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Songbeat Like (Old-School) Napster for One-Off Music Downloads
Posted by Adam Pash at 3:00 PM on January 17, 2008
Windows only: Freeware application Songbeat scours previously mentioned music streaming service Seeqpod for tunes, then streams or downloads the music directly to your desktop. Just install the app (the installer asks for your email address, but I was able to install without entering anything), fire it up, and start searching. You can choose to either stream or download any of the search results, but downloading will automatically save the MP3 to your default music folder or to any other folder of your choice (though streaming is handy to check the quality before you download). You can play back any of the downloaded files in the My Music section of the player or—you know—in your media player of preference. Songbeat grabs results from Seeqpod fast, and the downloads are generally very quick. Songbeat is freeware, Windows only (a "Pro" version is available and a Mac version is coming in 2-4 weeks). Put this one at the top of the ever-growing list of ways you can download and listen to free music from the web.
So the software isn't peer-to-peer like Napster was (it pulls MP3s from the web), and you probably won't see the breadth of search results you could find from Napster in its heyday, but in terms of ease of quickly finding and downloading songs à la carte, Songbeat feels most akin to the original Napster. Not that I, you know, ever used it. Of course the Limewires and FrostWires are still out there, but Songbeat just does one thing—music—and you're not likely to inadvertently download anything nasty from Songbeat.
Tags: digital music | downloads | featured windows download | free music | idolator | mp3s | top | windows
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Beema
Posted July 8, 2008 12:54 PM
Thanks for the cool post. After a bit of searching, though, I would say to just use http://sadsteve.com instead of Songbeat since they do the same thing but Sad Steve is all web-based. Plus Sad Steve is just more badass and fun to use.
-Beema
sauronringlord12
Posted 4:31 PM 17/1/08
Does using software like this shield your IP address from said download sites? Is one likely to get sued downloading this way? Naturally it is illegal to freely obtain tracks you do not own and downloading this was is probably a "Gray Area" but is it safe to download or are you asking for trouble? Not that I would download, just asking =)
sauronringlord12
ahoehler
Posted 4:31 PM 17/1/08
Sounds pretty good, but, so far, I haven't been able to find out how many downloads you get with the free version since the "Pro" version offers unlimited downloads.
ahoehler
anonymii
Posted 9:57 PM 16/1/08
Nice. Much quicker then Jaseeq.
anonymii
Potrod
Posted 9:56 PM 16/1/08
@sauronringlord12: The site hosting the song is more likely to get in trouble than you listening to it. They're the ones making it freely available.
Potrod
TechTalk WRLR 98.3FM
Posted 1:31 AM 18/1/08
@ahoehler - i haven't been able to find any information out there about what the difference between basic and pro is ... it says with basic you can 'test' the download feature. Anybody with any idea what that means?
TechTalk WRLR 98.3FM
Starhawk
Posted 9:13 AM 17/1/08
Nice application. I managed to get it to install in Ubuntu using Wine and it seems to work. I did a search and downloaded a couple of songs. The play back was terrible in songbeat but that may have been because it was still searching for songs. The songs downloaded fine tho. Thanks :)
Starhawk
thenightfly42
Posted 8:36 AM 17/1/08
I use the Firefox-based Songbird ([www.songbirdnest.com]), still in development, but available for Win, Mac, & Linux.
thenightfly42
Zolang
Posted 2:05 AM 17/1/08
@AHOEHLER: Found a German site that mentions a max of 50 downloads.
Shame, because SongBeat is very fast and realy finds a lot of the songs I have been looking for for a while.
Zolang
foxmajik
Posted 8:32 AM 18/1/08
"If you enjoy using the Songbeat Player just upgrade to the pro version and you`ll enjoy it even more ;) No ads + unlimited use of the download function are just the beginning..."
Translation: This software intentionally stands between music that is freely available on the web and people who are uncomfortable with finding it themselves in order to force them to pay for the path to the music they want.
Optionally users may allow themselves to be violated by advertising and frustrated by limitations of software that can function perfectly well as written if a couple of bytes are changed.
foxmajik
FLEB
Posted 10:32 AM 18/1/08
@sauronringlord12: IIRC, you're in a much better position, legally, as a downloader than an uploader.
As a downloader, you're just getting a file from a "distributor". Who's to say whether it's an authorized or licensed distributor? As an uploader, though, there is no such ambiguity-- you are the distributor, and you need permission.
FLEB
ffantasyv
Posted 12:35 PM 18/1/08
It crashed the first time I used it. One ctrl+alt+del later this puppy has been uninstalled.
ffantasyv
wboswell
Posted 7:33 PM 17/1/08
Poops out after 50 downloads, no joy even after reinstalling. Also offers a "pro" version but there's no pro version, just a weird loop. I did manage to get a big chunk of Mindy Smith (fweee!!).
wboswell
rasti
Posted 5:32 AM 19/1/08
There is a BETTER way to search and download music from
Seeqpod.com
Its Seeqsearch, a tiny PORTABLE app that you can find at
[www.absurde-zeiten.de]
Its an early beta that will expire on 31/12/2008.
You can store the app in your 20€ chinese USB MP3, and run it from it without the need of install.
No java required.
Enjoy
rasti
moglee
Posted 11:31 PM 19/1/08
Haha... These guys want to get paid for this... Amazing.
I managed to make a Yahoo Pipe out of it. You don't have to install it or anything also.
Just go to [pipes.yahoo.com] and search for whatever you want. The results show up as links to MP3. Then you can download them using Flashgot or something.
And no limits on the number of downloads either :)
moglee
Emerick
Posted 12:39 PM 19/1/08
I've tried it and managed to find some good songs. Thanks a lot for the link.
Emerick
rasti
Posted 10:32 AM 20/1/08
@MOGLEE
Good work !
Now is in my bookmaks !!!
Congrats!!
rasti
KiNexus
Posted 4:32 AM 22/1/08
There is one big backdoor into the seeqpod database since the website itself is only a big streaming front for a crawler. This came with the inclusion of the webapp for iPhone and iPod Touch (since they can't handle flash streaming). Check out the app (which is only a searchable html interface) at [www.seeqpod.com] (click the link, it is a subsite of seeqpod). After finding the music, it is, ofcourse, up to you to save the files.
KiNexus
Adduc
Posted 4:32 AM 22/1/08
I've gotten around the 50 song limit by using my favorite download manager, Orbit Downloader at [orbitdownloader.com] . Using the grab++ feature and monitoring the Songbeat Player application does the trick. To those who need specific instructions:
Once you're in grab++: Action -> Preferences... -> Monitoring -> Browser... -> (Navigate to the Songbeat Player application [c:\program files\songbeat\songbeat.exe] -> OK
Keep the grab++ window open, start playing a file in songbeat and switch back to grab++ to find the mp3 link.
Adduc
anainrd
Posted 10:08 PM 21/1/08
If you download the new real player you can go to seeqpod and after you find the song, play it and scroll over the clip, then you will have the option of downloading it. It works with almost all kind of videos or music you play on the web also.
anainrd
emptee
Posted 8:31 AM 23/1/08
A new version of seeqsearch (mentioned by Rasti above) can be found under [www.absurde-zeiten.de] .
Now it's supported to check the URLs received from seeqpod for 404-errors before displaying them.
Some other features are also added.
emptee