Ditto Music was created by Matt and Lee Parsons as a way to help musicians avoid their struggles in distributing their own music. Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, was motivated similarly. However, Matt and Lee are hungry to prove they can play with the big-time distributors. It’s an attitude I like and it may work for you. Let’s dig a little deeper with this Ditto Music Review.

At first, I was uncertain about Ditto Music’s biz model. But after a little digging, I discovered that their foundation is based upon distributing your music to as many digital retailers as possible. This is what TuneCore and CD Baby do as well, their biggest competitors. The digital retailers they’re partnered with include iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Rdio, etc. The Basic Service is free – which means you can place up to 10 tracks on iTunes. If you want more stores, you pay $9 for a single, $20 for an EP, and $35 for an album. These are yearly rates – so as long as you want to sell your music through Ditto, you pay that rate. However, keep in mind Ditto gives you 100% of all sales from your music.

At this time, you may be asking how Ditto Music is able to make any mullah. The reason they’re able to offer such low rates is, as they say, they’re more than a “monster truck for distributing music.” Distributing your music is actually the way they develop a relationship with you. If you are happy with their service, you’ll probably be inclined to pursue their myriad of other services such as creating your own record label, a chart breaker package designed to give you a mad-house release for hopefully charging into the UK Top 40, Pre-release selling, video distribution, mixed-media release package for combining multiple medias in your iTunes release, registration for both UK and US charts, as well as royalty registration to make sure you’re getting paid what you’re owed.

Do you live for performing? You’re in luck with Ditto Music because they’ll try and hook you up with festivals. This means live performance venues at SXSW in Austin and Liverpool Sound City. Ditto Music goes to bat for you in seeking out sponsorship, licensing and synching opportunities as well.

I mentioned in both my CD Baby and TuneCore reviews the importance of excellent customer service because stuff will hit the fan sometimes. Both of the aforementioned rank well in this category and so does Ditto Music, winning the 2011 RECS award for best on-line customer support.

That’s a quick rundown on Ditto Music for you. Truthfully, a lot of the services offered by CD Baby, TuneCore and Ditto Music are very similar if not downright the same. Your job is to link up with the company that strikes a chord with what you’re about and what you want to accomplish through music. My suggestion – don’t rush it (don’t take a year either, but ya dig what I mean) and feel out several distributors. After doing so, go with your gut – it’s usually right.

Why Musicians Should Use Business Cards

Business cards, we’ve all had them. Some of us swear by them, others say “neh” and do away with them. Whatever type you are, I’m sure someone’s handed you one at some point. And you probably thought, “what the hell am I supposed to do with this?” Or maybe you were like “sweet dude, I’m gonna call you right away.” Either way, it probably got you thinking. You may have thought, “wow this person really comes prepared.” I seriously doubt you thought, “heh, look this guy, what a dinosaur, still uses business cards.”

In this article, we’re going to take a look at a few things you can do with business cards to stand out amongst the sea of musicians out there, and why business cards for musicians still can be used today.

Tangibility

Okay, it’s kind of interesting that in 2018 we’re still talking about them. I mean, we’re supposed to have hover-boards, flying cars, self-tying shoes, and time travel should be a thing of the past. Sorry, Marty, we’re not there yet.

As the world becomes more and more digitized with things like SoundCloud, Spotify and Facebook it may feel like business cards for musicians are a bit old-fashioned. But are they really? Well, we’re humans, so it’s only natural that we like the human touch. Handing something that is tangible to another person has much more of an impact rather than another ‘like’ or ‘follow’ on social media. In 2016 paper books made a 7% increase in sales while eBooks made a decrease of 4%. A big attributor to this was adult coloring books and children preferring paper books over a Kindle or iPad. What does this suggest? I think it’s kind of clear. We don’t like everything in our lives to be digital. We like things that have texture and we can hold in our hands. Digital can just get a little too sterile at times.

