Rev2.org

Yesterday I finally accepted my invite to join SpiralFrog, the upcoming music download service backed by major and independent record labels. SpiralFrog offers advertising supported music and music video downloads, and is currently in private beta.

The interface of SpiralFrog is all web based. Initially, the service requires a small download which updates Windows Media Player and installs a small piece of software which runs in the taskbar to allow for downloading. The page is divided into genres, artists, new releases, top downloads, and videos. As you browse the site looking for songs to download, a small box called the download manager stays on every page, showing you the songs selected and waiting in queue for download. Each song must be downloaded individually, and takes a little less than a minute.

Music downloaded to your computer resides in a folder of your choice or the My Music folder by default. I play the music with Winamp, but any music player works. Amazingly, as you play the songs, no ads are shown. The advertising is web based, so you see ads as you browse for new songs. To keep your music collection active each user must visit the page at least once a month.

All of the music on your computer can be transferred to compatible portable devices. Each song is protected with DRM technology, which disables the music until you visit the site to re-validate each month. As users browse for new music, SpiralFrog is able to serve more advertisements, and the revenue is mostly given directly to the Record Labels. No credit card is required, but users must visit from the United States. SpiralFrog boasts a collection of over 700,000 tracks, including many of today’s most popular artists. The top list features artists like Gwen Stefani, Rihanna, The All-American Rejects, and Nelly Furtado.

I found while writing this post that “SpiralFrog” is a very hard name to type, so it is a great thing that the developers of SpiralFrog bought the domain name SprialFrog as well.

More commentary: TechCrunch, MarketingVox, and Mashable.

YouTube’s comment system has been one of the most frustrating features of ANY service online for a very long time. A scroll through a video’s comments would yield racist remarks, spam, more spam, and the occasional British-American supremacy debate. Now it seems, YouTube may have taken the first step towards fixing the problem.

Some of the changes made to the YouTube Interface:

Comment Ratings - This is a new Digg-style comment ratings system. This was the most needed change, and the developers did a great job implementing it. Each video can be given a positive vote or a negative vote, and comments are either displayed or not displayed based on their overall rating. Great stuff.

Recent Ratings on Videos - The channel pages now show the last five videos a user has rated. This feature is optional.

Other changes – There is now a section on each video’s page showing other users who have added the video to their playlist, intra-channel search has been added, and the video toolbox has been redesigned. You can see a more detailed explanation of the changes on the YouTube blog.

More commentary: Mashable (Funny), AppScout and Webware.

Splice is a well designed and very entertaining music remixing service. With Splice, users can upload and record sounds, compose songs, listen to music, and meet new people. According to the developers of Splice, the service features “the most advanced online sequencer” available. For the novices, there are pre-programmed mixed tracks to play around with. More advanced users can start with a clean sequencer and can blaze their own trail.

Music created by other users is available to browse or search. The songs are sorting by rating, play counts, and by the number of fans the song has. Splice also features a forum for community interaction.

Splice is completely free, and the page and sequencer are well designed. The only minor problem I noticed was some minor lag and skipping when playing tracks. Go ahead, give Splice a try and get your groove on.

More Commentary: Computer Tips from a Computer Guy, Under the Radar, and Embracing Chaos.

B*SH is an interesting website.  A visit to B*SH is a bit depressing, but funny nonetheless. B*SH is a place to get it all off your chest, everything that bothers you and ruins your day.

With B*SH, users post short messages which are visible to everyone. B*SH was created “as a way to vent to the vastness of the internet.” Profane language is not recommended, although it is present. Reading through some of the complaints will probably make you feel better about the way your day is going. Here are some examples:

“You said “I love you,” and I did too. But when I said it, it was actually true. You dropped me like a firecracker set to explode.”

“We got too much biology homework. I hate having homework and hate the person who came up with the idea. I am sure many of you agree with me!”

These B*SH sessions are divided into three categories; life, work, and school. There is also a top 10 list of the best complaints. Be advised that some of these people are mad, so some of the language is rough.

As announced on the Facebook blog recently, Facebook users can now send messages to Facebook users and to email addresses outside of Facebook. The sending works the same way as traditional Facebook messaging, and the recipients can even reply to the emails you send. Most content you include in the messages will be included, but some may be excluded because of specific privacy rules (images, notes etc.).

This same process applies for events as well. For friends, family, or co-workers without Facebook, invitations may be sent to regular email addresses, but the discussion board is not available without registration.

This is what web 2.0 is all about. Anywhere.FM, based in San Francisco and founded by a team of MIT and UPenn graduates, may well be the next big thing in online radio. I use Pandora for my online radio needs now, and I occasionally visit Slacker. However, Anywhere.FM is something entirely different, allowing users to upload their entire music collection to the Anywhere.FM servers.

Anywhere.FM was originally funded by YCombinator, and has steadily grown, hosting almost 1.5 million songs at the time of this post. Songs can be uploaded through the site, or users can upload their entire iTunes library. Users who upload their catalog of music can share their music with their friends through “friend radio.” The music player and the site in general are very slick, user friendly, and well designed.

Anywhere.FM also a Facebook group for those interested.

More Commentary: SeattleP, AppScout, and TekJuice.