and would have little to zero trouble getting to it on my EVO. I expect that this is not that adult a puzzle. Anyone that lacks those skills can find this with a single googling:

How To Easily Stream Your MP3 Audio Files To Anywhere

Online Radio, Stream Music or Talk, MP3 Player — iRadeo

Guys like that play the margin - what the legal meaning of your music is plays the margin of most folk's understanding.

If all I need is your website address to start enjoying your music collection - that I've not paid a pound of flesh to the RIAA and their affiliates for - then I can guarantee that it's not if, it's when will the RIAA get around to making a couple of poster boys out of us.

mSpot is different - it creates a secure locker of your music, and copies it up to that locker, rather than other methods that have brought the RIAA scorn in the past. It appears to be safe:

MSpot Unveils Cloud-Based Music System for Android | Epicenter| Wired.com

However - expect to pay fees as time goes by and the RIAA gets its around the concept fully.

In the blogosphere, if you google for mSpot and the RIAA you'll find a zillion articles where the RIAA chiefs say that they're excited to be a part of the exciting new cloud opportunities in tech.

Not trusting the RIAA, I dug further and found this quote from:

Startup MSpot Lets You Stream Your Music Over Web - CBS News

"Our companies look forward to working with these services on licenses that ensure labels and artists are compensated for the music cloud-based services are monetizing," said Steven M. Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the RIAA.

Yeah - you read that right: you already own the music (or rather according to the RIAA a license to listen to it) and you're paying for the upload, the storage, the bandwidth - all delivery costs to your phone - but the RIAA is licking its chops to get more anyway.

Sounds farfetched?

Common sense has left the building. Let's look at the RIAA's cousin, the MPAA -

If I'm not mistaken, the doctrine allowing you to own and use a copy of a DVD you own is called Fair Use. All of ripping CDs know that makes sense.

In a fit of insanity - did you know it's illegal to sell the software that does that?

Unenforceable to consumers and stoopid as hell - but thanks to the recording industry lobby, that's really the law.

DVD Ripping Flourishes - PCWorld

(For years, the Mac OS allowed you to use the Disk Utility to create a master image of a CD or DVD. That quietly slipped into oblivion a few years back and most people never noticed - the MPAA is why.)

Think that's nuts? How about this case: we all expect that teachers can record and excerpt just about anything they need to further education - that's certainly fair use. But allowing them to access the dreaded DVD rippers created an untenable loophole for the MPAA. Believe it or not - this is no joke - here are their instructions to teachers:

MPAA: teachers should videotape monitors, not rip DVDs

You can enjoy mSpot to your heart's content. You're covered. Maybe Google will take on the RIAA. They've damned sure tried to kill off internet radio.

Meanwhile - I offer these alternatives:

There's a site called MagnaTune.com whose slogan is - We are not evil.

You can surf them on your EVO browser and enjoy free streaming tunes. Subscribe, download, pay the artists - or just listen for free. It's not your popular music - but I find most of their artists spectacular - see if you don't agree - send yourself this link, check it out:

Trip Wamsley: Its Better This Way

Next comes Jamendo.com - you have to hunt around for what you'll like - it's very eclectic - but it's 100% free and downloadable.

Free and legal music downloads - Jamendo

Here's the app for that.

http://blog.jamendo.com/2009/06/02/jamendo-available-on-android/

I'm installing that tonight!

Best luck to us all!

 

[mumra]

I use the pogo plug app to stream from my own cloud and it works great.