Forces You To Network

When you learn the knowledge of something for yourself, you take responsibility for it. Similarly, when you spend money on something, you’re more inclined to use it. A Facebook page or a Twitter account cost nothing. So it’s much easier to give it the old ‘oh tomorrow, tomorrow’ adage. It doesn’t feel too good spending money on that New Year’s resolution exercise equipment for it to just sit there, collecting dust. But what happens when you actually use it and you start to see results. You probably feel like a million bucks. Well, when you’ve spent money on some business cards, I bet you anything you feel pretty good when you start using them and start meeting people. All the while putting you in the right mindset to get you off your ass and get to those networking events or build up the courage to talk to that person that could make the difference.

What To Put On Them?

Your basic setup should be quality stock (stock = type of paper). A nice 16pt paper or 38pt triple layered paper works beautifully. Avoid basic, cookie-cutter designs or images. Make sure your business cards include the following:

• Your name
• Services provided
• Phone number
• SoundCloud, Spotify, Facebook, or YouTube
• Email
• Your website URL

Don’t overwhelm people with every single social media account you have. Provide the ones you use most and that best exemplify you.

Be Creative

Your card is a reflection of your artistry to an extent. So it should speak for you. Are you a plain and boring person? Then your business card should be plain and boring. Are you a simple yet modern person? Then your business card should speak of that. Try things like colorful backgrounds, or follow the trends of modern artwork and try to incorporate that into your design. It doesn’t have to stop there either. Why not have some funny quotes or descriptions of your services? Don’t just settle on ‘guitar player’ or my favorite ‘pianist’. Make the line about who you are. Just don’t overdo it.

Finally

Business cards aren’t the end all. When you have them, you aren’t going to just start booking outstanding gigs and getting more work (maybe you will). They are simply a way of having your information nicely placed for your prospect to take an interest into what you have to offer. Then, that may drive them to your website or demo reels. A good looking business card is just the first step, the rest is up to you…

I ask you this

How many of you musicians out there still use business cards? What are your thoughts about them while we move more and more into digitization. Do people really care about tangibility? For my networking musicians, if there were a website that helped musicians by taking the frustration out of designing business cards and other paper promotion, would you use it?

Today, there is a buzz all around about Docker and containerisation in general. What exactly is Docker and how is it related to containerisation? What are the top benefits of using docker? Why did it became so popular? In this article I will answer all these questions as well as give you a few statistics and some successful case studies related to Docker that are nice to know about.

What is docker & how is it related to containerization

Running applications in containers instead of virtual machines is gaining momentum in the IT world. The technology is considered to be one of the fastest growing in recent the history of the software industry. At its heart lies Docker, a platform that allows users to easily pack, distribute and manage applications within containers. In other words, It is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers.

Docker really makes it easier to create, deploy, and run applications by using containers. And containers allow a developer to package up an application with all of the parts it needs, such as libraries and other dependencies, and ship it all out as one package. By doing so, the developer can be assured that the application will run on any other Linux machine regardless of any customized settings that machine might have that could differ from the machine used for writing and testing the code.

Docker; statistics & facts

• 2/3 of Companies that try using docker, adopt it. Most companies who will adopt have already done so within 30 days of initial production usage, and almost all the remaining adopters convert within 60 days.
• Real docker adoption is up 30% in one year

• Adopters 5x their container. Docker adopters approximately quintuple the average number of running containers they have in production between their first and tenth month of usage.
• PHP, Ruby, Java and Node are the main programming frameworks used in containers1
• Top technologies running on docker

Popularity & benefits of using docker

Why do large companies like ING, PayPal, ADP and Spotify keep using Docker? Why is the adoption of docker growing so fast? Let’s go over the top advantages of docker to better understand it.

1. Return on investment & cost savings

The first advantage of using docker is the ROI. The biggest driver of most management decisions when selecting a new product is the return on investment. The more a solution can drive down costs while raising profits, the better the solution is, especially for large, established companies, that need to generate steady revenue on the long term.

In this sense, Docker can help facilitate this type of savings by dramatically reducing infrastructure resources. The nature of Docker is that fewer resources are necessary to run the same application. Because of the reduced infrastructure requirements that Docker has, organizations are able to save on everything from server costs to the employees needed to maintain them. Docker allows engineering teams to be smaller and more effective.

