Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

There's nothing quite like the feel of a new book, the smell of an old record, or the joy of heading to the comic book store every Wednesday. Sometimes, though, those physical collections can be a burden—like when you're starved for space or want something more portable for traveling. Here are 10 forms of media you can take into the digital age.

10. Scan Photos to Your PC

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You've probably already switched to a digital camera for most of the photos and video you take, but is any of it organized? And what about all your photos from the pre-digital days? If you have a flatbed scanner, take some time to scan those photos into your digital collection and touch them up. If you have the negatives, those can often produce better results, and this simple DIY negative scanner should work pretty well. Once you've got everything in digital, don't just leave it sitting around—come up with a good organization scheme, whether it's just in folders or using a photo management app like Picasa or Lyn.

9. Subscribe to Your Radio Shows as Podcasts

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Radio may be convenient, but it doesn't offer many other advantages. If you have a lot of radio shows you really like, chances are they're already available online as podcasts, sometimes with pretty extensive archives. And, with the right app and a little configuration, you can turn all your favorite shows into a custom radio station that you can stream from anywhere, on your own time. Check out our favorite apps for iOS and Android, and our tips on how to supercharge your podcasts for more.

8. Play Your Video Games, Old and New

If you play video games on a PC, you've probably already started using steam to buy and organize them all—after all, why would you want to buy a disc, especially when online stores have such great sales? But when it comes to those classic games from your past, you may still have a few old systems knocking around. Those are great, but if you want to play on-the-go, you can turn your smartphone or tablet into a portable retro game arcade, or create one for your house that combines all those systems into one. You can even create your own retro arcade table for some serious playing.

7. Turn Your Recipes and Cookbooks Into a Digital Database

Everyone's gotta eat, and cooking for yourself is the ultimate way to save money and eat great food. But once you start building up a good collection of recipes, it can become hard to sort through. Either you've got a shelf full of cookbooks or a box full of disorganized recipe cards you have to hand-write yourself. Luckily, all those cookbook recipes are probably online somewhere, and you can import them right into a digital recipe organization or meal planning tool. Then you can search for the recipes you want, plan your meals for the week, and even create a grocery list from the ingredients. You'll never go analog again.

6. Read Your Newspapers and Magazines Online

Some of you digital mavens may scoff at those of us who still read old school newspapers and magazines, but they're perfect ways to catch up on news or keep yourself entertained when you don't have time to dig through RSS feeds or crawl Twitter. However, paper news does have one downside: it takes up a lot of space and wastes a lot of paper, especially once you start building up a collection. Luckily, going digital is easy: just grab your favorite news and magazine apps on your phone, tablet, or rooted ereader. Apple's Newsstand and Android's Google Play have some pretty great collections, and you can also get a lot of cheap magazines from apps like Zinio. If you're looking for old issues, you can often find them via Google Books or other sources. And when you're done, those old newspapers make great odor removers. Photo by Hector Alejandro.

5. Immortalize Your Journals, Drawings, and Other Personal Creations

Chances are you have a few old keepsakes lying around, from journals you wrote when you were younger to drawings and other projects. You probably don't want to get rid of these, and you shouldn't—but if you don't have room to store them nearby or want to make them easier to access, you can scan them in just like you do photos. Going forward, you might consider taking some of those hobbies ditigal—for example, it's really easy to keep a private journal online or get started with digital drawing. It lacks some of the emotion of pen-to-paper, but you can also do a lot of other cool stuff with it.

4. Consolidate Your Massive Comic Book Collection

If you're tired of digging through long boxes just to read a few of your old comics, it might be time to take them digital. You can subscribe to your favorite comics from companies like Marvel and DC with apps like ComiXology, or use a CBR reader for old, indie, or other scanned issues. Check out the best comic book readers for the desktop, iOS, and Android for more, and start collecting.

