Songbeat 360 Brings Back Seriously Easy Music Downloads

why would i pay for music

penetrarthur

@happinessiseasy: Actually this is only on the legal edge. It appears to be legitimate. The 50 free songs is just like those "50 free MP3" things you see everywhere. They're just there to entice you to pay money. Doesn't mean you cant benefit from it. Thats not really illegal, now is it?

Alternate

@happinessiseasy:

Instead of merely pointing out the support of illegal activity, every time you chance upon such doings by LH, post a link to LH's ad-blocking articles. Think of it as a karmic balance.

kftgr

@Zach W. R. Mollett: Holy divine? As in, "I spent three months writing the lyrics for this song, three nights working out the arrangement with my band and HOLY sht, some sshole just uploaded it to the Internet and I'm not even gonna make back the money I paid to the studio. Isn't that DIVINE?"

Is that what you're talking about? Because if that's your attitude, give me your address, and I'll be happy to come over and liberate your holy divine belongings from your apartment and sell them on eBay.

seiun

@seiun: Not illegal as it is a "free trial" with 50 credits and then after wards allows you to buy 1,000 credits for a measly $15 dollars. It isn't stealing, it's using something that someone far more divine than I (your ears) to listen to our meat orifices bang together - holy divine is it not. The fact that people get paid to do this is just a great incentive.

Zach W. R. Mollett

The legal standing of these uploads/downloads is not "questionable"--they're illegal. If you're going to promote this stuff, why not at least be honest about it?

And why, pray tell, would I want to give money to these greedy creeps when I can buy the song and support the artist instead? I have friends who pay the rent or buy groceries off the money they get from selling songs in iTunes. Is there some reason why musicians should not be able to make a living from their work?

Why do people who would never consider shoplifting or hot-wiring a car or breaking into someone's apartment believe it's OK to steal from musicians? Because it's easy? Because chances of getting caught are reasonably low? I seriously don't get it.

This isn't a battle between the "music industry" and freedom. It's a battle between honesty and thievery.

seiun

..not sure the pay to pirate model will catch on...

leighpower

@gtheule: What does this have to do with the US?

Apeiron242

This is annoying for several reasons...first of all, if I have to pay, I'd rather pay for a download than for a search. How do I know the search will even turn up anything??

Second, if I have to pay, I'd rather have the money going to the music industry than to a software maker. Or at least, some of it. The entire point of paying for music online, in my opinion, is to give you the peace of mind of having downloaded legally.

Paying for ILLEGAL music? No thanks.

sondosia

I would really like to know if there is a way to earn credits, such as sit through an add or wait a week to get 50 more.

reisyboy

As soon as they show that a chunk of their profits go directly to the artists they're stealing from, I'll pay. Otherwise, this is definitely the worst of both worlds.

@lethargiclown: This, this, eight hundred times this. Any moral ground you might've had goes out the window when money changes hands.

drjayphd

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.:
good call, i was about to say that

kenboy127

Downloaded this last night, and think its great. Most sites/apps I've used don't yield as much on the searches as this does, at least not for the music I'm looking for.

Just a personal preference, but I'd of liked a web app better, but once my credits run their course, I'll definitely drop out for more.

Cyber-bizz-czar

@metaslugx: I'd rather pay the 48 dollars a year for slacker radio. I never get that annoying msg of "Here's some music that sounds like "abc band", but due to our lack of licensing we can't actually play "abc band".

Add in the G2 portable player to the mix and you win all around. PLUS, the couple times I've tried to search for a group and come up empty, I send an email and it's been added by the end of the month.

sicknick

They're going to get shot down by some ticked-off music labels pretty quick here!

*sitsandwaits*

hardman.ethan

@happinessiseasy: I'm surprised you don't! It's hands down the best deal for legit music.
$15/mo, download and listen to anything in the marketplace all you want and keep 10 tracks at the end of each month.

So for $5/mo you have access to all their music for streaming or downloading-- as long as you commit to paying for 10 tracks that month. No contracts. Sounds too good to be true.

ericesque

@TattoozNTech: Pay the $36.00 a year for Pandora, it's sooooo worth it.

metaslugx

never pay to pirate.

lethargiclown

@happinessiseasy: what are you some sort of nun.

diamonddnice

@happinessiseasy: That's enough out of you. The world doesn't revolve around the US, although, granted, Canada-only article on LH are few and far between.

