Stream your music: FREE alternative to mob. player

EDIT: Just to clarify the subject - I couldn't think of a way to put it properly within the length limitation, so think of it as saying "FREE alternative to mobile players which use built-in storage".

Yesterday I read that Audiogalaxy, a company/website that started as an (illegal) audio file sharing platform more than 5 years ago, has now started offering an entirely different service:

You can create an account there and download a client application that runs on your computer, scans it for audio files (in the orders which you tell it to include) and then is able to stream them to - anywhere. In short, this means that using this service enables you to listen to your music from another computer (via web browser), or even from a mobile phone (iPhone, Android). The audio content is being streamed live from your computer and not stored on any server - the AudioGalaxy servers only handle the indexing of your files and the technical details of the network connections (e.g. when your computer has a dynamic IP address, you don't need to worry about dyndns or any other technicalities). This of course also means that your computer has to be running (and the AudioGalaxy client app has to be running) in order for you to use the service.

In short, this is an opportunity for those who have large audio collections which don't fit on currently available mobile players to listen to their entire collection from anywhere. Of course if you're going to use it on your iPhone or Droid you will need to take into account the amount of data that will be transmitted - unless you're on a flat rate or other plans that include several GB per month, it won't make a lot of sense. I have a 5GB/month plan, so that should work out fine.

So give it a try, if you're interested:

http://audiogalaxy.com

BTW: There are some alternatives:

• ORB
• Subsonic

Personally, I prefer Audiogalaxy. This is after a few hours of evaluating all three, so my opinion may change - but at this time I think that Audiogalaxy is the simplest, most hassle free choice. Subsonic offers the most options, but is also difficult to set up. ORB goes much further than both Subsonic and AudioGalaxy - they extend the service to videos, pictures and even TV streaming. Both Subsonic and ORB have been around for serveral years.


So ... have you tried one of these services?  What are your thoughts about the general idea?


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - October 16 2010 at 09:18

How is this any better than good ol' shoutcast?

^ does this cache? most peoples home upload speeds are a fraction of their download speeds and this relies on uploading from your home PC.

Dean wrote: ^ does this cache? most peoples home upload speeds are a fraction of their download speeds and this relies on uploading from your home PC.

The Audiogalaxy phone app doesn't cache yet ... I just suggested that they add that feature on their blog.

I tried Subsonic - but I couldn't manage to install an encrypted server (SSL), so I uninstalled it again for the time being. It looked cool, but it's definitely more difficult to set up, especially since it doesn't use a centralized server, so you have to deal with how to configure your router, firewall etc..

@Dean: I have a 6Mbps line and that works fine ... typically mp3 files are around 256kbps, so if you have a 5Mbps or 6Mbps line which typically has 368kbps upload bandwidth you should be fine. Mine actually has 1024kbps upstream so it's definitely not a problem. The real limitation for me is the 5GB/month traffic threshold - caching on the phone would definitely help there.