3. Load Up Your Ereader with Books

Physical books still have their time and place for sure, but when you don't want to carry around a giant tome like Lord of the Rings, an ereader is the perfect option. Not only can you load up on ebooks for free or cheap, but a lot of ebook apps actually enhance your reading experience by helping you keep track of characters, look up words and locations, search through text, translate it, and more. Check out the five best ebook stores for more, and if you have some ebooks lying around already, you can consolidate them and remove their DRM with Calibre for a truly organized collection.

2. Rip Your DVDs, Blu-Rays, and VHS Tapes

If your shelves are buckling under the weight of your massive DVD and Blu-Ray collection, maybe it's time to go digital. Maybe you've already started with a service like Netflix, but when it comes to the movies you already bought, you have a lot of choices for downsizing that physical collection. Our favorite method, though is ripping those discs and crafting your own personal library of movies on a home theater PC or set-top box. You probably know how to rip a DVD, and ripping Blu-Rays is almost as easy, so what are you waiting for? Analog formats like VHS are more complicated, but with the right equipment, it can be done.

1. Organize and Upgrade Your Massive Music Library

Okay, so you probably knew this was coming—in fact, you've probably already gone digital with most of your music collection anyways. Ripping CDs is a breeze, and music stores like iTunes and Amazon make it so easy to buy music you've probably ditched CDs altogether. But if your library's a little overwhelmed, it may be time to go clean it up a bit—get rid of stuff you don't want, make sure your metadata is all correct, and so on. Try out a new music player or upgrade those old, low-bitrate songs. Streaming services like Spotify and Rdio can get you pretty far, but they probably won't replace your library 100%. And if you do still have some analog music lying around—like old records—you can digitize and clean those up for your library too, so you can listen to them anywhere.

Top 10 Ways to Take Your Media Collections Digital

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS FROM THE LIBRARY

Free music downloads for Miami-Dade library users

http://mdpls.freegalmusic.com/homes/index

If you’ve got a Miami-Dade Public Library card, you can download three free, legal songs a week through a service called Freegal.

The service makes available more than 3 million songs from more than 10,000 labels in 60 countries. The exact offerings are constantly changing, but it’s safe to say there is LOTS of free, legal music to download.

You can listen to the music on any device, including iPhone, iPad, your computer, an Android or other MP3 player. The library has instructions for how to download music and how to transfer it to iTunes or other programs. Get the details here.

Free, legal music downloads is just one of the free services the Miami-Dade Public Library provides besides books. You can check out books to read on your Kindle or Nook, rent DVDs and CDs and participate in all kinds of free events.

Find Streaming Music Service that Works for You

Find the Streaming Music Service that Works for You with This Chart

You have a ton of options for streaming music. From Pandora to Rdio, making the choice of which one is right for you isn't as easy as it seems. Thankfully, the folks over at Dealnews put together a flowchart to help you make your choice.

The chart is based on whether you like your music radio-style or by album. Once you make that choice you're sent off to a bunch of different free and paid options. If you haven't stuck your flag in the ground and declared your favorite streaming yet, this chart should help make that choice easier.

A Guide to Finding the Right Music Streaming Service | Dealnews via Evolver.fm

Find the Streaming Music Service that Works for You with This Chart

Podtrans – banish iTunes

Podtrans – banish iTunes and manage your music the easy way

There’s no getting away from it, you either love or hate iTunes, the Apple application for managing the media on your iPod or iPhone. If you’ve grown up with the program, you’ll probably forgive its little quirks, and an interface that can be somewhat bewildering. But for newcomers to Apple devices, iTunes can be frustrating, especially when it’s such an integral part of the Apple experience.

That’s why it’s always nice to see alternatives hit the market, such as this new Podtrans freeware. The software replaces iTunes on Windows computers and allows for transfer to and from your computer and iDevice, without all the fuss and bother.

The first thing you’ll notice about the program is the fact that the interface is delightfully simple. Export, Import, Delete…the main elements don’t get much simpler than that. The software manages all forms of media, including video, music and exotica such as podcasts, and can cope with all iDevices and versions of the Windows operating system.

The free version of the product supports import and export of music, but for the full range of iTunes library functionality (including iTunes recovery, iPod to iPod transfer and unlimited library support) you’ll need to upgrade to the $29.99 version.