2. Standardization & productivity

Docker containers ensure consistency across multiple development, release cycles and standardising your environment. One of the biggest advantages to a Docker-based architecture is actually standardization. Docker provides repeatable development, build, test, and production environments. Standardizing service infrastructure across the entire pipeline allows every team member to work on a production parity environment. By doing this, engineers are more equipped to efficiently analyze and fix bugs within the application. This reduces the amount of time wasted on defects and increases the amount of time available for feature development.

As we mentioned, Docker containers allow you to commit changes to your Docker images and version control them. For example if you perform a component upgrade that breaks your whole environment, it is very easy to rollback to a previous version of your Docker image. This whole process can be tested in a few minutes. Docker is fast, allowing you to quickly make replications and achieve redundancy. Also, launching Docker images is as fast as running a machine process.

3. CI efficiency

Docker enables you to build a container image and use that same image across every step of the deployment process. A huge benefit of this is the ability to separate non-dependent steps and run them in parallel. The length of time it takes from build to production can be sped up notably.

4. Compatibility & maintainability

Eliminate the “it works on my machine” problem once and for all. One of the benefits that the entire team will appreciate is parity. Parity, in terms of Docker, means that your images run the same no matter which server or whose laptop they are running on. For your developers, this means less time spent setting up environments, debugging environment-specific issues, and a more portable and easy-to-set-up codebase. Parity also means your production infrastructure will be more reliable and easier to maintain.

5. Simplicity & faster configurations

One of the key benefits of Docker is the way it simplifies matters. Users can take their own configuration, put it into code and deploy it without any problems. As Docker can be used in a wide variety of environments, the requirements of the infrastructure are no longer linked with the environment of the application.

6. Rapid Deployment

Docker manages to reduce deployment to seconds. This is due to the fact that it creates a container for every process and does not boot an OS. Data can be created and destroyed without worry that the cost to bring it up again would be higher than affordable.

7. Continuous Deployment & Testing

Docker ensures consistent environments from development to production. Docker containers are configured to maintain all configurations and dependencies internally. So, you can use the same container from development to production making sure there are no discrepancies or manual intervention.

If you need to perform an upgrade during a product’s release cycle, you can easily make the necessary changes to Docker containers, test them, and implement the same changes to your existing containers. This sort of flexibility is another key advantage of using Docker. Docker really allows you to build, test and release images that can be deployed across multiple servers. Even if a new security patch is available, the process remains the same. You can apply the patch, test it and release it to production.

8. Multi-Cloud Platforms

This is possibly one of Docker’s greatest benefits. Over the last few years, all major cloud computing providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Compute Platform (GCP), have embraced Docker’s availability and added individual support. Docker containers can be run inside an Amazon EC2 instance, Google Compute Engine instance, Rackspace server or VirtualBox, provided that the host OS supports Docker. If this is the case, a container running on an Amazon EC2 instance can easily be ported between environments, for example to VirtualBox, achieving similar consistency and functionality. Also, Docker works very well with other providers like Microsoft Azure, and OpenStack, and can be used with various configuration managers like Chef, Puppet, and Ansible,etc.

9. Isolation

Docker ensures your applications and resources are isolated and segregated. Docker makes sure each container has its own resources that are isolated from other containers. You can have various containers for separate applications running completely different stacks. Docker helps you ensure clean app removal since each application runs on its own container. If you no longer need an application, you can simply delete its container. It won’t leave any temporary or configuration files on your host OS.

On top of these benefits, Docker also ensures that each application only uses resources that have been assigned to them. A particular application won’t use all of your available resources, which would normally lead to performance degradation or complete downtime for other applications.

10. Security

And the last benefit of using docker is – security. From a security point of view, Docker ensures that applications that are running on containers are completely segregated and isolated from each other, granting you complete control over traffic flow and management. No Docker container can look into processes running inside another container. From an architectural point of view, each container gets its own set of resources ranging from processing to network stacks.

Docker success stories

Let’s look at success stories of well-known companies, which implemented Docker and are very happy with the results.

