In Beta, apple, itunes, microsoft, simplifymedia, windows vista

Stream iTunes Over the Internet

Using SimplifyMedia will allow you to add 30 of your friends' iTunes music libraries to your own and access them no matter where they are physically located. Right now the beta software is a free download and only works on PCs and Macs. If you do decide to give SimplifyMedia a whirl, be warned—the software sounds a little sluggish right now and includes one unforgivable pop-up.

~~A user-repulsing "Buy Music" ad appears while the program is open and can't be closed out, though it can be minimized.~~ If you can look around it, SimplifyMedia sounds like it does what it set out to do, even in its beta state. Oh, no Vista. Solly.

Update: The SimplifyMedia team let us know that the aforementioned offending pop-up has been removed from the program. When the Amazon purchase link was determined to be an annoyance, it got cut. We're all for a team that puts the user first. Sounds like an app to keep an eye on. [Symplify Media via tuaw.com]

7:22 PM on Thu Jul 12 2007
By Kevin Hall
7,623 views
18 comments

Comments

bandit at 07:38 PM on 07/12/07
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"enlarged to show detail"?? What is this, a box of Nestle cookies? Isn't EVERY image on Gizmodo either enlarged or reduced to scale to the screen?
catbutt at 07:51 PM on 07/12/07
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@bandit
One, why would every image be enlarged or reduced? Seems like most screen caps would be shown actual size.
Two...it so so you understand that part of the image is enlarged relative to the other part...otherwise the image could be confusing.
OldSchoolGadgetLover at 07:57 PM on 07/12/07
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It only works on PC's and Macs? I guess that means it doesn't run on Unix, OS400 or mainframes? No way I'm getting that crap then!
RoyalKennebecasisAdven... at 08:02 PM on 07/12/07
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Damn, we in the BeOS user base are pissed by this! First we don't get iPhone support, and now we won't be able to stream our iTunes libraries between the two of us!
rlreif at 08:45 PM on 07/12/07
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NICE
thanks, Giz
just installed this and it works great....
also no popup on a mac... must just be the windows issue
LillieDesigns at 09:01 PM on 07/12/07
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Works great, but to verify there IS an Amazon buy pop-up on macs.
schrosa at 09:25 PM on 07/12/07
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What's wrong with Hamachi?
packetsniffer at 09:29 PM on 07/12/07
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"and only works on PCs and Macs"
Wow. I don't think I've ever read that phrase before on a tech blog. What Linux user would want to use this?
paul at 09:42 PM on 07/12/07
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Thanks for the comments and thanks for the post. A mention on Gizmodo is a big deal to us.

If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at support at simplify media or email me directly at paul at simplify media. This is a brand new beta and we would like your input to make it better. Obviously, we need to work on the "user-repulsing" buy music link.

Our intent is to offer this as a free application, not just free while in beta. We want to make it convenient for you to purchase new music you discover. And, we try to minimize the annoyance by letting you hide the window and having it stay hidden for you entire listening session.

Paul Joyce, co-founder Simplify Media
kevnaca at 09:48 PM on 07/12/07
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To let you guys at the top know, the image is from the Simplify Media site. Anyways looks like a great way to stream my iTunes library.
Compact at 03:57 AM on 07/13/07
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Probably been posted many times, but when I turned iTunes on recently, I had a list of someone elses music via LimeWire. So I could listen to all their stuff as if it was on my machine.

Not seen it since, but quite a good idea...
db2 at 07:02 AM on 07/13/07
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Crap, I guess I'm out of luck with my VAX iTunes.
yooper1019 at 09:02 AM on 07/13/07
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Hamachi is my choice! I doubt there is a 30 user limit and the creator of the network can boot anybody they want. Yes, you can develop an iTunes God complex.
yertle at 11:06 AM on 07/13/07
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I used to run stunnel and a rendezvous emu to get this done back with iTunes 6 so I could stream music from home. I haven't had it working since iTunes 7 came out, which has sucked. I'll give this a try, although if their application works there must be a better hack out there so skip the ads.
morph3us at 12:17 PM on 07/13/07
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@hughjass: hey i bet a lot of linux users are running itun......hahha, sorry, couldn't keep a straight face.
Jumpking04 at 03:02 PM on 07/13/07
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Well it looks cool maybe they may partner with Mac and work to better this. Once mac hears about this they're going to get money hungry and just try to control it.
Im guessing that the music is going to be streamed over the net.
paul at 06:43 PM on 07/13/07
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an update: the popup has been removed from Simplify Media.

We have posted a new build on our website that does not include the Buy Music popup. New users will not see this window, and current users can reinstall if they prefer.

The point of the Amazon links was to enable people to buy songs they discover. However, it was meant to be a convenience, not an annoyance. We hope to provide an option to do this in the future that is much less obtrusive and not a popup.

Paul Joyce, co-founder Simplify Media
Chiper at 07:02 PM on 07/13/07
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It looks like it shares all the audio files out over an IM style system, and then each client runs it's own DAAP server that iTunes can see. When iTunes requests a song, the client connects to the other system and sends it.

I would have preferred some sort of DAAP tunneling, then I'd only get the files I have iTunes set to share, with the non-ID3 stored data, instead of my entire 20,000 file library.

Still, neat concept.