Find songs, create playlists with Just Hear It
I've been looking for a replacement for playable search engine Songerize, and this morning, I stumbled across Just Hear It, which offers a much better experience than Songerize ever did.
Enter a song title or artist's name, and Just Hear It returns a list of possible matches--including not only audio tracks, but also YouTube videos. (Songerize didn't offer choices, but started playing what it thought was the best match, and it didn't have any video content.)
In my tests so far, Just Hear It has always delivered the song I was looking for somewhere in the first-page results, though sometimes, I've had to enter both artist and title--for example, searching "Thrasher" didn't return the Neil Young song of that name until I entered Young's name.
Often, the engine turned me on to alternate versions--live tracks, cover versions--that I didn't know existed. You can play results immediately or compile them into a playlist, but you can't save playlists between searches, unless you're a member, which makes this feature kind of worthless. (Membership is currently available by invitation only.)
The site needs a few tweaks--the "search" button at the top of the page seems to return random results (maybe it's a list of what other searchers are looking for?), so you have to click the logo and return to the home page to conduct additional searches.
The fact that the entire site is a Flash application makes navigation difficult--the "back" button doesn't work, and if you click on "About," you're stuck there with no way to the home page except reloading. The light-gray text on black background isn't the best design choice. Still, this is the best service I've seen so far for hearing that song you need to hear right now.
According to the "About" page, the site is legal--it pays for licenses from the three major organizations, BMI, ASCAP, and CESAC, and it apparently pays publishers royalties based on the number of plays they receive. (I can't imagine how it's accomplishing this, given that the site's free and so far doesn't have advertising.) But although paying publishing rights is sufficient for traditional ("terrestrial") radio, Internet radio stations must also pay performance royalties, which are owned and managed by a completely different group of bodies.
There's been an ongoing debate over the last two years regarding a proposed rate increase for performance royalties--CNET's Greg Sandoval wrote a detailed account of the latest developments in February--but suffice it to say, claiming that you're legal doesn't necessarily make it so.
In other words, enjoy Just Hear It while it lasts.
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Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff. 
- by pjk449 April 22, 2009 7:05 PM PDT
- Matt, Thanks for the info. I'll check out 'Just Hear It. '
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- by toosday April 22, 2009 11:20 PM PDT
- I agree.... I've been using the Lala.com for a few months now and it's fantastic. I've spent far more money on music from Lala.com in a few months than I had from any other online store. I think you're right, it's because I can hear the entire song instead of a short sample!
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(3 Comments)I feel like I'm shouting into the void, but I don't understand why everyone isn't talking about lala.com. It's such a great service--I have discovered so many new artists. And there's no 'regret syndrome' because the 30 sec clip on itunes wasn't really representative of the whole song. And I'm buying more mp3s (from lala.com) than ever, too. I'm terrified that they'll go out of business--no one seems to know about them.
Some great points about Lala.com
-Listen free to whole songs and entire albums once.
-Buy Web songs for online listening for 10 cents. How about a web album for 80 cents?
-If you like the music, you can buy the mp3 (you are credited the 10 cents you spent on the web album.
-People-based recommendations. You can follow and be followed. I've found some people on lala who consistently expose me to fabulous new music.
I listen as I work at my desk with my good computer speakers with a sub-woofer--it's great. I stream the music to the living room wirelessly -heaven! Try it. I'm Karen S. on lala.com. (Not affiliated with lala.com in any way. I just love lala.com and want it to prosper.)
Also, for audiphiles, I found that Lala has some songs that are actually 320 kbps (instead of just 256 kpbs like other stores). I discovered this by accident, when I purchased songs by Bob Dylan - yet another artist I had never listened to prior to joining Lala.
I don't work for the company either, nor am I an audiophile by any means, but the site has some great things going for it that others do not.