This kind of service is absolutely, 100% legal in Canada. We're not allowed to upload, but downloading for personal use, like this, is completely covered under the CD levy, as long as we burn the tracks to CDs.

gtheule

lol. I find it funny that companies are finding more creative ways to earn money, like letting people download free (and illegal) music but charges them to search for it (which you do almost unconsciously). That reminds me of selling cheap popcorn in a movie theater and skyrocketing the price for pop (and forbiding people from bringing their own drinks) because people taking advantage of the cheap popcorn will get thirsty.

resilient

@Forcen: Rub it in.

jupiterthunder

@Donavenn: Thank you.

If you are all about morality and artist getting their fair share.... talk to the RIAA about MusicShare and how they RIP OFF their own artist.

Otherwise leave the moral commentary to another site. We all don't steal music here, but we damn sure don't want to be brow beat by the ridiculously self-righteous.

Cordfucious of Tech Clan

@happinessiseasy: I would love it! My old one was an excellent PMP and it was stolen. I can't afford a new one at the moment but I have my eye on the new HD one coming out in Sept. I'm sure it will be drowned out by all the iClones out there yammering about how much cooler they are because they have a more popular player. Doesn't bother me in the least really. I just think the players kick ass and are a great middle between overpriced Apple stuff and cheaper, less fully-featured offerings from Sandisk and the like.

JerryA

@BnWRainbow: Agreed. I used to be a fan of songbeat, but now I just have Skreemr and a few similar sites bookmarked in Songbird, and 95% of the time, whatever I search for is a click away.

@HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.: agreed! besides, i hardly ever even download *pirate* anymore, since i have Pandora streaming on my home/work PC's, and iPhone 3GS 16GB, it keeps me happy all the time. i throw $.99 into it when necessary tho, and ya it is goin towards a legit enterprise, so maybe i'm finally givin some where it's due too...

@JohnnyricoMC: well said, i think you have a good point, and i'm even american too. i know we in the US are waaaaaay 2 spoiled rotten, *i complain about everything myself*, we b*tch when we don't get to stop by our preferred fast food place or the traffic is grinding when there are people somehow, amazingly enough, surviving on dollars a month or less, all over the world. i'm not trying to self-diss or diss on my own contrymen, but we do b*tch about too much here for real. *sigh* one can expect some other earth shaking event to have to happen before we pause in that complaining, but even then, it would only be a pause really...

@happinessiseasy: Jesus, just shut up. Nobody's asking you to be here or read the article and you can be damned sure nobody wants to hear you bitch about it.

Donavenn

@happinessiseasy: I say they're helping keep the internet free.

Those with the ability, have the obligation.

@JohnnyricoMC: You guys want the Zune? Seriously?! Take it.

More illegal activity promotion by Lifehacker. Way to go, guys.

isn't Skreemr enough for that?

@Shoeb Ahmed: Unlike Spotify - Songbeat would be facilitating the downloading of copyrighted material, illegally.

Expect it gone before the year is out.

Spotify at least has licencing agreements to make it a legal venture.

M3ta7h3ad

@Shoeb Ahmed: Wow, for the one time it's the US in the seat of the discriminated bunch and there's already someone whining.

Does somebody need to make you a list of all the US-exclusive crap the EMEA and Asian market have to put up with? How the Zune is US-exclusive? How products are sold for way higher prices here, even though the € currency is worth far more than the US$?

Before you complain about not getting something you want, consider the fact there's always someone out there who has it far worse than you.

So, I can either pirate for free, pay for legitimate tracks from Amazon or iTunes, or go the Songbeat route and pay to pirate?

No thanks. Sounds like the worst of both worlds to me.

HeartBurnKid: Agent of R.O.A.C.H.

@Shoeb Ahmed: boo hoo. For once the roles are reversed, and for good reason. Music licensing is a *****. Besides, if you were informed, you would know spotify is going statesside before '10.

unruled

Songbird still rocks at dowonloading web searched tracks... and it's strating to get a serious plugin collection

Love how you people like to complain complain complain. Songbeat, whether a clone of Spotify or not, is atleast available to the Americas.

Unlike Spotify, which is keeping us away from its product. I say good going Songbeat, and good timing. Get a piece of the pie before slow-poke Spotify makes it to the Americas.

@jonny6pak: Heartily seconded. If the music is being illegally shared, why am I giving my money to other pirates? I'd much rather give what little money I have to musicians via direct donation when possible.

I decided to give it a go, despite the 50 credits system.

It's a (bad), blatant spotify clone. Essentially when you search, it just returns you mp3's it found on the internet (ie. a la Google), but then in a way that allows you to play and download them directly.

Consequently, there are no album groupings, the bitrates vary drastically, tags are a mess......

If you are a happy spotify user, stay away from this.

unruled

Looks cool, but I'm not going to pay for a service unless I know for certain a portion of the money is actually making it into the artists' hands.

jonny6pak