Archive for the 'Music' Category

How To Download Bebo Bands Music

Published
by
Adam
on July 12, 2007
in Bebo, Geekiness and Music
. 19 Comments

Many moons a go, I quickly slapped together a quick guide describing how to download music from the Bebo bands music service. The article was criticised for being rather vague, and rightly so. So I have decided to update the guide and even include some step by step pictures to help you.

STEP 1
First you must navigate to a bands profile page. Tonnes of major label bands and unsigned artists are available to choose via the Music Tab on the Bebo header. For this example I’m using the Transformers Movie Soundtrack page.

STEP 2
Once you are on the Bands profile page, scroll down and you will see a box labelled “Songs”. Here you can look at what songs are available to listen to. If you wish, you can click the “play” button to preview the songs before you download them.

STEP 3
Now you must right click in any blank space on the page and click “View Page Source” (in Internet Explorer it’s labelled “View Source”)

This will open up a window full of text which is probably alien to you. In actual fact it’s a programming language called HTML which is the language in which all websites are created but we don’t really care about its lifestory, instead we simply want to find out where the songs are located within this code.

STEP 4

Press CTRL+F (i.e press CTRL and while it’s pushed down press “F”) and a search box should appear at the bottom of the screen as shown (in Internet Explorer it will appear in the middle of the screen). In this box we type in “.mp3″ (without the quotes) and we are then taken to the section of the code which contains the information about the location of the music.

STEP 5
Now that we know where the .mp3’s are, we simply copy the address of the music file by selecting the area of text shown below and copying and pasting it into the address bar at the top of our browser window.

After pasting it into the address bar, hit ENTER and a dialog box should come up asking you where you wish to save the song.

STEP 6
Now that you have the song that you want downloaded, you can quickly download the rest of the available songs by searching for .mp3 and clicking “Find Next” which will automatically find the next song.

I wish you all the best of luck and I hope this revised tutorial will help those who found my first attempt difficult to follow!

Download Almost Any Song Off The Internet For Free! - Updated!

Published
by
Adam
on January 6, 2007
in Adam Investigates, Geekiness, Learn Something New, Music, Ramblings and Thinking
. 101 Comments
As of June 2007, RadioBlogClub have updated their web application which blocks this method from working. I’ll try find a workaround in the coming weeks

A few months a go, I published a quick how-to guide about downloading music for free from the RadioBlogClub website. After trying many sites and various methods of downloading songs, I decided on RadioBlogClub because of its ease of use and more importantly its vast selection of songs which far surpassed the offering of any other sites that I came across. If you are after more popular songs, you’ll probably have an easier time by going to BlogDigger.com who have a powerful media search tool which allows you to uncover songs embedded in blog posts from around the world! But as I said, it’s only really useful for very popular songs.

Times were good for music downloaders for a couple of months until RadioBlogClub caught on to this exploitation and, as already mentioned, started encrypting the URLs to their songs. For months I haven’t been near the internet, so haven’t had an opportunity to tackle this but now that I’ve managed to find a spare 10 minutes, why don’t you join me as I once again explain How To Download Almost Any Song off The Internet For Free!


1. Visit The Site


CLICK HERE (opens in a new window)


2. Search



In the search box type the name of the band (or song) that you are looking for. In this case I’m searching for “Snow Patrol”, a band that I recommend each and every one of you check out :).


3. Select the Song You Want



You are now presented with a list of songs available for that band. When you see the song that you like, click its blue play button to the left of it.

Look towards the right column and you’ll notice that something like the above has appeared.


4. Find The Song Code



In the grey box, there’s lots of “HTML” code. For those who are familiar with this guides previous outing, you’ll know that this is the part where you’re meant to select a particular bit of code. So select, like I have done in the picture, the bottom lines of the code beginning with “FlashVars”. Make sure that you select EVERYTHING after this and then continue.


5. Paste The Code Into AdamsRants Code Stripper


Check out My Code Stripper which will decrypt the music code. (opens in a new window)

Paste the code into the First box. Now you must butcher the code! Erase everything BEFORE the “http” and AFTER the “.rbs” and you’ll end up with something like this:
.
Now press the “DECRYPT” button which were convert the encrypted code into easily understood code like this:

6. Download

Now you can copy and paste the code into your address bar. Once you have done this, press enter and you will be asked to save it! You are almost there….


6. BUT WAIT!


After downloading the song, you may notice that Windows doesn’t know what to open it in, this is because the file ends in “.rbs” which isn’t recognised by Windows. However, this is only a basic ploy to stop people downloading the song because it’s actually a “.mp3″ which has been renamed to fool people! What you need to do is raname the file! Note: It’s been reported that unix based operating systems will automagically realise that it’s an mp3.


