ShareTheMusic.com - Listen To Music Online & Legally

I don’t know if the dilemma faced by the music industry and the Internet is ever going to come full circle. People want to listen to music online because they can access any song they feel like listening to without having to carry a CD or an iPod with them. The problem is that many don’t know where to draw a line, not necessarily because there is any malicious intent but because getting carried away and starting listening to this and that ends up being too comfortable to refrain from doing it. The result is that artists end up not receiving their royalties, and accusations fly back and forth between artists, companies, punters and passer-bys of every ilk.

Share The Music is one of these sites which are becoming more and more commonplace recently. It lets you listen to songs online, and the rights of artists are not actually lessened in any way. It works in the following way: you download a player, and then add the tracks you want from your HD. These tracks can be shared online with other uses, but only one at a time That means a file can not be distributed massively using Share The Music.

This is certainly a commendable service, if only because both sides are kept reasonably happy. “Reasonably” happy. That will pose a problem to others – they do not want to have “reasonable” access to music online. They want to download 40 GB of songs at the same time. That can’t be helped. And it is not the fault of systems like this one.

“ShareTheMusic.com is an innovative and unique project since it does not distribute music files but it acts as a middleman among those who are willing to share their music - by enabling other Internet users to listen to it.

People having a particular piece of music on their hard disk can broadcast it to only one listener at a time, and it cannot be copied by saving to the disk of another user. Owing to this, the copyright of authors, performers and producers is observed.”

People who want to have access to their favorite music from everywhere and share it with others in a way that is not detrimental to the industry will find it a compelling resource.

In which countries is this available?