Songbeat Player Serves Up Free Tunes

Free online music is nothing new, but finding a legitimate source with a large library that is also easy to use can be difficult.  Windows-based Songbeat provides an elegant solution that won't fill your computer with malware or questionable pop-up ads.  Songbeat functions as an aggregator for websites like SeeqPod, SpoolFM and Project Playlist--places that either host or constantly scour the Internet for tracks that have been legitimately released for free online consumption.  Songbeat is also designed for speed, and has a 60 MB memory footprint on my machine versus iTunes' 200+ MB or so.  Part of that speed means that it's lean on configuration options--what you see is pretty much what you get--but the interface is elegant and super-easy to navigate.

Users of the free version can stream and listen to an unlimited number of songs through the program, and can download up to 25 of those tracks to their computer.  Those who upgrade to the paid version, which is currently $29.99, can download as many songs as they want.  Downloaded MP3s are sent to the Songbeat library, and can be directly burned to a CD or easily exported to Winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media Player with a single click.

Songbeat also features "Radio Station" functionality, which launches a last.fm player that dynamically creates streaming playlists of artists similar to those you search for.  While this is old hat to members of last.fm, Songbeat allows users to record these streams as MP3s for later listening.  The program's creators claim that recording streaming audio in this fashion is legal in their home country of Germany, and leave it to the individual to determine if using this function would violate their local laws.

While it may sound like Songbeat's creators are dancing around international copyright issues, their hearts seem to be in the right place when it comes to promoting artists.  At any time, users can click the Discover button at the top of the player and launch a webpage filled with band information and direct links to purchase music from Amazon.com's MP3 store.  Artists who participate with Songbeat can also offer merchandise and concert tickets through this page.  Also, the program's search results mostly yield freely-released live tracks, remixes, mashups, and so on--that is, legal material.  That means this isn't the program to use for filling out your discographies, but you should still keep an eye on what you're doing before you click that "Download" button.

Will good intentions, smart design decisions, and a hefty disclaimer keep the Songbeat team afloat and out of legal trouble?  We'll see, but music lovers should definitely give this program a whirl.  It's not going to replace your heavy-duty media player, but the breadth of music it offers and it's small memory footprint means Songbeat could be your laptop's best friend.

-Jon D.