Download music from Souncloud

I've always wanted to download some tracks I listen to on soundcloud and the usual way of doing it was by checking the  description to see any links to spotify or a download link. That approach though usually requires you to follow the artist and like a page. Then I discovered soundload from the google play store. Soundload is a cool app that allows you to download the tracks you like from sound cloud simply by pressing the share button and selecting soundload. It is easy as two steps and you get your music into your music library via the soundload folder.

Here are some pictures of how you do it:
1. Play the song you like and press the share button.

2. After pressing the share button, select soundload and wait for the download to start in the background.

3. Check your soundload folder to play the music on your music player.

What I love about soundload is that it is easy and hassle free to use. This skips the previous steps of following the artist to be able to download a track. Sound quality is as good as the soundload quality.

Download the soundload app at the playstore for free.

Do you enjoy using soundload? Are there apps you use similar to soundload? Please leave a comment below.

Rating from 1-5 stars
Ease of Use - 5
Feature - 3
Sound Quality - 3

Spotify: Switching from downloading to streaming

With the advent of streaming media and faster internet connections paired with unlimited access to the streaming library not limited to your phones storage capacity, it seems like music streaming us the way to go.

Spotify is the clear leader in the Philippine market (only Php 129) today, offering cheaper prices on some markets, even comparing it to the price of buying 1 box of pizza for a month.

I had tried spotify free for a couples of months and found the service to good, so i subscribed to premium. The pronise of adfree streaming and creating your own playlist and saving it offline so you could listen to it anytime was the deal maker. It means I could enjoy high quality music wherever I go and I have full control.

Here are some features that makes spotify great:
1. The weekly discover weekly playlist just for you. This is the best feature of spotify which gives you a playlist of suggested songs based  on your listening habits. This feature keeps expanding my library weekly. I enjoy listening to new songs that are in sync with my personal preferrence. This absolutely makes monday more lively and awesome.

2. Offline Save (Premium). As described earlier, this allows you to save your playlist and bring it with you anywhere you go without the hassle of connecting online. This is a perfect feature if you are traveling to save data and battery at the same time.
3. Duplicate songs prompt. If you saved the same songs on the same playlist, it will automatically warn you. This is a neat feature compared to using windows media player which used to allow duplicate songs in my playlist and library which is a constant pain to me.
4. Share songs. A clip of the song you like  can be shared on social media like twitter and facebook. This allows your friends to listen to that clip since player is integrated in the social media unlike just posting links.
5. Share your playlist, see what your friends are listening to realtime. This is a social integration feature in the app that allows you to see what your friends are listening to and even see their playlist if you have the same taste in music.

6. Radio. Allows you to play a playlist or broadcast in to your friends. It even adds suggested music on the playlist.
7. Recommended songs based on playlist ( PC ). This suggests more songs for the particular playlist you are on.
8. Tons of playlist. Although the browse category displays only the popular ones, there is a massive library of playlist to choose from.
9. May song categories. If you want to listen to retro music, simply select decades category and listen to the songs of the past. My personal favorite is the edm category. There is also blues, jazz, classical, rock, rnb, christian songs, comedy etc. Whatever drives your fancy, spotify has it, except for taylor swift songs :-(

10. Local files integration(PC), yes you can listen to your saved songs on your local drive via the spotify player.
11. Play music on 1 device and controll it either with your pc, tablet or phone. This is a great feature for me. I usually connect my tablet to the amplifier, then control spotify via my phone or pc wherever I am at home.

There are more features to spotify that you should discover. I'll be posting more of this next time. Feel free to leave a comment about your experience using spotify. If you haven't tried spotify yet, download it via the app store/play store.

To rate it from 1-5 stars:

Design: 4.5
Ease of use: 5
Visualizations/Album Art: 4.8
Video Playback: NA
Features: 5

Download Spotify

Windows Media Player Review

Windows Media Player

Growing up with windows platform, WMP had been an indispensable utility for me. I usually set it as my default .mp3 player.

It's simple and easy to use and I could easily rate songs and make playlists. One important plugin for a much richer audio experience is the DFX audio enhancer. It gives you better audio performance for your speaker and headphone and also higher volumes. Skins and visualizations are also available for download via the Microsoft website.

One thing that I'm disappointed though is that in video playback it tends to play darker pictures or high contrast videos as compared to a more vivid play by VLC.

In general it's a decent media player summarized with simplicity. If your an audiophile that wants more, you should probably consider more complex and advanced media players.

VLC vs. WMP Video Playback Comparison:

VLC

WMP

 To rate it from 1-5 stars:

Design: 4
Ease of use: 5
Visualizations: 4
Video Playback: 3.5

Download Media Player Add-on: WMP Download
Download DFX Audio Enhancer: DFX Download