Best Websites for Downloading and Streaming Free Music

The Best Websites for Listening to Internet Radio and Downloading and Streaming Free Music

When was the last time you listened to over-the-air FM radio? There are so many options on the internet for listening to thousands of different radio stations in many different genres and for downloading a lot of music for free.

We’ve collected some of the best websites for listening to internet radio and for downloading and streaming free music.

Internet Radio

There are many sites that offer many radio stations from which you can pick, in all kinds of different genres. Some are completely free and some have both free and paid options.

Pandora

Pandora allows you to enter the name of a song, artist, or genre you like and the Music Genome Project scans its entire database of music that has been analyzed using up to 450 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. Songs with interesting musical similarities to the song, artist, or genre you entered are presented to you, allowing you to discover new music that fits in with your musical preferences and moods. Pandora also offers comedy and allows you to create up to 100 unique “stations” that you can refine over time.

The free version of Pandora is ad-supported. If you would prefer to listen to radio without audio or visual ads, you can sign up for Pandora One ($36 per year or $3.99 for one month) to enjoy your music without ads. Pandora One also allows you to listen for up to five hours in a row without having to interact with Pandora at all. When you do interact with Pandora, the timer is reset.

Last.fm

Last.fm is a music recommendation service. Sign up and download their software, The Scrobbler, which helps you discover other music based on the type of music you choose to play. The Scrobbler updates your library with music you’ve been listening to on your computer, phone, or music player and tells Last.fm what songs you like most, which ones you play most, how often you play a specific artist, as well as other information that helps them personalized recommendations just for you.

You can also download free MP3 files from Last.fm and get involved in the Last.fm community where you discuss music you love with other Last.fm listeners, tag tracks, and learn what’s new and hot. Last.fm is also available for iPhone and Android devices.

Screamer Radio

Screamer Radio is a freeware program that allows you to download and listen to any of over 4000 regional and internet radio stations. The software contains a large database of radio stations and you can record what you’re listening to. It’s ad-free and they claim it has no spyware. You can keep the program out of the way by hiding it in the system tray. Screamer Radio is also available in a portable version. See our review about playing and recording internet radio with Screamer Radio.

Playlist.com

Playlist.com offers millions of songs from which you can create millions of different playlists. Discover new music and connect with like-minded listeners and friends to see what they listen to and share your playlists with them.

SHOUTcast Radio Directory

SHOUTcast Radio is a directory listing over 45,000 music, talk, sports, and community radio stations from the U.S. and around the world. You can listen to a station while still exploring other stations. The stations are organized into categories to make it easy to find the style of music you like, and you can also search for your favorite songs and artists playing across the network of stations.

Slacker Personal Radio

Slacker Personal Radio allows you to listen to personalized, custom music, news, sports, and comedy stations for free and listen everywhere. The stations are programmed by DJs that are experts in their specific genres. Their knowledge and your own personal taste are used to create radio stations that are perfectly customized for you.

You can also subscribe to Slacker at two different levels: Slacker Radio Plus ($3.99/month) and Slacker Premium Radio ($9.99/month). They offer extra features such as no ads, the ability to cache stations on your mobile phone’s memory card, and unlimited song skips. The Premium service allows you to plays songs and albums on demand, cache albums and playlists as well as stations, and create your own playlists.

Live365

Live365 offers a wide-reaching radio network of high-quality, streaming music, talk, and audio in more than 260 genres. The Live365 radio network streams music from artists like Pat Metheny, Johnny Cash, and Carlos Santana. They also offer access to public radio stations and stations programmed in many different styles by individual DJs. Live365 allows individual artists and organizations an easy platform for promoting their music and creating their own internet radio stations.

You can become a VIP listener to have access to additional features, such as commercial-free music and the ability to listen to Live365 from compatible mobile devices. You have a choice of a 3-month subscription ($7.95/month paid every 3 months), a 6-month subscription ($6.95/month paid every 6 months), or a 1-year subscription ($5.95/month paid yearly). Part of the subscription fee you pay gets paid out as royalties to the artists whose music is played on Live365.

