rocketpocket: Audiogalaxy reinvents itself as free, access-your-music-anywhere service (with Android and iOS apps!)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Audiogalaxy reinvents itself as free, access-your-music-anywhere service (with Android and iOS apps!)

Audiogalaxy, one of the few peer-to-peer music services that once ruled supreme -- if only for a short while -- has just relaunched as a free, "placeshifting" music player for Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS.

The service is incredibly easy to use: just head over to Audiogalaxy.com, register an account, install a "helper" app (it searches for, and streams, your music)... and that's it. You're then presented with a simple, but fully-functional, Web-based music player -- which you can use as your primary music player, if you like!

Despite what it may look like, Audiogalaxy isn't cloud-based -- in fact, your MP3s never leave your computer's hard disk. When you play a song from your collection the helper app actually streams the music. This means that your home PC (or whichever computer has access to your music) has to stay turned on -- not an ideal solution for some users, but one that's obviously much easier and safer for Audiogalaxy to pull off.
The implications -- the potential applications -- are pretty extensive when you factor in the Android [QR code] and iPhone [iTunes] apps. Assuming you have a half-decent Internet connection (i.e. anything better than dial-up), you can have access to your entire music library wherever you go, including any computer with a Web browser.

You can also let other people access your library -- give your password to a friend and they can stream your music, too! They can even log into your account and create playlists for you!

Below is a gallery of my experiences with Audiogalaxy's Web and Android apps -- as you'll see, it's not the most beautiful service in the world, but it works really well.

Gallery: New Audiogalaxy -- a placeshifting music player for Web, Android and iOS