A “.rbs” file.


Right click the file and select “Rename”.


Change the file extension to “.mp3″.


VOILA!

Double click the file and it will now open in your preferred Media Player. It might seem a bit daunting to have to do this for every song, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

A lot of people previously commented that this is a very longwinded system, but I’d have to disagree. After the first few songs, you’ll be able to download songs in no time at all once you get used to it which makes it perfect for situations where you’re asked to listen to a certain song by a friend but don’t fancy having to wade through the unreliable LimeWire or download the full album from BitTorrent.

Some people also commented on the sound quality which usually weighs in at 92kbps. The good news is that this means it takes seconds to download. The bad news is that audiophiles will be disappointed. This isn’t Dolby Surround Enhanced Audio that we’re downloading here. It’s slightly less than CD quality which, in my opinion, is perfect for phones or small MP3 Players with little space!

In the past, people tried to make some further addons to this hack such as an automated downloader. Once again people are welcome to make an any further additions to this exploit, but remember, if you’re leaving a comment, please leave some form of contact!

If you like what I’ve done, as a token of your appreciation, I’d be very grateful if you could find it within your hearts to feed me for a day by donating a euro or two :)


Download Almost Any Song Off The Internet For Free!

Published
by
Adam
on August 10, 2006
in Geekiness, Learn Something New and Music
. 103 Comments

For about 6 months, this method worked. But RadioBlogClub figured out how to block us from downloading the music. I have yet to find another workaround!

A few months a go, I published a quick how-to guide about downloading music for free from the RadioBlogClub website. After trying many sites and various methods of downloading songs, I decided on RadioBlogClub because of its ease of use and more importantly its vast selection of songs which far surpassed the offering of any other sites that I came across. If you are after more popular songs, you’ll probably have an easier time by going to BlogDigger.com who have a powerful media search tool which allows you to uncover songs embedded in blog posts from around the world! But as I said, it’s only really useful for very popular songs.

Times were good for music downloaders for a couple of months until RadioBlogClub caught on to this exploitation and, as already mentioned, started encrypting the URLs to their songs. For months I haven’t been near the internet, so haven’t had an opportunity to tackle this but now that I’ve managed to find a spare 10 minutes, why don’t you join me as I once again explain How To Download Almost Any Song off The Internet For Free!


1. Visit The Site


CLICK HERE (opens in a new window)


2. Search



In the search box type the name of the band (or song) that you are looking for. In this case I’m searching for “Snow Patrol”, a band that I recommend each and every one of you check out :).


3. Select the Song You Want



You are now presented with a list of songs available for that band. When you see the song that you like, click its blue play button to the left of it.

Look towards the right column and you’ll notice that something like the above has appeared.


4. Find The Song Code



In the grey box, there’s lots of “HTML” code. For those who are familiar with this guides previous outing, you’ll know that this is the part where you’re meant to select a particular bit of code. So select, like I have done in the picture, the bottom lines of the code beginning with “FlashVars”. Make sure that you select EVERYTHING after this and then continue.


5. Paste The Code Into AdamsRants Code Stripper


Check out My Code Stripper which will decrypt the music code.

Paste the code into the First box. Now you must butcher the code! Erase everything BEFORE the “http” and AFTER the “.rbs” and you’ll end up with something like this:
.
Now press the “DECRYPT” button which were convert the encrypted code into easily understood code like this:

6. Download

Now you can copy and paste the code into your address bar. Once you have done this, press enter and you will be asked to save it! You are almost there….


6. BUT WAIT!


After downloading the song, you may notice that Windows doesn’t know what to open it in, this is because the file ends in “.rbs” which isn’t recognised by Windows. However, this is only a basic ploy to stop people downloading the song because it’s actually a “.mp3″ which has been renamed to fool people! What you need to do is raname the file!


A “.rbs” file.


Right click the file and select “Rename”.


Change the file extension to “.mp3″.


VOILA!

Double click the file and it will now open in your preferred Media Player. It might seem a bit daunting to have to do this for every song, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!

A lot of people previously commented that this is a very longwinded system, but I’d have to disagree. After the first few songs, you’ll be able to download songs in no time at all once you get used to it which makes it perfect for situations where you’re asked to listen to a certain song by a friend but don’t fancy having to wade through the unreliable LimeWire or download the full album from BitTorrent.

