News \ iTunes, now on Wii

Dottunes_2 A free application called Dot.Tunes publishes your iTunes library to the internet, allowing you (or anyone else with the password) to stream the music and movies on your home computer. The application turns your iTunes library into a SQL database and serves it over the web from your home computer using an Ajax front-end and multiple layers of security, but all you need to know is how to download and install the program.


Click the image to the right to see the interface, which allows you to browse and search your music in the usual ways and play any song, album, or playlist in order or shuffle mode. (Or you can sign in as a Guest on their demo server -- no password required -- to try it for yourself.)

That part's free, but the company charges for plug-ins that let you use versions of the service that are customized for the other devices in your life. If you shell out $20, you get a plug-in that gives you a custom interface for your iPhone, essentially allowing you to fit more music onto your iPhone. Another plug-in that will do the same thing for the Nintendo Wii is in the works, and you can already buy a plug-in that allows you to add SSL layer encryption to your streams.

The strategy represents a departure from Dot.Tunes' former strategy, which was to sell the whole deal for $30. Now, users can see how the service works from a computer for free, only dropping cash when they want to access their libraries from their iPhone or Wii, or add some other plug-in based functionality.

DotTunes, an Australian company, understands that the potential is there for people to open up their iTunes libraries to their friends (for streaming, not downloading), and encourages people to use their products for exactly that:

"Why pay to podcast or for internet radio streams, when you can publish your own radio shows, TV programs or music mixes directly to your loyal fans?"

and

"Dot.Tunes is not some lightweight iTunes utility. It's a fully developed web server application that supports mp3, AAC, aiff, .wav, mpeg, mp4, and .mov files, allowing you to share your iTunes library contents with your friends in other cities, your classmates across the dorm or the coworkers scattered throughout the building."

They even give you a way to keep your pals up to date on new additions to your library using an RSS feed.


Now to me that all sound great except that its all over the internet, and therefore may be slow, otherwise this sounds great!

Submitted by Serega 19 hours ago 7

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Source URL

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/08/stream-your-itu.html