How ListeningNow works

You click on the bookmarklet in your browser and a popup window with the lyrics to the song you are currently listening (or just listened) in Spotify will appear.

Setting up ListeningNow

Although no software needs to be installed you need to follow this steps in order to make ListeningNow work with Spotify. You need to have a Spotify account and a Last.fm account.

1. Enable scrobbling in Spotify
   
2. Make sure Recently listened tracks in Last.fm is public
   1. Go to your user profile
   2. Click on Settings at the right of the Recently Listened Tracks header
      
   3. Deselect Make this private
      
3. Select one of the following available ListeningNow servers:
   Xaviesteve.com
4. Type in your Last.fm username:
   
5. Click here: Generate bookmarklet
6. Drag and drop the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar:
   (generate the bookmarklet first)
7. Click on the bookmarklet any time you want to see the lyrics for a song

If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave a line at the Comments section.

Additional information

ListeningNow tool works for Spotify and any other music player that supports Last.fm’s scrobbling real-time (Last.fm, Windows Media, iTunes, Winamp, Songbird, Amarok, Boxee, Hype Machine, Jukefly, Muxtape, PandoraFM, Squeezebox, etc.)

What I don’t like about Grooveshark is its dependence on Flash. And Spotify just busted its free service. But here comes Musicuo, a Grooveshark alternative in which to listen to music online for free. You can upload your own songs if they are still not in the database and create lists (and publish them). Musicuo is powered by HTML5 which gives it a nice modern usable touch. Works great in modern browsers and it is much simpler than Grooveshark so it shouldn’t take much to switch.

They are still launching and asking users to upload MP3s, if you upload 1000 tracks you get to become a VIP member! Oh, and by the way, two of the nicest features I’ve found: You can read the song lyrics and also tweak the sound Equalizer (find both features are at the bottom left, next to the play button).

Check it out: www.Musicuo.com

Aurgasm.us

Music genres: electronic, folk, funk, jazz, pop, reggae, soul
Update freq: unknown
Mp3 downloads: Yes

Chilled music you have never heard about from.

http://aurgasm.us

Randomfoo.net

Music genres: indie, pop, electronic, folk
Update freq: occasionally
Mp3 downloads: Yes

This is the personal blog from Leonard where he posts some of his latest discoveries in music. Very nice taste.

http://randomfoo.net

DataSapiens

Music genres: house, techno, dance
Update freq: every day
Mp3 downloads: Yes

An electronic music blog updated every day. It is not in english but it has the option to googletranslate it.

http://blog.datasapiens.net

Lets Sexy Fighting

Music genres: indie, folk, electro, hip-hop
Update freq: 2-4 days
Mp3 downloads: Yes

Electro music blog.

http://letssexyfighting.blogspot.com/

Disco Dust

Music genres: indie, electro, pop
Update freq: 1-3 days
Mp3 downloads: Yes

http://discodust.blogspot.com/

Electronic Austin

Music genres: indie, folk, electro, hip-hop
Update freq: 3-7 days
Mp3 downloads: Yes

The only thing I don’t like about this blog is that it starts playing music automatically.

http://electronicaustin.com/

Check the comments for more Music Blogs and feel free to note down any recommendations (provide music genres and update frequency).

Top photo by Mike

After using Spotify for a while and starting to use it as much as Last.fm (another great online radio) I have been creating several playlists of my favourite music genres. These playlists are alive, I am constantly adding new tracks I find interesting.

