From tagging your MP3 files to discovering new tunes and artists
Tagging Your MP3 Files
To just name your mp3 file appropriately in Windows Explorer isn’t good enough. You also need to add an ‘ID3 tag’, which is the standard format to store identification data—artist, track title, track number, album, cover art, etc—about the song.
ID3 is used and recognized by almost every digital media player, and if you’re wondering why your neatly-named files aren’t showing up properly on your iPod, the likely reason is that you haven’t paid attention to these tags.
There are several ways to tag your music. In Windows Media Player, for example, you can right-click a file and choose ‘Advanced Track Editor’, while in iTunes, the ‘Get Info’ option will allow you to edit the ID3.
But sometimes, things aren’t that easy. You might have a file that simply does not have a name, so how do you tag that? In such cases, automated tools to tag full albums will help you speed up the whole process. Here are two programs that can help…
MusicBrainz Picard
“C:\Music\Hindi Pop\Track 01” – does this look familiar?
If your music library has a few files that you can’t name, then you can’t possibly tag them. And sometimes, you might have a full album, but with no way of telling which one it is.
MusicBrainz Picard features fantastic technology that helps you out by using audio ‘fingerprints’. Load up your music directory and Picard will scan the files and match them with its large database to identify the anonymous songs. Of course, you’ll have to be connected to the Internet when you do this.
We recommend that you carefully select the files that have no information, or Picard will just overwrite ID3 tags according to its database. And be aware that it’s not a perfect program. If you’re searching to identify a full album’s worth of tracks, then employ your own intelligence and don’t rely on the software blindly.
The only real problem with Picard is that for Indian songs, it’s not foolproof. While it recognized Indian Ocean’s Kandisa and the Rang De Basanti soundtrack, it couldn’t identify Lucky Ali’s Sifar. Available for Windows and Mac at musicbrainz.org/doc/ MusicBrainz_Picard
Mp3tag
If you have the filenames intact but just need to get the ID3 tags in place, there is nothing better than Mp3tag.
Once you start up the software, the first thing to do is to add the folder you want to look-up tags for. While it largely does the job—even with multiple artists and albums—we recommend sticking to one artist at a time (and perhaps an album at a time) because you don’t want to risk wrong tags. The brilliant part about Mp3tag is how quickly it can find tags based on your file name; match it with its default database; and appropriately label all of your ID3 tags. The software also gives you the option of choosing different databases, such as freedb, discogs, Amazon and MusicBrainz, but the default setting will get the job done for most of your needs. Again, much like Picard, it struggled with Indian songs. But try fiddling around with the databases, since in our tests, Amazon managed to recognize a few Indipop albums that the others didn’t. Available for Windows at
www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html Discovering New Music
Soundhound
Ever had a tune get stuck in your head, but went crazy because you just couldn’t remember what it was? Soundhound to the rescue! This app is one of the best musicrelated software we have seen. All you have to do is tap the huge button on the app and simply hum or whistle the tune into your mobile or tablet’s microphone. The software ‘listens’ to your ‘performance’ and within a few seconds, it searches its database to return with the name of the artist, his/her website address (if any), the track details (including albums in which the song has featured), as well links from around the internet that could include song lyrics, YouTube videos, etc. Users can also use the
app to check out the top-trending
songs, as well as share their own list of discoveries.
Available for: iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian devices
(Blackberry users might want to try out Shazam, an app that lets you identify the names of tracks and performing artists. However, this software only recognises tunes by its original recording and cannot identify songs if you sing or hum into your microphone.)
Aweditorium
Fire this app on your iPad and you’re greeted by a huge grid of dimmed photographs of music artists and bands. Tap any image and it expands to fill your display, while a song begins streaming onto your device. Touch the display while the track plays and you see its lyrics appearing in sync with the song’s playback. Touch the screen again and you’re fed with trivia on the artist; links to related web videos; an interface to share the music via Facebook, Twitter; and links to more songs by the performer.
Don’t like a track? Simply pinch the screen to be taken back to the grid interface. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the experience as the app slowly takes you on a journey of discovery from one new track to another, each dimmed image lighting up to indicate the songs you have listened to on the grid.
