Essential Programs for the Music Enthusiast

Living in Germany for the past year has been tough. I was pulled away from everything normal and comfortable. Along with those comforts went the internet as well. I just recently received full time internet access in March, so I've been soaking up every sweet moment I can with it. That sounds quite nerdy, I realize. But! With that came quite a few new things I've discovered, both music related and non, and all free. Here's a list of them, in no particular order:

I began using last.fm. Last.fm is a social music community, like Facebook, but strictly for music. This nifty little tool has given me important stats about what I listen to. It will, in all certainty, let you know who your favorite artists are without much effort on your part. Your profile will also recommend artists rated by other users who are similar in genre to who you like and also find other users with similar music interests. I feel as though this program is now an essential part to my discovery of new music.

I can (almost) cut the cord from the resource mongering behemoth - iTunes. I've been a fan of iTunes since the time I purchased my first born child, my iPod. It has been a few years that I've been tethered to that program like a bum to his brown bagged alcohol, but I'm ultimately glad to see it go (almost). I came upon MusikCube, which can do almost everything that iTunes can do, with less than half of it's processing power. My resources here have been limited, so the more RAM I save, the better. Right now, MusikCube has no support for iPods, so I need to keep iTunes around for that purpose. Other than that, after being an iTunes follower for so long, I can't complain about the features of MusikCube. Plus, you need not run a separate last.fm program to gather song information because it's built into MusikCube (by downloading a plugin). Go Open Source!

FoxyTunes is the best Firefox (and Internet Explorer) extension out there. Firefox has been around for a few years, and has built up a huge library of sweet add-ons. Most can be a major drag on your resources, but there are a few essentials. FoxyTunes is one of them, which connects to the music player you're using (iTunes and MusikCube are compatible) and gives you the slew of playback options and song info that you normally have in your player's window (Play, Pause, Volume control). Some think that it's pointless to be devoting more resources to music, but the time that it saves is substantial while surfing the web.

Other unrelated-to-music essentials:

Firefox - Duh.

Gmail - Duh again.

Stumble Upon - Great source for news, general information, videos, and photos that cater to your individual interests. Acts as a channel surfing button.

Pidgin - Open source instant messaging program. Say you like Gmail's instant messaging capabilities but also have another IM client like AOL or Yahoo. Instead of having multiple programs open, further killing off resources, Pidgin can combine all these accounts so you see one buddy list with everyone you know on there. How convenient.

Picasa - Best photo manager out there. Comma. And it's from Google. Period.

GIMP and Inkscape - Both open source programs for the image manipulators out there. Perfect for home use, and they both perform the same basic tasks that big time programs like Photoshop and Illustrator can do. Oh yeah, but they're free.

Skype - Free to call another computer connected to the internet, 2 cents a minute to call from a computer to cell phones and land lines. Can't find a better deal for a call. No where.

Launchy - Keystroke application launcher for Windows. Hit a button, type in what program you want to open, file you want to find, or website you want to visit and Launchy's got you covered. Way cool.