Myplay.com allows easy access to online music

 

By Lili Tan
Daily Bruin Contributor

The online music craze is taking the world by storm with the
number of music Web sites increasing each day.

Myplay.com is one of these new sites. It allows Web users to
legally receive, store, organize, stream and download MP3’s
and other digital music files for free.

Unlike Napster and MP3.com, Myplay.com doesn’t require
users to take up valuable hard drive space on their computers by
downloading and saving files. Instead, users have their own
“virtual lockers” where they can collect their online
music. This “virtual locker” enables users to access
their digital music collections from computers anywhere in the
world.

Myplay.com was founded by Doug Camplejohn and David Pakman, both
former employees of Apple Computers. The two faced many problems
downloading music from the Internet, and, as a result, wanted to
make downloading easier for consumers. With Myplay.com they
succeeded in doing so.

To acquire your own “virtual locker,” all you need
to do is register with your name and e-mail address. To find the
music you want, just type in an artist’s name or a song title
and the site will search its database to find matches with the
entry. Then you are able to download the songs with just a click of
your mouse. The music files are automatically stored in your
“virtual locker,” ready to be played.

Myplay.com is partnered with other digital music sites like
Emusic.com and Rollingstone.com. Myplay.com users can visit these
affiliated sites and download songs by clicking the “Add To
Locker” button next to the track they choose. Because the
files are being transferred from server to server, they are added
to the user’s virtual locker within seconds.

In addition, with a Myplay.com locker, users can change their
tracks into personalized mixes and then load them onto portable
music players. Users can also share their personalized mixes with
friends through e-mail.

Currently, “Almost Famous” director Cameron Crowe is
featured on the Celebrity DJ Mix portion of the site, which lets
recording artists and celebrities create their own mixes for
Myplay.com users to enjoy. Crowe contributed two mixes, one with
his favorite movie songs and the other with his favorite 1973
songs.

Myplay.com is also a place where aspiring musicians and
independent record labels can expand their audience by becoming
affiliate partners. The site’s new “Affiliate
Program” allows artists to acquire almost 3 million listeners
from the Myplay.com audience by giving users access to their
music.

To join the “Affiliate Program,” artists must have a
Web site and complete an application at http://affiliates.myplay.com. By
becoming an affiliate, artists allow Myplay.com users to access and
transfer their music files quickly and easily.

Myplay.com recently launched a new version of it’s
original site. The new site manages the copy rules and expiration
dates of tracks, allowing the information to be downloaded and
stored just like MP3s. Myplay.com now assists with major record
labels’ promotional downloads as well as retail sales. The
new version can also support devices such as mobile phones and car
stereos because of their new wireless infrastructure.

Even with many new competitors, Myplay.com is still the largest
site to offer “virtual locker” digital music storage
making the site a new innovation in the technology of digital
music.