Some people also commented on the sound quality which usually weighs in at 92kbps. The good news is that this means it takes seconds to download. The bad news is that audiophiles will be disappointed. This isn’t Dolby Surround Enhanced Audio that we’re downloading here. It’s slightly less than CD quality which, in my opinion, is perfect for phones or small MP3 Players with little space!

In the past, people tried to make some further addons to this hack such as an automated downloader. Once again people are welcome to make an any further additions to this exploit, but remember, if you’re leaving a comment, please leave some form of contact!

Bebo release THE MySpace Killer!

Published
by
Adam
on July 11, 2006
in Bebo, Geekiness, Music and News
. 21 Comments

Bebo Bands
Since Bebo hit the headlines at the beginning of the year, many people wondered did it have what it took to be a giant-killer and overcome the major opposition in the form of the Rupert Murdoch controlled MySpace.

Over the past few months, very little in the way of groundbreaking features were introduced over at MySpace, however they did have the support of bands which, I feel, are vital to the survival of any of the social networking sites that we’ve seen come and go over the past year or so. MySpace seemed to be concentrating on tightening up their security measures after a string of recent bad publicity that the site has been involved in. Thanks, partly, to my findings, Bebo already had tightened up it’s security to a satisfactory level which allowed it to develop what are known as “killer-features”, such as their Skins system and optimising their Flashbox feature (which is now called “Bebo TV”). But now, and only now have they released their latest feature which puts them in a superb position to compete with MySpace.

The Bebo Bands feature was added a mere 15 hours a go and even though I’m not in a band, I’ve had the chance to play around with it over the past while. It’s not too dis-similar to MySpaces offering, however, like everything on Bebo, it’s looks much cleaner and won’t be subject to error messages every 15 mins ala MySpace. A band profile page takes on the same layout as a normal Bebo profile and therefore bands have access to the wide range of user created skins. They can even create one themselves and offer it up to other users and all through the Bebo site as opposed to unreliable third party sites. Of course it also has band related features such as a Song Module, where people can stream songs, an Album module, where we can look at the tracklisting of their albums as well as the artwork. There’s also a groupie module which works like the Top 16 does and a tour date module where people can check out details about their latest tours. There are also the usual modules on the page such as Bebo TV where a band can stream a video to you and the blog block where the band can share their experiences with their groupies.

It will be interesting to see how MySpace react to this and whether or not they can come up with anything ground breaking in response because given the unreliable nature of MySpace, the bands feature was the only thing that has kept many users loyal to Rupert Murdoch! If Bebo Bands takes off, and I think it will, then we could very well see MySpace being sold on at a considerable loss!

Do I need Oxegen?

Published
by
Adam
on June 21, 2006
in Life, Music and Ramblings
. 1 Comment

I can recall that the 3rd of March of this year was a bitterly cold day. I remember that day specifically because at 8:30am, I was queuing up outside our local TicketMaster outlet for an Oxegen ticket in nothing more than a shirt and jeans. I’ll put it this way, even people wearing big thick fur coats were freezeing. I could barely hand over the money, not only because of the frostbite, but also because of the high price with the ticket coming in at a hefty €160.

A lot of time has passed since then and initially I planned on going with a few guys from school but as it transpired, they weren’t able to get their tickets in time. So then I made some plans with some lovely girls from the Presentation to go with them but in recent days it’s emerged that one guy in particular doesn’t want me accompanying his girlfriend to the concert and admittedly his fears aren’t unfounded. Any possibility of me saying “Of course I won’t go up with her” and then jumping on the bus with her dwindled when she told me that she was being forced to sell her ticket due to a current lack of funds to survive on. It just so happens that now I’m, rather ironically, in the same boat.

At the beginning of the Summer, I made a deal with myself that I’d only work weekends because after all, next year I’ll be saving for college and then I’ll be working for the rest of my life. This means that I don’t have much money spare. I’m guestimating that preparing for Oxegen would easily cost about €200 when you take in the cost of the tent, transport, food and of course, dhrink! Now thankfully, I’m getting Holiday Pay next week in work which should be in the region of €150 which would put me well on my way to having enough money for Oxegen. But €150 would add up to about 5 good nights out in the pub and add €200 or so that I’d get for selling my Oxegen ticket and suddenly the possibility for a week long bender presents itself.

I suppose the smart thing to do would be to get as much money as possible for the ticket and couple it with my holiday pay for me to able to live in relative financial security for the remainder of the Summer, but financial security is boring and a weekend up at Punchestown listening to an Astounding Lineup sounds just like what the doctor ordered. Well it would be if I was a doctor!

I’ll definitely have to make my decision in the next few days but I have a feeling that no matter what decision I’ll make, I’ll have some regrets!