For the past few years, I’ve used pandora and last.fm to provide the soundtrack for my long workday. Both applications are a great way to find new artists and explore genres. And for those who like the social aspect of the apps, there’s probably not a better way to find that next online friend who shares the same enthusiasm for Bon Iver’s “Woods” (go ahead and listen if you must). But what if you want to share musical tastes with those much closer to you? Apple’s airport extreme has definitely fit the target for this objective – sharing songs & video over the same wi-fi connection. But what if you want to find that intermediate solution; sharing music beyond the walls of your local wifi, but not with the social obscurity of last.fm or Pandora. Meaning, what if you could share the same music libraries with your friends and family?
I found my solution to this question accidentally when I recently cashed in my $15 iTunes gift card on a $7.99 iPhone’s app (that’s pricey for an app). I wanted to find a way to stream music from my Macbook’s music library (via iTunes) to my iPhone. How great it would be to have access to my entire music library without having to physically transfer every song to my iPhone. Simply Media’s Simplify Music 2 app for my Mac and iPhone allows me to stream music from my music library to my iPhone via wifi or 3g. After I downloaded the app and set it up on my Mac, I noticed that I can invite 30 friends to share my music library. All they have to do is download the app either to their PC or Mac (a free download) or to an iPhone or iPod ($7.99). I decided to check it out on my wife’s laptop and in about 5 minutes, she now has access to my music library. I can control the level of access at a folder level (it allows access to photos also). This access can be different for each user I grant permission’s too.
Simplify Music works within the iTunes interface. If a friend has enabled streaming via Simplify Music, his or her screen name appears in the left-column interface of iTunes. By simply selecting my friend’s username, I can begin listening to any and all of the music he or she has granted me permission to hear. The interface works the same over the phone. Greedily, I’m already thinking of those large music libraries I’d love to glean from among my peer circle. Remember, you are only streaming these songs and do not have the physical file. Another caveat is that you are not able to stream DRM (digital rights managed) songs. For those using the new iTunes purchase method, your songs are open and DRM free. If you have a large music library that is DRM locked, there are many many tools and methods to easily remove those restrictions. That might be another blog post if enough of you request it.
There it is my faithful readers. Let me know if you try this out. If you are one of those uber music lovers with 10’s of thousands of songs on your music library and you are inclined to add me as one of your 30 friends… well, I accept! Also, please help me spread my readership beyond 4… if you read this from twitter, a re-tweet is greatly appreciated. Follow me at @eyecatchaz
