Ezmo
Type of site | Free Online Music Player |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese |
| Owner | Fast Search & Transfer |
| Website | http://www.ezmo.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free |
| Launched | 8 June 2007 |
| Current status | Discontinued |
Ezmo was a free, online music player which let you listen to your and your friends' entire music collections anywhere. Ezmo was in its beta phase. The service uses technology from Fast Search & Transfer [1] and Adobe Flex. Ezmo is a fully owned subsidiary of Fast Search & Transfer and is based in Oslo, Norway. Ezmo closed on the 14th of March 2008 due to a lack of funding.[2][3]
The online music player
With Ezmo, users can play and listen to their music from any PC connected to the Internet. Ezmo has unlimited storage space for its users, and once registered, users can upload their entire music collections and share it with up to 10 of their friends. The music is streamed directly from the Ezmo server at approximately 128 kbit/s. The Ezmo player runs inside any web browser that has Adobe Flash Player 9 installed.[4]
Upload
Users have two alternative methods for uploading music to their Ezmo account: (1) using the Ezmo Music Uploader or,(2) through the Manual Upload
Ezmo Music Uploader
The easiest way for a user to upload their entire music collection to their Ezmo account is to download and install the “Ezmo Music Uploader”. After the uploading client is installed and launched, users are given four options for uploading music:
- iTunes Library (uploads all the songs that you have in your iTunes library)
- Windows Media Player (uploads all the songs that you have in your Windows Media Player library)
- Winamp Media Library (uploads all the songs that you have in your Winamp library)
- File folder (uploads all the songs in the folder of your choice)
All songs will appear in the user's Ezmo account shortly after completed uploading. With the latest version of the Ezmo uploader, you can adjust the upload speed anywhere between 20 kbit/s to 10 Mbit/s. However, the speed of the Ezmo Music Uploader is limited by the upload capacity provided to the user by their local ISP. For users who want to upload a large collection of music, it is recommended to leave the uploader running overnight as uploading large collections could be time consuming.[5] If you experience that some of your songs fail transcoding, retry uploading, or report the song title and your username to Ezmo
Manual Upload
The manual uploader allows users to upload a folder or a track at a time to their Ezmo account from the browser.
With the manual upload option a user simply add songs to their collections by choosing the songs he wish to upload from a file folder and start uploading by clicking the "Upload" button. A progress bar will then appear, moving from left to right below the list, showing how much of the topmost song in the list has been uploaded.
While the manual upload is running, a user is free to go back to the player, listen to music and explore their friend’s music collections, as long as they don’t log out of Ezmo or close the browser.
Supported filetypes
Ezmo supports the following formats:
Ezmo does not yet support DRM-protected audio files.
Editing metadata
Ezmo currently supports online ID3 editing which allows you to rename an album or an artist, or the name of a song. At present, editing metadata is limited in the sense that it does not yet store year or genre data. Neither does Ezmo allow simultaneous editing of a few selected tracks from an album or artist.
Users can use offline ID3 editing to get their music collection uploaded perfectly tagged on Ezmo. Offline editing could easily be done by using a media player, a standalone ID3 editing program such as Mp3 Tag Tools, or by editing the tags manually.
Playback
Playback in Ezmo is done via streaming, and is possible via any browser with support for Flash 9. The music is streamed directly from the Ezmo server at approximately 128 kbit/s. When logged into Ezmo, you are able to access your own and 10 of your friends complete music collections from any computer with internet access
Ezmo Mobile Music Player
Ezmo released their Ezmo mobile music player the 28th of January 2008. This mobile player allows users to listen to their and their friends' music collections from any Flash Lite 3 enabled cell phone or a Windows Mobile with Flash Player 7. The mobile player streams music in CD quality in areas with an Edge, 3G or Wi-Fi connection.
The Ezmo mobile music player is accessible from the mobile browser at the url: m.ezmo.com
Other features
Ezmo is working to make the users music available from any device capable of streaming music. A browser and mobile version is already released, but Ezmo is planning to release more clients for different devices sometimes during the first half of 2008. Next on the list is the Nintendo Wii.
Ezmo provides 14 skins to customize the feel of Ezmo, and has several social features allowing users to interact with their friends through for instance writing on each other's walls or recommending songs. Ezmo also has a search feature which lets users search for other Ezmo members or songs available to them through their friends.
References
- ↑ Fast Search & Transfer
- ↑ Announcement from the Ezmo team declaring the project was dead.
- ↑ "Ezmo. CrunchBase Profile". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- ↑ Veneziani, Vince (16 October 2007). "Ezmo: Another Online Music Application Nibbling At iTunes". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- ↑ Rosoff, Matt (24 October 2007). "Ezmo promises legal music sharing". cNet. Retrieved 2 April 2014.