Songza: Music online + freeware (beta) via Humanized

[dantheman]

Just discovered Songza http://www.songza.com/ by Humanized
I'm sure it will please most music lovers! 

Humanized also many "betaware" programs for free. I believe you shall not be deceived.
http://www.humanized.com/

[Ralf Maximus]

Wow, great find.  And the web 2.0 interface is simple but slick:

[justice]

Humanized also many "betaware" programs for free. I believe you shall not be deceived.

Like free popular beta programs turning into shareware via small print exemptions?

[dantheman]

Like free popular beta programs turning into shareware via small print exemptions?

Gee, i hope not Justice!
I failed to see anything about this going into shareware.

[Lashiec]

Oh, it's from the Enso guys. I love how the site does not say anything on how the system works. But looking at the titles I could make some theories... I also love how the site does not load any song at all, and how it borks a bit in Opera. Oh, at least they have Glenn Hughes songs, Mercora (or Social.FM like they're called now) don't have any.

[justice]

Like free popular beta programs turning into shareware via small print exemptions?

Gee, i hope not Justice!
I failed to see anything about this going into shareware.

That's true it's not so much a comment on Songza as it is on the whole beta trend going at the moment. I don't see any beta tag on this however, and no terms and condition or privacy policy so I am going to assume either will be added in the near future.

[Lashiec]

Paying for something that it's eating up bandwidth from another site (HUGE, but another site), which supplies content which the RIAA and all movie studios are trying to remove would be more than wrong. I found how it works, it was in the comments of the post about the site launch, in Humanized blog

Are you loading a hidden youtube video with javascript into the page to get the sound? And working with the youtube APIs to search, and get information about each?

And further down:

Very nice. Is this a youtube mashup? Excellent reduction of the cluttered youtube interface to just a very simple set of functions. Will be watching your next move!

I don't know if doing such thing is illegal or not (hotlinking I mean, which basically is what they're doing), considering that you can embed YouTube videos in every site, but at least they could tell their users how it works. Now this explains how I was getting songs by obscure groups... So, in summary, nothing revolutionary, which means no iTunes killer here, even more considering sound quality and that you don't know if you're getting a song or a interview, like me just now <_< , but slick and worth some songs. And now works *a bit better* in Opera