Freeware

Finetune: A Web Music Player That’s Not as Fine as it Should Be

Developer: N/A
Version: N/A
Price: Free
Operating Systems: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Check out Finetune Here.

Lots of Potential Squashed By Draconian Regulations

I would listen to music all the time if I could - I’m that addicted to it. My tastes are broad and my styles diverse. There are countless artists in my playlist and nearly fifteen gigabytes of my favorite songs on my Macbook (far more on my desktop). However, despite my relatively large collection, I’m always looking for something more, something fresh, something unique. And that’s where the web music/internet radio sites like Finetune come in.

Finetune is one of those social music websites where users can listen to their favorite tunes right over the internet. Think of it like internet radio that the users actually have some control over. Make a playlist, select some songs, and have a blast. It’s a lot of fun until you realize that there are a few major problems with the service.

My gripe with internet radio sites like Finetune is the vast amount of restrictions that the music industry has placed on them. For one reason or another, the music industry has heavily regulated what sites like Finetune can and cannot do with their music - making it annoying for the end users. Right off the bat, you can see the recording industry’s grasp on Finetune with restrictions that require playlists to have over forty five songs, consist of fifteen artists, and contain a maximum of three songs per artist. Hell, I can’t even listen to a previously played song in the same sitting. Talk about cutting down on my freedoms.

Luckily, finding forty five songs from fifteen different artists shouldn’t be too tough. I made a playlist of that length in about ten minutes. However, being very choosy and selecting the three songs per artist was a real pain in the ass. Especially because Finetune makes its users navigate through all kinds of crap just to remove a song. Why can’t I remove a song right from the same page that I added it on? Oh, that’s right, the recording industry would probably deem that too easy for us users.

OK, so Finetune lets us craft our own playlists, and that’s pretty much it. There is some social networking kind of stuff involved. Sharing playlists, adding fans, joining groups - all the typical stuff. But there is one thing that sets this site apart from its competitors. Finetune can be whisked away to the desktop of anyone running Windows or Mac OS X (and Linux soon).

Without Finetune Desktop, the Adobe AIR [review] powered desktop application, Finetune would just be another music website where you can create and share playlists with your buddies. However, once that desktop application starts up - that’s where the fun really begins. Nearly everything that can be done on Finetune’s website can be accessed via the desktop application. It’s slow, but it gets the job done without resorting to the browser. Finetune Desktop can even play random songs from artists in your iTunes library.

This all leads me to the necessity of Finetune. It is any good? As a music discovery tool, Finetune is only marginally useful since you pick your own playlist. Can’t discover too many new songs when you’re selecting songs you already like and the library of songs to choose from is limited in many genres. As a portable media player, you’re better off with an iPod or Sansa. As a desktop music player, there are hordes of better options out there.

I cannot recommend Finetune for anyone at this point. If the recording industry lightens its grip on internet radio, Finetune would likely become an amazing web app overnight. Until then, it just doesn’t do anything for me. Yes, the design is nice, the social networking is so-so, the easy addition of playlists to MySpace and the like is cool but can be found elsewhere, and the desktop player is original - but with so many rules and regulation regarding which files I can and can’t play, I see no reason to ever visit Finetune again.

If you live outside the United States, could you please let me know if Finetune is accessible to you? Several other internet radio sites have had to go America only due to restrictions, and I’m curious as to whether or not Finetune is the same way.

Check out Finetune for Yourself.

- Eric Norton

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