Available for: iPad
Hype Machine and Hypegram
The Hype Machine—a web site that began in 2005—has been keeping track of new music based on what bloggers write about. The service relies on a set of hand-picked music blogs and aggregates that content to make it easy for you to discover new music. If a post contains MP3 links, the Hype Machine displays them on the front page. This way, your odds of stumbling into newer music are high. The service does not let you download any music, but you can preview songs before buying CDs.
To make new music more easily discoverable, Hypem.com comprises sections like ‘Latest’ where you can browse recent postings by genre; ‘Popular’ for most listened to artists, searches and blogs; ‘Spy’ to take a dekko at what others are listening to; ‘Radio Show’ which is a show that summarizes the month’s updates; and Dashboard that provides registered users with a customizable view of their favourite tracks, artists, blogs and users.
And if that’s not enough, there’s the Hypegram app for Windows PCs that lets registered users access all content from a single software interface, without having to actually visit the website.
Websites: hypem.com and hypegram.com A Few Good Players
Windows
Foobar2000: ‘Make your own media player’ is a good way to describe Foobar2000. In its original avatar, it is the most lightweight music player available for Windows. But the amount of add-ons and plugins – including a graphic visualizer, lyrics pane, Wikipedia widget, etc – available means you can enhance it to your liking through customization. And what’s more, it will play almost every music format you throw at it.
Mac
Clementine: Most Mac users won’t ever want to look beyond iTunes, but Clementine is worth considering. It’s not as pleasing to the eye as iTunes, but it makes up for that with more robust playlist management and better browsing capabilities for libraries.
Linux Banshee: The default music player loaded on the popular
Ubuntu distro of Linux is a bit like the iTunes of Linux, not just in the look and feel, but also in the way that it lets you easily sync music with your iPod, iPhone or Android device – a bit of a rarity on Linux players. And it’s quite customizable with add-ons, although the default installation should be enough for most users.
Android
Winamp: What was the best music player on Windows is now the best music player on Android. The free version of Winamp delivers almost everything you would want, but the paid version is even better, coming with a graphic equalizer, streaming audio and support for lossless FLAC audio files.
Blackberry
Flipside: This app is ideal for those with a touchscreen device. Songs can be grouped by album cover art or by playlists. And moving from one collection to another is as simple as sliding your finger across the display. The software also finds missing album covers, and even tells you more about your music by drawing from the internet.
iOS
Cover Wall: This app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad chooses 35 albums randomly from your device and displays its covers in a grid. You can list the songs by tapping covers and then play tracks from it. The random feature makes this app a great way to revisit some tracks on your device you wouldn’t normally play. Listening on the Web
Grooveshark
Easily one of the best internet radio services to discover new music, just create a Grooveshark account and you’re ready to go. The site runs more than 25 radio channels based on genre, including Alternative, Bluegrass, Classical, Country, Hip Hop, Jazz, Metal, Pop, Trance, etc.
You can also stream songs and make custom playlists through a simple search. The right-hand panel provides album listings for performers, suggestions for similar artists, and fans who might have listed your searched song as one of their favourites. Checking the playlists of other fans could possibly lead to music you might have never heard before, but whose sound you might like. But the best feature to find new music is Grooveshark’s Explore section that regularly feeds you with new artists, as well as playlists created by musicians like Shaggy, T-pain, Wheezer, Papa Roach, etc so you get an idea of what the stars listen to. Ah yes, and if you like a song, you can add it to your favourites list, probably buy it, or even choose to share it with friends through Facebook, Twitter, or by email. Website: grooveshark.com
Gaana
If you’re looking for songs closer to home, you might want to consider Gaana, a web-based radio channel that boasts of a huge collection of songs in practically every Indian regional language, such as Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and even Sanskrit.
A free account lets you create your own playlists—including international chartbusting tracks—and you can even ‘like’, comment on favourites, and share songs with friends through Twitter, Facebook and email. To discover new music, simply check out the playlists of other members, or rely on the site’s suggestions for compositions that are similar to the one you are listening to. Website: www.gaana.com
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