Free Music for All, All for Free Music!

Of course life isn't as simple as it once was when anyone could grab Limewire and download whatever tracks they want. Ah, those were the days. While it is still possible, it is a little more difficult. That isn't the point those. Online radios, I love them. The only effort I have to make is deciding what I want to listen to. The options are unlimited, and it is beautiful.

Everyone knows about it. Some people like it, others don't. It has some good features. The one thing I really like about it is I type in a band I like, and the station plays a song and I am like F@#!, I forgot about this song! I do use Pandora because it is what is on my Blu Ray. Like the song to the right, I am listening to Matchbox 20 radio. I haven't heard that song in forever, and I am thoroughly enjoying it as I type. Another great thing is that a lot of the songs have lyrics with them, about the band, and similar artists. Pandora has a really simple user interface. My 3 year old cousin could use it if he were able to read and write or type. Good and bad go together like Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie though. The ads are obnoxiously annoying, and constant. Your music also quits playing if you aren't active on the website. The only way to get around it is upgrading to Pandora One for $36 a year. Who wants to pay for their music though?

The first profoundly annoying thing that I found about spotify was that you HAD to log in before listening to any music. The second annoying thing is that it wouldn't let me log in with Facebook. I am currently not a big fan. 

At this point I am in. As The Beatles said, "It is getting better all the time." The first thing I noticed, well I guess you couldn't help but notice, is it gives me suggestions of what is popular in my area, and on spotify. This could be good, I like hearing new things. Maybe this isn't going to be so bad after all. I choose to listen to OneRepublic. A sidebar popped up from the right with the music player. I like that that there is a desktop version available. There is a desktop version as well, and it is free. That is something that could be convenient. Pandora only offers a desktop version with its paid service.  It almost puts me in the mind of iTunes. I didn't download it just because my computer doesn't need any more stuff on it. Spotify has some potential. 

I love Slacker! I think I may have had it on my BlackBerry before I regrettably ditch it a few years ago. Regardless, for this blog post, I am going the first play list I see, I will probably regret that. Top 40 it is though. When I go to Slacker I feel like there is something for anything that I am doing. Whether it is driving, cleaning, doing homework, ect. It almost reminds me of XM radio. Because of the different categories show like ESPN, CBS, genres, and specials. XM radio was my thing until I got a job and became to cheap for it.

Possibly one of my favorite features of Slacker is "My Vibe" Tab. Right now I am playing catch up, so I definitely do not want anything to wind me down. So I am going to choice hump day, just because I am trying so hard to make it to my day off Sunday. Hump Day provided me with a list of options including Nasty Hip Hop, Down and Dirty Rock, Siren Songs, Freak Me, and One-Night Stands. Interesting, to say the least. Dirty Hip Hop it is. I did check out the Siren Songs first, but I had no clue what any of it was. I do have to say, it isn't all that bad. I don't particularly Luv Dem Strippers like the song below, but I am feeling Slacker Radio.

Grooveshark, I am not that big of a fan. You get unlimited skips which is kinda cool. You also get to add songs to a queue. However, when I want to listen to some in particular I go to youtube and play it. So I want to move on to the broadcasts. 

If I were going to use Grooveshark, the only way would be to use the broadcasts. You essentially pick what you wanna listen to base on the genres and choose a broadcast. Its pretty easy to use. I dont really like the way it looks. It reminds me of something that would be on Facebook. There isn't anything really fancy about it. Its just looks like it is lacking.

Guest Blog: Four More Cool Extensions

This blog was written by Keith Bell, check out some other things written by him by clicking on his name.

In class, we have begun looking into certain extensions provided from the Google Chrome app store. These are the one's to pique my interest: 

1. Pandora: I like to use Pandora for when I have writing to be done and I need something nice to listen to. This app provides me the ability to instant start listening to tracks from my Pandora. Saves me the effort of searching for the site. It's a minor app; namely one the someone could live without, but even the most minor of efforts are great strides for someone as horribly lazy as I. 

2. Evernote Web Clipper: I use this to get articles, pictures, or just reminders on what to look at often. With Evernote Web Clipper with a press of a button you can instantly save a page, article or picture to your Evernote for future reference. This is really only useful for those people who often save Word documents, or something like it, just to remember various pages, pictures or articles they had come across over their Internet searches. It's more useful than it sounds, as it is useful more by each different person and perspective.

3. Ad Block: Ad Block is probably the most pivotal app for generally everyone. No one likes ads and no one cares what they have to say. With Ad Block you can block all the ads off of the pages and precede in your Internet shenanigans with no problems. This is especially useful for slower Internet connections where it takes more time to load a page due to the ads, but with Ad Block, even the slowest of Internet connections can become manageable with Ad Block. Not to mention how much faster an already fast Internet connections could become. 

4. Weather Channel: This is the app I use the least often, as weather is usually my last concern, but it is still useful, especially for days where you plan on being outside. It shows you the forecast for the current day and a few days afterward, so it becomes much easier to plan out your days or what days you should be concerned on when driving. It's situation and I don't believe you would need it everyday, but it is still useful when you decide to take a look, even though, just like news weather, it is possible that the forecast could very well be incorrect, so take everything with a grain of salt.