• ADP Case Study

ADP is one of those companies that keep using Docker to better manage their application infrastructure. ADP is the largest global provider of cloud-based human resources services. From payroll to benefits, ADP handles HR for more than 600,000 clients, which caused a challenge in terms of security and scalability.

To solve security issue, ADP uses Docker Datacenter. Docker Content Trust enables their IT ops team to sign images and ensure that only signed binary will run in production. They also perform automated container scanning. Using multiple Docker Trusted Registries enables them to build a progressive trust workflow for their applications development process.

To solve scalability issue, the company relies on Universal Control Plane/Swarm. Swarm gives their team the ability to first start small and have each application made up of many small Docker engine swarms instead of one swarm per application. Then the swarms will merge over time, becoming larger and in the end each application will have its own swarm. One day, a swarm could potentially span across public and private infrastructure and across applications. This will enable the business to make the best financial decision for the company. With Docker containers, ADP plans to containerize the most dynamic parts of their applications first making it easier to change and re-deploy them moving forward, while leaving the other areas of the application for a later time. Containerizing with Docker enables ADP to have a hybrid strategy. They will have a mix of big and small containers for any application, which creates an evolutionary path forward to micro services

The vision and goal of ADP is to get to microservices but the reality is that no company will get there overnight. Not all applications will be refactored at the same rate and the platform needs to be flexible to accommodate a variety of application architectures. Now, by slowly isolating services into separate containers, ADP is able to slowly grow into a microservices architecture using Docker, rather than doing it all overnight.

• Spotify Case study

A digital music service with millions of users is running a microservices architecture with as many as 300 servers for every engineer on staff.

The biggest pain point Spotify experienced managing such a large number of microservices was the deployment pipeline. With Docker, Spotify was able to pass the same container all the way through their CI/CD pipeline.

From build to test to production, they were able to ensure that the container that passed the build and test process was the exact same container that was on production.

Now the company can guarantee that all of their services remain up and running, providing a great user experience for their customers. They also built a new platform called Helios based on Docker containers to deploy their containers across their entire fleet or servers. maintain their development ecosystem.

• ING Case study

As one of the top 10 financial services companies in the world, â?¨ING operates on global scale. The IT organization in the Netherlands alone comprised of 1,800 people creating unique challenges of coordinating change across large groups of people, processesâ?¨ and technology and it lead to poor quality software.

Now, ING is able to move faster with their CD pipeline running in Docker containers. Key areas accelerated are provisioning build servers, provisioning and publishing tests, deployment automation and in the functional integration testing environment across their 180 teams. Additionally the increasing levels of automation was starting to strain their infrastructure resources and Docker helped to greatly reduce that utilization and ultimately hard costs, especially within some of their biggest development efforts.

Conclusion

to conclude I want to say that Docker containers share their operating system so they run as isolated processes regardless of the host operating system. As Docker proudly admits, this means that its containers can “run on any computer, on any infrastructure and in any cloud”. The portability, flexibility and simplicity that this enables, is a key reason why Docker has been able to generate such strong momentum. We are big fans of using Docker and we believe that it will continue growing.

Virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa are becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives. Recently, Google released their competitor to Amazon’s product. Aptly named, Google Home, the Google Home Assistant can help you in surprising ways you might not have realized at first. Here are 15 features that might surprise you.

1. Use It as a Speaker

It’s common knowledge that it comes equipped with a Bluetooth speaker. However, it’s not limited to just connecting to your phone and playing playlists. It can connect to many music streaming services, like Spotify and Pandora. Not only that but with an integrated chrome browser on any computer, you can easily connect your computer to it and use it as a desktop speaker.

2. Read the News from 1851

It has a database of news headlines going back all the way to 1851. All you have to do is ask for the news on any specific day. It will then read the headlines of that day and summarizes the news contained in that article.

3. Find Your Phone

With just a simple phrase, Google Home Assistant can place a call to your phone to help you find it. If your phone is on silent or vibrate and is compatible with Google Home, it will even come out of silent mode in order for you to hear its ring.

