We have always found it a little annoying to have to have a browser open to listen music via Pandora. This piece of software allows Pandora users to login to their Pandora account and access the streaming music service without having to open a web browser.

We were suprised to find out that Pandora’s Box was created in 2005, that is becasuse we had not come across it. But we fell in love with it at first sight. The program has support for Quick Mix, lets users give songs a thumbs up or down and offers the same features found on Pandora.com.

In the future we hope that the creator makes it more memory efficient and also support for Mac would be nice for Mac users. Overall we found this program to be a must have for all Pandora users.

Do you ever go to YouTube looking for music videos? We all do… Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend is #2 for most viewed video. Well that is what Mystrands.tv is all about. The site is simple to use, all you do is enter an artist or genre and MyStrands will start playing music videos it thinks you’ll like. All of the videos played on Mystrands.tv are hosted by YouTube.

Because the videos are hosted on YouTube you may end up hiding some bumps in play due to the video being deleted by the YouTube user or YouTube deleting it for being illegally uploaded. During our time on Mystrands.tv we did not see any deleted video messages so hopefully they made it so removed videos are skipped.

Like most music listening services users are able to give music videos a thumbs up or down to let MyStrands more easily find music that meets your likings.

Amazon and Pepsi are planning to partner in a give away. They plan to give away 1 billion MP3s from Amazon’s MP3 download store. The give away will launch during the Super Bowl on Feb 3rd.

How to win. Pepsi is going to print a code on 5 billion bottle caps and you will enter the code at the Amazon MP3 store.

We have seen this before when Pepsi partnered with apple and gave away 25 million 5 million songs. 20 million went unredeemed. Amazon and Pepsi say they are giving away 1 billion songs but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually be “giving away” anywhere near that number.

TokBox’s goal is to change communication between humans by making it easy to video call online. TokBox has been launched today, making it the first voice and video calling product to be made available for the meebo Platform. One great thing about TokBox is it does not require any form of registration, download, installation or configuration since it has been seamlessly integrated into millions of meebo conversations.

According to Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder, meebo, “At meebo, our mission is to connect people live on the Web. The integration of TokBox into the meebo Platform will help connect millions of people in live, face-to-face voice and video contact every day. TokBox’s video calling application inside of meebo brings us one large step closer to becoming the Web’s live interaction destination.”

Nielsen and NetRatings have done a study on meebo and has shown it to be the fastest growing IM destination in the US. TokBox aims to take advantage of this massive userbase by making communication much more personal, allowing you to view your family members, friends, co-workers or even new acquaintances no matter which part of the world you’re currently at right now.

Some other interesting features of TokBox include the ability to send videomail to anyone with an email address, as well as embedding video communication into any website.

Samsung has just introduced its fastest DVD burner yet, burning speeds top at 20x for DVD±R discs, 16x for dual layer DVD+R variants, and 12x for DVD-RAM. One cool feature is support for LightScribe burning. Samsung says this is the fastest dual layer DVD burner available to consumers. Price is $79.99.

AT&T is now offering song downloads from your cell phone. You search Napster’s music database and pay $1.99 per song. Which is twice what you would if you were using a computer and competing services from Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft.

If you are plan to download multiple songs in one month you can also sign up for a $7.49/month plan that gives you access to 5 downloads a month.  And you will get an e-mail every time you buy a song with a link to download the same title on your computer.

If you own an iPhone you can already buy music for $.99 per song and play it on your PC or cellphone.

Apple now has over 2 Million Tracks for you to download from expanding its catalog of unencrypted music.

Apple can now legitimately claim to have the largest library of DRM-free music available online. For a some time Amazon has been in the lead, but Apple has caught up. And while there are still a number of major record labels that are not providing DRM-free tracks through any service, it warms our hearts to see a price war between two industry giants battling to offer high quality unencrypted tracks to music fans.

Apple’s DRM-free tracks are all AAC files encoded at 256kbps. New labels offering DRM-free music include Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, and The Orchard.

Via Apple

Napster has made changes to its subscription music service and the company is launching a web-based service.

Napster 4.0 allows you to listen to your music collection on any internet-capable computer. We all know web-based software has many pros. Napster is now compatible with any Mac, Linux, and PC machine, without having to download and install any software. You will still need a Windows PC running the desktop client if you want to download songs, burn them to CD, or transfer them to a portable device.

The web service also consists of a recommendation tool, playlists managers, and music discovery features.

Everybody knows that there is tension between Apple and Universal Music. Itunes is the dominator of music that is easy to see. Without Universal Music there would be no iTunes so basically they need each other to survive. Universal started offering DRM-free tracks for download this year, the label went with Amazon, Wal-Mart, and RealNetworks rather than Apple.

Business Week is reporting that Universal is getting ready to launch their version of iTunes, possibly with support from Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. “Universal Music’s iTunes” plans on offering a  $5 per month subscription service that would let you access a huge library of music.

Via Downloadsquad

Rating:

Version tested: 1.0.1

Any Audio Converter is a freeware audio converter. It allows you convert audio files between MP3, WMA, ACC, or OGG audio format. It can also demux (extract) audio tracks from most video files, including FLV and DVD video VOB files, and provides a preview screen so you can set beginning and end points for audio extraction from a video.

Features:

Converts audio files from one format to another

Lets you specify frequency, number of channels, bitrate and other parameters of your output files before you convert your audio files

Allows you to apply fine tuning of parameters for MP3 and OGG formats when you convert your audio

Converts files in batches (including videos).

Visually judge the progress of the audio conversion process

Displays the audio bitrate for input files

Allows you to modify extra text information in existing audio files such as Title, Artist, Album, Comment.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista.

Via Freegenius