SimplifyMedia

This is pretty nifty: SimplifyMedia

It is a plugin for iTunes that allows you to share your iTunes library by streaming your tunes to friends who also have SimplifyMedia. It's like instant messenger for iTunes in that each person makes a username and then you can add up to 5 computers under your name for sharing. You can have up to 30 friends.

SimplifyMedia is a cinch to use. I installed it at work and at home so I can stream music from my home computer to listen to at work - especially handy if I forget my iPod. I also had Trey install it on her laptop up in Fairbanks and that worked, too.

Pros
• Easy to install/set up/use
• As long as SimplifyMedia & iTunes are open and running, you can share your library with other SM friends or with yourself
• Perfect for showing friends songs without having to up/download anything
• The songs stream at the bit rate they exist in its library - they aren't down-sampled
• Private friend list so ONLY your allowed friends and you can access your tunes
• Songs can only be listened to, not stolen or manipulated or re-arranged in any way
• it's for Mac and PC and works seamlessly between the two
• it's FREE

Cons
• it IS streaming, like net radio, so the faster your connection, the less re-buffering you have to suffer
• it doesn't show playlists within the selected library
• Songs can ONLY be listned to, not copied
• it's still in beta so there's the possibility of glitches

Trey is on a bad connection plus wireless so it was a bit more difficult to listen to her library - it kept having to rebuffer all the time. So I wouldn't use this to sit and listen to her library just to be listening - I'd use SM to browse for new music from her. :) In contrast, my connection at work is really fast and my home computer connection is slow DSL but I didn't encounter any rebuffering except perhaps at the start of a new song. Otherwise it was just like listening to my native iTunes library. Very nice. :)

* Location:home
* Music:"Manakin" - Delain