patndoris TechnoGeek

We all know it's not legal to share your MP3 files for download online. None the less, P2P sharing and Bittorrent download sites, rife with viruses, abound. I never advocate downloading via P2P, due to the legalities as well as the nasty nasty items that can end up on your computer. I have no intention of opening up my ports to download such songs, or to be a seed for others to access my computer to get the songs. However, it is perfectly legal to stream your songs (Flash is a typical and popular file type used) for others to hear. It's also perfectly legal to listen to streaming audio. One site (which for some reason after all this time is still listed as beta) helps take this to a wonderful new level.

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Registration is free at Project Playlist. Once signed up, you can search for music, and save those songs to your playlist. You can create multiple playlists for different genres, moods, whatever you like, and each one holds plenty of music. You can then listen to it from the site, thru Windows Media Player, or launch the standalone player. There is no download required to use the players. Project Playlist easily gives you the code to display your player on your Myspace, Facebook, and other social networking sites. It also provides a generic HTML code for other sites, or for use on your own website (as I've done on my Music page.) You can choose from standard skins, or for the more adventurous, you can make custom skins. You also have the option in the code to autostart your player (which I don't care for) or to let the user click a song to start.

The down side is what you're saving to your playlist is a link to another site where the file for the song is hosted. If the file is removed for personal or legal reasons from the "home" site, your link is now broken and won't play an longer. It's easy to add, delete or rearrange your songs, so it's no big deal to remove a broken link. And, my experience has been very positive in such cases. I've simply done a new search and added a new link for the song from a different site. The search engine will only provide links to songs - it's not like a Google that will give you 100,000+ results. You can also preview all links to be sure they work before you add them to your player(s).

The site tries to be a social network of sorts, with a profile and blogging section. You can also view other users playlists and make new friends. I've not personally found this of any use to me in my use of the site (I've quite enough sites to check and maintain as it is), but I do very much enjoy being able to create a free legal collection of music to listen to and share. While I have the software tools to do the same job on my website, Project Playlist makes it far easier than using my own software to do it. Not to mention, I don't have to use any of my own server space for the files, and I've no worries about the types of files I might store on my server, and anyone accessing and downloading them directly.

Remember, Project Playlist does not host any of the songs directly. It is simply an interface for you to search for, find, and legally listen to the songs you like. And, while links they stream are indeed from MP3 files - it is not legal to - and not recommended - that you ever download a song from them. This service can only remain if people use it in the manner it was intended.

So if you're looking for a nice way to have an online collection of music, share those songs, and/or to easily include them on your social networking sites or your website, give Project Playlist a try.