Free, legal music, wherever you are
Freemake Music Box is a music streaming application that aims to provide you with free, legal music that's not restricted by geographical boundaries.
There are lots of music apps out there, and although some of them are really good, there are definite drawbacks. Spotify's free version is limited, Pandora's not available outside the US...the list goes on.
The good
Not so with Freemake Music Box. This application uses a powerful search engine to seek out free, legal music for you. It doesn't specify where it finds this music, exactly, but it does guarantee that you won't get into trouble for listening to it. Freemake Music Box doesn't require any kind of sign up, which is another plus to this music streaming app.
When you search for music with Freemake Music Box, you'll get a list of results in the main interface. You can filter results by artist, track and album. When you play a track, a video will appear in the lower left-hand corner - you can hide this video if you want. Freemake Music Box also supports playlists - just add a track to a playlist by right clicking on a song and picking Add track to playlist.
The bad
Free music is always good, and Freemake Music Box is a great attempt, but it's still in the early stages of development and has some definite weak spots. The main issue is the quality and availability of music. Loading tracks can be very slow, and although all tracks are well labeled, you sometimes click on one, only to find that a completely unrelated track plays.
Of course, this is generally related to imperfect tagging of uploaded videos and tracks, and isn't Freemake Music Box's fault, but it still interrupts the listening experience. If you pick a track only to find that something else plays, you can right-click to skip to the next version of the song - but there's still no guarantee that it will be the right one.
Freemake Music Box is an interesting proposal and worth a download if you want free music. Just be aware that it has some serious limitations.
Changes
Added the possibility to import local playlists in the formats: M3U, M3U8, ASX, TPL, KPL, WPL, AIMPPL, PLC, PLS, RLC, ZPL, XSPT, SMI, SMIL. Added the automatic usage of local audio tracks as an additional music source Improved the quality of audio stream playback Improved the algorithm of music search Enhanced the software stability Minor GUI changes
