ShareTheMusic
Encyclopedia
ShareTheMusic is an Internet platform for legal and free music sharing, owned by Desh, ltd.
It was launched worldwide on 26 October 2009. In December 2009 ShareTheMusic.com has been admitted to Microsoft
BizSpark (a global program for Start-up projects owned by private companies).
The guiding idea of the service was to make it possible for all the Internet users, disregarding their geographical location, to listen to the music without any fees and in conformity with the copyright
.
It is the first time that the mechanism of One-2-One Streaming
has been used in the music service, which allows a broadcaster to share the music with only one listener at a time. SharetheMusic acts as a middleman between users, and in contrast to other services, it does not store or distribute any files.
Using the application developed, specifically for this service, by Hicron Company, people who have a particular piece of music on their hard disk can broadcast it to only one listener at a time, and it cannot be copied by saving to the disk of another user. In this way the copyright of authors, performers and producers is observed .
. Since it was launched, the site has been available in 8 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Polish ). The site has already been visited by users from over 200 countries.
The search engine available on the website allows searching the database for any artist, album, track, group other service user. After finding the artist, album or track, user can encounter three types of button signs:
Currently (July 2010) more than 100 000 unique tracks of differentiated music are available in the service. What distinguishes ShareTheMusic from the site's competitors is, that The Beatles catalog is also available.
Available tracks or albums can be played at once or added to the playlist in ShareTheMusic Player application.
Apart from the album and track list, artists' profiles contain information on users sharing their music, concerts, related artists, date and place of birth, years of activity and represented music styles.
Another feature that allows to listen to the music on ShareTheMusic is Randomizer - a multi-channel, narrowly profiled radio station, in which users themselves are broadcasters. Each channel of Randomizer consists of a list of theme-related pieces of music which are made available in the service.
The tracks from the list on a given channel are played at random order in Player, without the interference of the listener. Randomizer, similarly to the whole ShareTheMusic, is based on the principle of One-2-One Streaming
.
The user, by creating his profile, obtains a possibility of communicating freely with other community members through a mail box or comments. Other features including Playlists (each user can create their own playlists) and marking tracks as Favourite or Disliked allow the users to share their musical tastes.
Each user has a possibility to create a group (private or public) and start discussion topics on the forum. The users themselves are the moderators of discussions: they determine what they want to write about.
ShareTheMusic Player is used to play audio files, such as mp3
, wma
, wav
, and to create and use playlists. With ShareTheMusic Player users can play music files available on the site (also Randomizer channels), and share the music with other users of the portal.
Shared files have to be in mp3 format with the bitrate between 64 and 192 kbps (kilobytes per second) and the sampling frequency from 22 to 44 Khz. User can use hyperlinks available from the application to go to the artist, album and track website.
ShareTheMusic Ripper
is an application for ripping audio CDs to mp3 files. Ripper, integrated with CDDB
, automatically recognizes the titles of the ripped tracks.
operating systems and, further in the future, versions for mobile devices.
It was launched worldwide on 26 October 2009. In December 2009 ShareTheMusic.com has been admitted to Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
BizSpark (a global program for Start-up projects owned by private companies).
The guiding idea of the service was to make it possible for all the Internet users, disregarding their geographical location, to listen to the music without any fees and in conformity with the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
.
It is the first time that the mechanism of One-2-One Streaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
has been used in the music service, which allows a broadcaster to share the music with only one listener at a time. SharetheMusic acts as a middleman between users, and in contrast to other services, it does not store or distribute any files.
Legality
ShareTheMusic plays a role of a middleman between the portal users who want to share their music by offering other Internet users access to it.Using the application developed, specifically for this service, by Hicron Company, people who have a particular piece of music on their hard disk can broadcast it to only one listener at a time, and it cannot be copied by saving to the disk of another user. In this way the copyright of authors, performers and producers is observed .
Website
ShareTheMusic is a free and global serviceSocial network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
. Since it was launched, the site has been available in 8 languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Polish ). The site has already been visited by users from over 200 countries.
Music Database
The search engine available on the website allows searching the database for any artist, album, track, group other service user. After finding the artist, album or track, user can encounter three types of button signs:
- unshared track (nobody has yet shared it).
- shared, but currently unavailable track (all sharing users are offline or they are sharing the file to someone else at the moment).
- shared and available track (one ore more users is sharing the track and is online at the moment).
Currently (July 2010) more than 100 000 unique tracks of differentiated music are available in the service. What distinguishes ShareTheMusic from the site's competitors is, that The Beatles catalog is also available.
Available tracks or albums can be played at once or added to the playlist in ShareTheMusic Player application.
Apart from the album and track list, artists' profiles contain information on users sharing their music, concerts, related artists, date and place of birth, years of activity and represented music styles.
Randomizer
Another feature that allows to listen to the music on ShareTheMusic is Randomizer - a multi-channel, narrowly profiled radio station, in which users themselves are broadcasters. Each channel of Randomizer consists of a list of theme-related pieces of music which are made available in the service.
The tracks from the list on a given channel are played at random order in Player, without the interference of the listener. Randomizer, similarly to the whole ShareTheMusic, is based on the principle of One-2-One Streaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
.
Community
ShareTheMusic contains a music community section, in which users can create their own profiles, communicate, create thematic groups, post information on music, and in this way they can directly influence the content appearing in the service.The user, by creating his profile, obtains a possibility of communicating freely with other community members through a mail box or comments. Other features including Playlists (each user can create their own playlists) and marking tracks as Favourite or Disliked allow the users to share their musical tastes.
Each user has a possibility to create a group (private or public) and start discussion topics on the forum. The users themselves are the moderators of discussions: they determine what they want to write about.
Applications
Sharing and listening to the music is executed via applications provided by ShareTheMusic.ShareTheMusic Player is used to play audio files, such as mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, wma
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, wav
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, and to create and use playlists. With ShareTheMusic Player users can play music files available on the site (also Randomizer channels), and share the music with other users of the portal.
Shared files have to be in mp3 format with the bitrate between 64 and 192 kbps (kilobytes per second) and the sampling frequency from 22 to 44 Khz. User can use hyperlinks available from the application to go to the artist, album and track website.
ShareTheMusic Ripper
CD ripper
A CD ripper, CD grabber or CD extractor is software that convert tracks on a CD to standard computer sound files, such as WAV, MP3, or Ogg Vorbis.It rips raw digital audio in CDDA format on a compact disc to a file or other output.- History :...
is an application for ripping audio CDs to mp3 files. Ripper, integrated with CDDB
CDDB
CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database, is a database for software applications to look up audio CD information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client is able to display the artist name, CD title,...
, automatically recognizes the titles of the ripped tracks.
Development
Portal's development plans consist of preparing applications for MacOS X and LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems and, further in the future, versions for mobile devices.
Curiosities
- The work on creating the service lasted 18 months.
- The first song broadcast through the service was "Respect" by Aretha Franklin.
External links
- ShareTheMusic Main Page
- Hicron Main Page
- Microsoft BizSpark
- ShareTheMusic YouTube channel videos showing service's functionality.