Spotify Playlists

• Electronica (smooth, relax, work)
  Alexandroid, Miwon, Four Tet, Sascha Funke, Yasume, Agoria, Lali Puna…
• Acid Jazz, Nu Jazz, Modern Jazz, Downtempo
  Mr. Scruff, Gabin, Nina Simone, St Germain, Waldeck, Flanger, Rubin Steiner…
• Lounge, Downtempo, Ninja Tune, Trip Hop, Chill Out
  Jazzamor, Ulver, The Revolution, Roisin Murphy, Fort Knox Five, Telepopmusik…
• Contemporary Classica
  Yann Tiersen, Ludovico Einaudi, Janusz Olejniczak, Michael Nyman, Clint Mansell…
• Indiepop, Electroindie, Casiopunk
  The Killers, Glasvegas, Cake, Tom Vek, The Feeling, Hot Chip, Junior Boys, Klaxons…
• Punk, Heavy, Alternative
  Deftones, NUFAN, Lagwagon, POD, Millencolin, Bad Religion, NOFX, Korn…
• Electronica pop, Alternative, Indietronic, LoFi
  MGMT, Justice, Muse, Ladytron, Dj Shadow, Soulwax, Sugababes, Brazilian Girls…
• Reggae, Roots, Jamaican Reggae, Dub, Ragga
  Eek-a-mouse, Matisyahu, Gentleman, Alborosie, Damian Marley, Ziggy Marley, Sizzla…
• Hip Hop, Rap (US, UK, France)
  Eminem, 50 Cent, Mobb Deep, Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, Cypress Hill, Dr. Dre…
• Pop International
  Just Jack, Cake, Magic Numbers, Metric, Jason Mraz, Finley Quaye, Sia, Cat Empire…
• Indie Folk, Indie Pop, Indie Rock
  Andrew Bird, Notwist, Fleet Foxes, Hold your Horses, Beirut, Raul Midon, Bright Eyes…
• Catalan Folk
  Manel, Antonia Font, Uma, La Troba Kung-Fu, Amics de les Arts, Joan Manuel Serrat…
• Flamenco, Rumba, Pop
  Camaron, La Pegatina, Chambao, Los Delinquentes, Macaco, Kiko Veneno…
• Trip Hop, Breakbeat, Dub
  Nickodemus, Roots Manuva, Gabin, De-Phazz, Thievery Corporation, Zero 7, Seeed…
• Electro Swing
  Analogik, Belleruche, Caravan Palace, Free The Robots, Chinese Man, Mr. Scruff…
• Minimal Techno, Deep House (dance)
  Lutzenkirchen, Super Flu, Agoria, John Tejada, Format:B, Alex Under, Deadmau5…
• Minimal Techno, Deep House (ambient)
  Marek Hemmann, Four Tet, Dominik Eulberg, Elektrochemie, Booka Shade…
• Big Beat, Breakbeat, Funkybreaks, Turntablism
  Louie Austen, Prodigy, RJD2, Mathias Kaden, Japanese Popstars, Timo Maas…
• Techno, Electro, House
  Vitalic, Popof, Zyntherius, Tiga, Steve Angello, Oxia, Snake, Anja Schneider…

Visit the full Spotify Playlists here.

More Spotify playlists comming soon…

There are more playlists available but still with a few songs in it. Once they reach a decent amount of songs I’ll be publishing them.

Spotify Lyrics Plugin

Check out ListeningNow, a Spotify Lyrics Plugin that doesn’t require installation and works in Windows, Mac and Linux.

Pasos para desactivar y evitar la sincronización automática

1. Desconecta el iPod de tu ordenador.
2. Presiona las teclas:
   1. Command + Option en Mac OSX
   2. Control + Shift en Windows (Shift es la tecla con una flechita hacia arriba, encima del Control)
3. Conecta tu iPod manteniendo presionadas las teclas.
   No las sueltes hasta que cargue el iTunes.
4. Una vez haya cargado el iTunes, podrás volver a reconfigurar el iPod como hiciste el primer día que lo conectaste. Sigue los pasos que te dice hasta encontrar:
   Gestionar los vídeos y la música manualmente
5. Márcalo como manual y sigue con los pasos.

¡Listo! Ahora ya no tienes que preocuparte de que la sincronización automática te desordene nada.

Por cierto, si iTunes te parece un engorro de programa o no quieres tenerlo instalado, prueba a usar una de las alternativas de iTunes: SharePod (mi favorito) o YamiPod (más funciones pero más lento). Además, puedes copiarte el programa directamente en el iPod para poder administrar tu música desde cualquier ordenador sin iTunes instalado.

Photo by philomglol

First, connect your iPod to the computer. The music will stop. Now, eject it but do not remove the USB plug. Wait for the “OK to disconnect” message and press Ok. The screen should go back to its main menu. Now you can play whatever you want, or even play games!

Play your iPod’s music in any computer

Give SharePod a try.

True random playing in iPod

Create a playlist and:

1. Add only those with Play Count = 0 or
2. Add those whose Last Played is 1-4 months ago

More to come…

DownTape is an interesting tool for listening and downloading mp3 files in an easy and fast way.

It works really simple and familiar, you just need to type in a song or artist and DownTape will show you a list of mp3′s ready to play online or download.

Online player

You can hear the song before downloading to ensure it is the one you want.

Direct download link

By clicking the big blue title of the song, a download window will popup. Just press Ok and save it wherever you want.

Quick links

Some direct links are provided for each song:

• Megaupload search for albums based on the artist.
• Read the lyrics of the song.
• Watch the song videoclip at YouTube.
• Learn more about the artist at Wikipedia.
• View musical information and similar artists at Last.fm.
• Visit the artist official website.
• View the artist MySpace profile.
• Listen more songs from the artist at FavTape.
• Buy the album at Amazon.

Multiple search list

You can search multiple artists or songs by separating them by commas (i.e. “the postal service,let it be,the beatles,minimal techno”).

Saved information

The next time you visit DownTape, your last search query will be available. You can also save some notes at the big textbox at the bottom of the website.