4. Turn Your Lights On or Off

It is advertised as the central hub for all your smart devices. If you have compatible lights such as the Phillips Hue bulbs, then you can ask it to turn off and on the lights for you without pressing a switch.

5. Use Touch Commands

It is equipped with touch-sensitive technology that knows where your fingers are and can register many gestures. You can tap the top to pause and unpause music and sliding your finger to the side opens up the volume control. Google has promised more functionality of touch commands in the future.

6. Get an Uber

By connecting your Uber app to Google Home and specifying a few settings, you can ask it for an Uber and one will go right to your house in a matter of minutes.

7. Cook Recipes

Perhaps one of the most useful functions, it can look up over five million recipes via several databases such as the New York Time and Food Network. The Google Home Assistant will go through the recipe step by step and you can even ask it for conversions and ingredient substitutions.

8. Play 20 Questions

It is connected to Akinator, which is an online version of 20 questions. You simply think of something, and Akinator, via Google Home will ask questions to narrow it down. It’s perfect for when you are bored or want to keep your kids occupied.

9. Keep A Shopping List

Google Home has a lot of functionality in the kitchen. If you notice you’re missing something, simply ask Google Assistant to add the item to your shopping list. That shopping list is automatically sent to any integrated phone or smart device.

10. Integrate With Chromecast

If you have Chromecast, Google’s home TV option, then you can use Google Home and voice commands to control it. You can ask for specific videos, or tell it to rewind, forward, or skip to a specific time.

11. Know Your Traffic

By adding your home and work locations to its app, the Google Home Assistant can tell you about traffic conditions and possible alternate routes you can take to save time.

12. Impress Your Guests

It allows your guests to use it as well. All they have to do is pair their device with Google Home, a step that literally takes seconds. Once it is paired, they can issue commands and ask questions just as you can.

13. See Your Pics on TV

It can be given access to your photo accounts, like Google Photo and Photobucket. Once you do, you can use Chromecast to show your pictures on TV and even ask for specific pictures based on location and date.

14. Relax

It comes with over 15 ambient sounds, including forest ambiance and crashing waves, to help you relax or fall asleep.

15. Hear a Joke

It can even tell jokes. Just ask, and you shall receive.

With all these things you can do with Google Home and more features added soon, now is a great time to buy this fantastic home assistant.

With the previous advancements of the compression of computerized audio files for easier transmission made by web pirates in the 80s, technology pioneer, Carl Malmud, founded the first internet radio station in 1993. With no other competition, it was simply called “Internet Talk Radio”. It was mostly comprised of entertaining interviews with key players of the science and technology industry. Since then, the growth of internet broadcasting has snowballed into the 21st century after a few musical concerts were broadcast live and music shook loose of its traditional radio roots and became “streamable”.

When internet broadcasters once needed their own servers and platforms, 365live.com changed the game, and newer, better technologies have emerged to offer anyone the opportunity to broadcast in a community. Now, this technology can be used on devices smaller than some wrist watches, such as on iPods and on smartphones. Apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music, and Pandora are among streaming music favorites and Slacker.com and Internet-radio.com for talk radio.

Why Does This Technology Matter So Much?

For a long period in radio’s history, you were told you could expect little change in the technology and the way the consumer used it. The 21st century had other plans. When once you had little choice of what you listened to and when, you now can completely tailor your listening experience. What, how, and when are all now within your control. You can support that which you personally believe in, rather than what agenda and advertising are being targeted at you. You can more closely engage with people you look up to and communities you want to join. It can be used as a tool to quickly transform your own mindset and life altogether.

The Opportunity It Presents

Not only do listeners stand to gain, but broadcasters just as easily reach their “tribe”, too. Business owners who choose to sponsor internet radio stations are also equally rewarded by being able to target such a specific audience with ads, guest spots, or shows of their own. If they are only advertising with traditional radio stations, they are in for a slim return because it only takes this 30-page report by Larry Miller of New York University’s Steinhart Music Business Program to understand that emerging listeners have no interest in technologies of the past.

