Buffering...Please Wait
Written: Apr 08 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to customize to your liking
Cons: Sometimes you might get unwanted genres of music. Occasional lag time from buffering
The Bottom Line: Lag is a little too frequent but nothing a little broadband can't fix
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| SParkfan77's Full Review: LAUNCHcast |
Whether the record companies like it or not, the music file type of MP3 is among us. For computer users like me, MP3 sharing programs such as Napster are sacred programs that are always on the top of my agenda everyday. The second I load up my AOL, I like to check out what’s new over on Napster. With the recent attacks against Napster, more and more “streaming music” programs have been out there to get around the record companies. LAUNCHcast is one of these programs. When I was surfing on Epinions a week ago, I noticed that LAUNCHcast was the number one rated streaming music program on the net. This convinced me to give it a shot. And while LAUNCHcast has it share of problems, it still has its strong points.
LAUNCHcast
I know that the way that I spell LAUNCHcast is weird, but this is how it is spelled on the program and the web page. I will call it LC for short. Note that the whole time that I am writing this review, I am at the same time listening to the LC.
When I first heard about this program, I thought that it was too good to be true. I mean, what are the odds that there is a reliable streaming music player for a 56K dial-up user like me? I went to Launch.com. I signed up to the web page and I checked off a certain number of musical artists and bands that I would like to see. After this, I clicked on a link that would take me to my customized radio station online.
If some of you had done your homework, you would associate this with another Internet radio station called Sonic Net. I have tried Sonic Net and I was very disappointed. The problem that I have with it was that was that besides first signing up, there were no other ways of customizing your radio station. Besides, this radio station service popped up in an Internet window. This made the buffering time greater and sound quality a little fuzzier. With LC, I can customize what bands I want to hear from, what songs I want and what albums I want to hear. Whenever a song plays, you can rate the album, artist a song from 1-100. The higher the points, the more often that song, artist or album will be played. Also, if to do not wish to listen to a certain artist, song, or album again, you can choose to block that from ever happening again.
Using LAUNCHcast
Like I said, you can rate your songs to effect how often they will be played. There are some other features that LC can do. Whenever you hear a song, you will see a chart of other fans of that particular song or artist. You can click on their names and you will be taken to their radio station. This is a great way to share a like musical interest. The LC player comes complete with volume control and a suave looking information box. This will tell you what song is playing, whether or not if there is a music video to it that you can watch, what album it is off of and of course what artist it is from. Sometimes I know certain songs without knowing who’s they were.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
I have found a number of problems with LC. Some problems are worth than others but some can just cause you aggravation.
Problem #1: Lag- Internet users around the world consider “lag” to be their worst nightmare. This is more frequent for the slower dial-up connections like mine. I hate when this happens and I knew that even though LC promised it would be better, I still had some buffering lag whenever I had the LC and a web page load up at the same time. This became very annoying. I noticed that it happened mostly during peak Internet hours of the day. This happens to me mostly the afternoon. I have for the most part a good computer. 500 MHZ should be enough to run two programs at the same time. It all comes down to what connection you have I guess. Right now it is 12:15 am on the east coast and I am not experiencing lag while writing this review. Had I done this around 3:00 pm, I would be screaming at my lagging music.
Problem #2: Music I Don’t Want- Even after I filled out what music I wanted on the Launch page, I still get music that I do not want. I filled in all rock bands. Every once and a while, I will get a rap artist. I guess that’s why they made that block feature. Even if I block one rap artists, I get another one every ten songs or so. But for the most part I get what I want.
Welcome To LAUNCHcast
Although I have had some buffering problems where the song may skip, they were infrequent. I only experienced them the most during peak Internet hours. For the most part I got smooth sounding music. This is rare to find for dial-up connections. I think that is the biggest reason to download your online personalized radio station.
So how did LAUNCHcast compare to Sonic Net and other online radio stations? Lets see how LAUNCHcast stacks up. Ratings are from one to five stars.
Here’s The Breakdown
Sound Quality
****
Assuming that the song is not skipping, the sound is crystal clear. I’m serious, it is as good quality than if you were listening to MP3’s on Napster. This should be the standard in all Internet radio sound. The reason why I took a star off is because it skips sometimes and that it annoying. You would be surprised how mad you get when your favorite song is interrupted by a buffering message on the top of the LC player. I have never yelled at my computer until I got LAUNCHcast.
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Music Selection
*****
I was surprised what a wide variety of music the LC player had. There were some bands that I have never heard of, but since their music was good, I took it upon myself to make them show up more frequently on my station. This is a great place for small bands to make their mark and be known. I only wish my local radio stations did this for lesser-known bands. Don’t get me wrong, most of the songs are mainstream bands, but there are a few rising bands in there.
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Overall
****
The thing that I like about this Internet radio program the most is that the more you rate songs and artists, the better and more accurate the play list will become. LAUNCH was started as a CD-ROM magazine. Although I am not so thrilled about the magazine, this online service is good for anyone that wants to hear some good music. I had somewhat low expectations about this program for many reasons. I thought that it would have poor sound quality and slow buffering times when all I got was the total opposite. I am very pleased with this service and I will continue to use this program for Internet years to come.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
SParkfan77
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Dan Schiller
Location: Long Island NY
Reviews written: 376
Trusted by: 193 members
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