Webjay has a new, free and indeed simple seeming service; you can automatically convert any web page with audio file links into a streaming playlist. DETAILS HERE or just hang with me for a minute.
It really takes nothing special, just substitute in the url for a web page that has some audio file links. CLICK HERE to listen to Al Radio, for example.
Or just substitute the url for any page with mp3 links in place of my morethings page. For example, PLAY THIS PAGE will compile every audio link on this very Blogcritics page, and you can just hit "play."
Note that the links do not have to be on the same server. It will "scrape" the links off the page, and just draw one down after the other from any accessible server. Al Radio has several things from my morethings domain, some Richard Thompson, TMBG, Terence Trent D'Arby aka Sananda Matreiya and Rickie Lee Jones from their own servers.
So then, anytime someone hits THIS URL, Webjay scrapes the links off this very Blogcritics page and compiles a playlist. This would include the comments section, so feel free to add a link for your band's best mp3 here. Or just for anything particularly groovy that's legal for downloading off the net.
However, it's not picking up just the TEXT of a url, but only LINKS. In other words, this url: http://www.morethings.com/mp3/Busybodies_Dog_Food.mp3 will not get me anything THIS LINK will.
Most likely, we're going to be using this simple service to create some kind of Blogcritics meta-radio. In the meantime, you can play with this on your own web pages, or even someone else's page that you discover with some links on it.
They could be a DJ and not even know it.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Al Barger
Just testing to make sure that this will in fact pick up LINKS FROM COMMENTS. I pray that it does.
2 - Al Barger
TESTING, TESTING, 1-2-3
3 - Eric Olsen
excellent, thanks!
4 - John Voorhees
Fascinating technology. Of course, even though I am an aspiring songwriter, I would never consider just posting a link without any request... aw who am I kidding?
5 - visualsimplicity
This won't piss anyone off? Just wondering since you are sort of directly linking to someone's file rather than directing traffic to their site.
6 - Eric Olsen
The ideal thing to do is identify the artist and song and tell where the file came from.
7 - visualsimplicity
Alright in that case. Artist: Antennasia. Song: Dub Handles. Visit them at: www.antennasia.com.
8 - Al Barger
This ID thing shouldn't even be an issue, because any band distributing MP3s should be including track tags embedded right in the file with artist name, album, websites, etc for display in my player window. This would take them all of what, 30 seconds to put into the files?
Besides being good for something like this, it is the only thing that's going to be useful in the normal course of events. I'm downloading this DubHandle thing right now, but when I get around to listening to it a day or two from now, I'm not going to go looking for the web page where I found it.
What they want is exposure for their band. Let's cut to the chase. A known person (virtualsimplicity) recommends the track. I'll listen to it. If that gets my attention, THEN I might be motivated to bother with a web page.
9 - Lucas
Webjay has a bunch of features to direct traffic back to MP3 hosts. They're fairly imperfect, but usually the do the job.
10 - Eric Olsen
Hey Lucas, we're testing the waters a bit here. We will launch something formal soon. Thanks!
11 - Al Barger
Do you GOT THE TIME for a power pop classic?
12 - Al Barger
Will it throw this Joe Jackson rm file into the mix?
13 - visualsimplicity
I must be missing something. I see a lot of ways to track back to this page, but no way of accessing the mp3 hosts, except for direct downloading of the songs. It's not really an issue with me, I'm with Al on it, exposure is exposure. I'm all about listening to recommendations from people. However, I bet there are people out there who would have an issue with this.
Anyway, it seems to work great. Can't wait till the formal one gets launched. Oh and by the way, will it be done in the same way? (via comment) If so, what's to prevent something inappropriate from being posted? (then again that's an issue with everything...)
14 - visualsimplicity
Oh and one more thing. Not sure if this is possible now or will be in a future update, but is there a way to randomize the playlist? That would be a nice feature (maybe it already is and I just can't seem to figure it out, in that case, please ignore).
15 - Al Barger
You really need to HEAR THIS classic rarity.
16 - Al Barger
VS- What I'm saying is that they should routinely have their label and artist info built into the mp3 files, so that when you routinely play the track on your computer, it displays artist, song title, website, lyrics, bio, more.
Hell, you could probably load a whole damned novel into the track tags. It don't take that much to add a url to all your mp3 files before you turn them loose.
17 - visualsimplicity
Al, I knew what you meant. Despite the site exposure etc... there is still the issue of usage of bandwidth for the hosts.
18 - Lucas
visualsimplicity --
About randomization, up until this moment I didn't realize anybody but me wanted it. :)
About what to do if somebody links to an unuauthorized tune, that's a long conversation about the security of things like Webjay. What it comes down to is three things: unauthorized material gets knocked off the public web fast, when I see obviously unauthorized material I ask the person to take it down, and rights holders (or site operators) can use the tattlematic at http://webjay.org/tattlematic to have URLs blocked.
About ways to ways to track back to the source page for an MP3, assuming Webjay knows the source page it will direct you there from a click in RealPlayer while a song is playing; there is a [site] link next to songs in the HTML; and scraped pages have a big link back to the source in the upper right.
19 - Al Barger
VS- I fail to see the issue. If somebody doesn't want people downloading their file, don't publish it with free availability on the web.
I don't know about anybody else, but I WANT people to download the stuff I sponsor at morethings. That's why I have it up there.
20 - visualsimplicity
I don't know about you, but I've visited quite a few pages where the site would post media files and allow people to redistribute them, but by way of uploading it to their own server and not direct linking. It's a matter of over using the bandwidth, possibly suspending the account etc... Something to that extent. Webjay seems to be just like redistributing the file through direct linking and if popularity soars, load is multiplied. Of course I could be all wrong on this as I'm not as knowledgable about this as I make myself sound, but it seems like a legitimate issue.
21 - Al Barger
Well, if bandwidth use becomes an issue for this or some other little obscure listing of mine, I'll be co-operative. Hell, "co-operation" is practically my middle name.
22 - Lucas
vs -- Webjay does its best to get users to visit the original page, so that people who post MP3s to draw traffic to, e.g., a Buy page can make good on their investment. That's about the best anybody can hope for.
23 - visualsimplicity
Woops, I just realized I was playing devil's advocate. I didn't mean to be all negative about certain things. I like what webjay is doing. The intentions are wonderful and I can't wait for blogcritics to launch an official station.
24 - Al Barger
That's right "The Mascara Snake"
Fast 'n bulbous
Tight also
Ella Guru
She got something for me
She got something for you
25 - Al Barger
Again, just hitting THIS LINK will pull you up for an increasingly groovy playlist from this page, including rare STUFF LIKE THIS.