The studies says “Generation Z, which is projected to account for 40% of all consumers in the U.S. by 2020, shows little interest in traditional media, including radio, having grown up in an on-demand digital environment”

You may have heard about the Yamaha RX-V479 AV receiver for your home theater system. This article will briefly review this receiver.

This is an impressive AV receiver with great features and superior sound quality. It also adds HDCP 2.2 copy protection for 4K video, Bluetooth and WiFi. Available at an optimum price, this 5.1 channel AV receiver was one of the top 5 channel receivers in 2015.

While the Yamaha RX-V479 does not seem a lot different from the earlier 477 version, this will change significantly when you look at the rear of the 479 receiver. HDMI becomes the dominant connection format and analog withers away. This receiver gives you about 3 analog inputs and 3 digital inputs. Dotting the top of the receiver are 6 HDMI inputs and 1 output. The 479 is also well equipped to handle 4K video if you do decide to upgrade your TV.

It has about 80 watts per channel and this means that it has enough juice to power a decent set of speakers in a small or medium size room. Also, Yamaha has come up with a remote that is simpler to use than that of prior models.

This AV receiver also has a pretty good set of Internet streaming options with vTuner, AirPlay, Pandora, and Spotify all included. It is also compatible with MusicCast.

This 5.1 channel receiver boasts a painless setup process. Also, for calibration, it uses Yamaha’s tried and tested YPAO calibration system. You can plug in the included calibration microphone and the receiver sends out a series of test zones, which it uses to calibrate your system. In a few minutes, your new AV receiver is pretty much ready to roll.

It has impressive sound quality and packs a punch with your home theater system. Movies as diverse as Jurassic Park and Godzilla storm their way into your living room with this AV receiver. Also, it works well with music too, providing both depth and detail.

This receiver supports the latest HDMI standards, as well as 3D video signals. It also has built-in Wi-Fi and Wireless Direct.

You can connect this receiver to a Mac or PC and also have two-way control of Internet radio, Pandora and Spotify. You can also control various functions from your iPhone, iPod, iPad or Android phones and tablets.

Here’s hoping you have enjoyed this review of the Yamaha RX-V479 AV receiver…

Maybe the idea of speaking French or Italian sounds romantic. Perhaps your boss told you that you’re going to China next month to close a big business deal. Or is it love?

If you’ve been thinking about learning another language, today’s a great day to start. Here are 3 easy steps you can take right now:

1. Decide what you want to do with the language. You can focus on different aspects of language. For example, do you want to have survival language because you’re going on a trip? Do you want to develop conversational skills? Maybe you just want to be able to read articles and have no intention of ever using your language skills for conversation.

Know what it is you want to do with your foreign language skills. This is the first step to then be able to find appropriate learning resources.

2. Find a free language course. Once you’ve clarified what it is you want to be able to do with the language, now you need to find a free language course online or in your local community. For an online course, start by doing an internet search for free online (X) language course, substituting (X) for the language you want to learn. You’ll see several resources. Browse the selection and focus on what it is you want to develop (e.g. survival language or conversational skills). Consider searching for language lessons on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes as well. Once you’ve found one or two that look promising, bookmark them to go back and explore later.

In your local community, visit your public library. Most will have audio courses, phrase books, grammar books, and how-to books. You may also want to contact your local adult continuing education office to see if there are low-cost courses available.

Why are lessons and courses important? They offer structure for beginning learners. Whether you complete all of the lessons, skip some, or only use them as a reference, structured courses and materials can guide your self-study.

3. Make a schedule. Physically create a schedule for the next week that includes a little time each day to work on learning your new language. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 2 hours, set time aside dedicated to language learning. You can do this on a piece of paper or use a calendar app to help remind you. Whatever scheduling tool you decide to use, make sure that it’s in a place where you’ll see it daily.

These 3 steps will get you started on your language studies today: decide what you want to do with your language skills; find free learning resources; and make a schedule. Carpe diem!

Music is life. It inspires, elevates, changes moods and has the power to bring out the best in us. Without music, the world would make not very much meaning. There are many ways to access and listen to music, especially in the modern world.

