Music programme with promise | Bangkok Post: tech

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Music Box is a new PC programme that seems so certain to go places that it is well worth having it now.

If you don’t want to stick to one artist or genre, mix and match the playlists available from Music Box.

The programme is by Freemake, which makes very excellent, maybe the best video downloader and video converter and DVD burner.

Unlike Video Converter and Video Downloader, however, the Freemake Music Box is a little bit misnamed. ''Music Box'' implies the programme organises and plays your music.

It doesn't. It mixes and matches OPM _ other people's music. But it also ''nice''. Music Box finds and organises and plays only authorised music.

It works like this. You tell Music Box an artist, or a song, or just a type of music you like _ rock, hip-hop, country, Thai, whatever. You hand it a keyword or several, and it heads out on the Internet to match your orders.

Music Box quite quickly assembles a playlist, showing you the songs, artists, album and time. It does a quick sort, too, supposedly according to their popularity. In my tests, it did all this efficiently and lived up entirely to its own advertising.

Click and play is the obvious next step. You can use the default playlist that Music Box gave you, assemble your own, or just listen to some music for a while and toss the whole collection.

The reason I like Music Box is because it works, but more to the point for its potential. The very reliable Freemake folks say that Music Box will very quickly be available as iOS and Android apps for phone and tablets, and at the same time will sync your own music from your own platforms, as well as the Internet sources.

There are a lot of music apps and programs available, but few match even today's early Music Box for the combination of versatility and ease of use.

Music Box is available where you would expect it at www.freemake.com.

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