MP3tunes

Streaming music services such as Pandora?and Slacker Radio?deliver customized music mixes to desktops, set top boxes, and mobile phones, but if you want to listen to your personal digital audio files on a variety of devices, signing up for a music lockers like MP3tunes is the solution. The service lets you upload music, podcasts, and other audio files to the provider's servers and stream the content to a Web-connected platform. MP3tunes works well, but a recently bankruptcy filing?the result of a lengthy lawsuit battle with EMI?may threaten the service's future.

The Basics
MP3tunes has a free, basic plan that serves up 2GB of online storage, but also premium accounts that dramatically up the capacity. There are 50GB ($4.95 per month/$39.95 per year), 100GB ($7.95 per month/$74.95 per year), and 200GB ($12.95 per month/$139.95) storage plans available that MP3tunes touts as storing 10,000, 20,000, and 40,000 songs respectively.

If you have a sizeable collection, you can find better deals elsewhere. Amazon Cloud Player, for instance, gives you 5GB of online storage by default. Google Play?lets you store 20,000 songs (the equivalent of MP3tunes' 200GB plan) that are a maximum 250MB in size before nudging you toward a premium plan.

MP3tunes auto-discovers the tracks on your PC, but you can also manually upload iTunes playlists, or cherry pick individual tracks. I clicked "Find All My Music," which caused MP3tunes to find 18 tracks on my computer?a mix of songs, instrumentals, and podcasts. The upload process took just shy of 10 minutes. Besides the Web uploader, there's a free desktop application, LockerSync, that lets users sync music between MP3tunes and the desktop. It proves especially useful if you move to a new PC and want to download files to the desktop.

MP3tunes supports MP3, MP4, M4A, AAC, WMA, OGG, and FLV files. It doesn't, however, support WAV files or lossless formats like FLAC. Google Play, on the other hand, supports FLAC but downgrades it to 320 Kbps. Amazon Cloud Player doesn't support FLAC at all.

The MP3tunes Experience
I logged into MP3tunes from a different computer, but this time I was directed to the Web player due to now having content uploaded to the digital locker. There are four Web players?Locker, Radio, Classic, Flash?but my favorite is Locker as it resembles a desktop media player with sections for artist names, albums, playlists, and more (plus it has far more polish than the other options). MP3tunes operates like any other media player?you click a track to play, and manipulate playback buttons to pause and skip tracks.

MP3tunes' audio quality is quite good. I expected a more compressed sound, but my audio files sounded loud and crisp. The music and podcasts sounded equally pleasing when streaming audio via the $0.99 mMusic iPad app, which acts as an MP3tunes mobile player.

MP3tunes, unlike Amazon Cloud Player, isn't tied to a store; you have to rely on acquiring tunes from external sources. That wouldn't necessarily be a negative, but any tunes purchased via Amazon don't count against a users Amazon Cloud Player storage, which may potentially save you lots of dough.

The Wrap
MP3tunes is a functional digital music locker, but Amazon Cloud Player and Google Play give you even more options?options that may save you money in the long run. It's unfortunate that MP3tunes' financial woes may darken the service's future?it did get into the space before Amazon or Google, after all?as it may have evolved into a digital music locker contender. If you're looking for a service that lets you stream your own music, you're best served by Amazon Cloud Player and Google Play.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/9k3mNBJreUY/0,2817,2411036,00.asp

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