Advancement in technology has made it very easy for us to access music on the go, online, via different mediums like smartphones, tablets, and mobile phones. If you want to enjoy unlimited access to great music that will cost you no money, here are the top 23 sites.

Spotify

With over 20 million song options, there is hardly any site that can beat Spotify when it comes to delivering quality music to the masses free. Users can open the site and listen to any music on their desktop, laptop, tablet and Apple devices.

iHeart Radio

This site is about one of the best online music site that does not have any paid subscription options whatsoever. With over 18 million songs, 4,500 artists and 1,500 live radio, this site offer the best options for all types of music lovers.

The Sixty One

If you are one of those people that believe that there are great songs that are unpopular, you would love this free music streaming site. They select great songs that have not been heard and put them in the limelight.

BandCamp

This free music sharing and streaming site offer something unique that benefits both the artist and the users. Artists can post their songs, while users can listen to the songs, add comments and support the songs.

Jango

This site offers music lovers the opportunity to search for thousands of music in different genre and categories, play the songs or play a collection of songs altogether. It is an excellent place to discover great music.

Last.fm

There are very few online sites that can offer users the opportunity to find great music, talented artists and exceptional bands than Last.fm. Users can also use the website’s radio option to locate fresh music.

Pandora

This site is like an online radio station where you can find different types of songs, but with a little difference. During sign up, users are made to provide details of their favorite music genre, and Pandora will automatically forward them songs that relate to their interest.

iTunes Radio

Apple’s premier online music streaming channel needs no introduction. Users are given access to over 25 million songs; they can play on their Mac and other iOS devices. The site updates every day with great new songs.

SoundCloud

Step into the world of unlimited music with SoundCloud collection of music supplied by the most creative talents on the planet. The site’s uniqueness is attributed to its unique features, compatibility, and ability to share on social media.

RDIO

The RDIO model offers music lovers something extra unique among other sites. Users can listen to their favorite song or album, create a playlist, and listen to songs on multiple platforms like Android, Windows, and iOS.

Slacker Radio

Listen to all your favorite songs without any need to download on the Slacker Radio Platform. Users have access to more than 10 million songs they can play at any time and any day.

Di.fm

Listen to songs, find talented bands, get music information, all free at the Di.fm online music streaming site. It is loaded with cool features that enable you to choose songs based on categories like years of releases and genre.

Grooveshark

There are very few free online music streaming sites that can beat Grooveshark. Users are given the opportunity to explore cool features like unlimited streaming, social integration, folders and music selection options.

YouTube Disco

Although not very well known, this website offer users with the opportunity to search songs and playlists. You can also find your favorite artists, and use it online without any need for downloading.

Amazon Cloud play

With this free online streaming platform, music lovers can upload the playlist they already have and listen to them at any time. Also, when you purchase any songs on the Amazon, cloudplay automatically adds it to your playlist.

TubeRadio

This search engine offers something unique for music lovers. With TubeRadio, users can search for any songs and will be presented with a list they can choose. The site relies on YouTube to find and display the songs you’re searching.

Live365

Internet radio is a phenomenon and live 365 has come to make the magic even more realistic. The website allows users to find online radio where they can listen to their favorite songs, from different parts of the world.

8tracks

The playlist has gone to another level thanks to 8track’s innovative style. Anyone can sign up on the site, select eight tracks and share it. If you like the playlist, you can follow the creator or further share it on social media.

Jelli

Jelli offers music listeners the power to upvote and downvote a song they have listened. This way, the site owners will know which songs they should play more often and which ones they should eliminate.

Myspace

The social media site turn online music streaming site has been around for years. You can listen to songs from your favorite artists, or local artists, which are available in a huge selection on the website.

StereoMood

Mood-based playlist is becoming more and more popular because they offer a unique way. Songs are tagged together into a playlist based on the mood they express. Users can find the generated playlist and skip as they wish to listen to songs.

Turntable.fm

This site is another unique free music streaming site that strives to immerse users into a community. Anyone can sign up and join a room where a DJ plays songs based on their choice. If there is a vacant DJ spot, you can take it and serve others.

CitySound

While other online music streaming sound focus on the global audience, CitySound tries to focus on local content. Users can find their favorite music which comes from or are reigning in a particular location or city.

Caring for a senior, whether as a professional caregiver or as the spouse or adult child of a senior who needs care, takes a lot of energy any time of the year. The holidays are no different, so making sure you get the downtime you need and the celebration of the fresh start of a new year are both important. Creating fun New Years Eve festivities doesn’t need to be a highly involved and complicated process. Combining a special occasion with the day-to-day needs of taking care of a senior citizen honors both the holiday and your dedication to care.

Plan the Party

Everyone likes to feel needed, so include your senior in the planning process. Ask him what he remembers from years past, what he liked and didn’t like. Set him to work writing a shopping list for you that includes favorite snacks, beverages, and fun novelty New Years Eve hats. Decide what you’ll wear to add a touch of festivity, and plan to add some sparkle to your senior’s outfit. If possible, enlist help with the actual shopping, whether your helper does the shopping or stays with your senior while you leave for fresh air.

Explore the Memories

New Years Eve is often a time of reflection. Gather old albums and framed photographs from around the house and take your time looking at them with your senior. Listen to the stories the photos draw from her memories. It’s so easy to forget that she used to be a young, vibrant teenager, with her entire life’s hopes and dreams in front of her. If possible, have another person there as scribe to record your senior’s memories. Ask questions, not about dates, but about how she felt when it rained, how the watermelon tasted, what her first kiss was like.

Rediscover the Music

Find a music station on the Internet that plays music from your senior’s favorite musical era. Stations playing every genre imaginable are available on sites such as Shoutcast, Spotify, or iHeartRadio. Playing “Name that Tune” gets everyone into the music and gives your senior a chance to shine.

The Ball Drops

The highlight of every New Years Eve is the dropping of the ball in Times Square in New York City. If it’s not feasible to stay up until midnight, find a video of the ball dropping in years past on YouTube and watch it on your time. Another option is to celebrate New Years with a completely different time zone than yours, so you’re celebrating at 3 pm instead of midnight.

No matter when or how you celebrate, wear your silly New Years hats and raise a glass of champagne, sparkling cider, or other beverage to toast good wishes new year.

We have all quickly become an iPhone dependent society, where we can control any aspect of our lives with just a powerful, fit in the pocket device.

This gadget has grown immensely over the past few years taking over the phone market throughout the world where now you either have an iPhone or you don’t. From this comes your applications, you will know of the most popular ones which are dominated franchising into even making toys such as Angry Birds, but there are still the hidden away little gems that don’t really get as popular or as known as the big dogs.

From what I have found the most amazing iPhone applications are those of which companies have based their whole company concept behind, and without would frankly not operate or be half as successful as they are.

Sonos have done just that, they started off with a greatly successful company of which supplied Wireless HiFi Music all throughout your home with just a single controller where you could stream music to individual rooms throughout your home or even play single tracks in each room at different volumes.

Then came the magic, Sonos released the iPhone and iPad application from where you no longer had to spend £279 on a Controller to stream your music all you not had to do was link up your phone with your music provider and away you are.

You do not have to have a premium subscription to a music provider such as spotify you can easily play from thousands of podcasts and radio stations from all around the world. Life could not get much better, imagine just sitting in your sofa or bed and picking out a big playlist for which you want to stream throughout your day and but the touch of a button on your phone you can turn this up, turn it down, switch rooms, songs and much more.

The real beauty of all this are defiantly the plays of which Sonos product especially the new smaller and sexier Sonos Play 3 which you can cram into all spaces of your home for example this device would fit perfectly on your book shelf. They have designed this player in two colours the white Sonos play 3 and the black Sonos play 3.

Before you purchase any wireless home systems, you need to be very clear on what you are looking for and also your budget. There are a variety of products that are available at various prices and you need to be sure that you only look for products that suit your need and also your budget as well. Ask around and surely, some of your friends and relatives would have bought them and they will be able to guide you on what product you should be purchasing. You can also refer the reviews on the internet before you go out and buy the product. Make the right choice so that you not only get a wire free experience but also a hassle free experience as well.