SKY.fm

SKY.fm is a multi-channel internet radio service that offers streaming music in over 50 different genres. You can listen for free or upgrade to SKY.fm Premium for high-quality audio streams, completely commercial-free music, and the ability to listen in multiple software programs on your PC, in your browser, and on your mobile device.

Streema

Streema offers a radio directory of over 20,000 stations in every music genre from around the world. The directory is ranked by popularity, so you can easily see what stations are the most popular among the Streema listeners. Use a web interface to find your favorite radio stations and the top new songs and playlists. Once you sign up for free, you can create a list of your favorite radio stations, invite some friends, and discover new music. As of the writing of this article, Streema claims that mobile apps are coming soon so you’ll be able to stream music from their site on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry, among other mobile phones.

Spotify

Spotify offers legal, free access to a large library of music you can listen to on your computer, iPhone, and iPad using their downloadable streaming music player. Sign up for a free account, login, listen to millions of tracks, and save the songs you love to your Spotify playlists.

Even with access to millions of tracks, you may get tired of listening to your favorite bands over and over again. Spotify’s recommendation engine can help you find other artists similar to what you’ve been listening to or to suit a specific mood. Their Related artist feature is another way to discover artists you just might love. When listening to one of the top artists on Spotify, you’ll see a list of artists that other fans of the current artist listen to on the Related artists tab. You might just find your new favorite band.

Spotify is free, but there are also paid subscriptions options: Unlimited ($4.99/month) and Premium ($9.99/month). Both subscriptions options offer ad-free listening and the Premium option also offers an offline mode for your desktop and mobile phone, the ability to stream millions of tracks from the Spotify library as well as radio, and enhanced sound quality.

Jango

Jango is an internet radio site that allows you to create and share custom radio stations based on artists or genres. Search for an artist or select a genre and your station begins to play right away. You not only get the music you like but also similar favorites of other Jango listeners who share your taste. Customize your stations by adding more artists and rate the songs, indicating which ones you want to play more often than others.

Share your stations with other Jango listeners and tune in to other people’s stations.

Radio Tuna

Radio Tuna is a real-time search engine for online radio that profiles stations based on the music they actually play and not only say they play. The data from thousands of streaming stations is processed in real time. Two databases, created by thousands of individuals contributing for free through Musicbrainz and Discogs, contain data used to work out what is being played on every stream found. Use Radio Tuna to spend more time listening to your favorite music and less time searching for it.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is a large, on-demand music streaming and discover service used by 30 million people. Listen to your favorite music, create your own playlists, discover new music. Share your music and discoveries with your friends through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. You can also upgrade to Grooveshark Plus ($6.00/month) so you can listen ad-free or to Grooveshark Anywhere ($9.00/month) so you can take Grooveshark with you on your phone and other mobile devices.

SomaFM

SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station that gets over 5.8 million “listener hours” a month. Their goal is to expose their listeners to great new music not found on commercial radio.

Artist Radio Online

Artist Radio Online allows you to listen to free internet radio stations designed and DJ’d by your favorite artists. The stations play directly in your browser; you do not need to download any software. Listen to free streaming music for as long as you want.

Jelli

Jelli is an online streaming radio service that allows its community of listeners to determine what gets played. Interact with the live radio broadcast to decide what plays. Check out the Jelli stations, choose one, and tune in. Listen to what’s playing and voice your opinion real-time about the current song by hitting Rock if you like it or Sucks if you don’t. If enough people say a song Sucks, it gets pulled off the air.

Radio? Sure!

Radio? Sure! is an application that allows you to listen to any of over 17,000 online radio stations and easily record multiple stations simultaneously (up to two at a time in the free version) and package them into separate song files. The software automatically checks for updates to the software itself and to the radio stations and supports most of the internet radio formats.

A Pro version of the software is available for $9.99 ($7.99 until the end of July 2012) that provides additional features such as the ability to record up to 10 stations simultaneously, automatic updating of the stations database daily (rather than every seven days), the ability to block the recording of ads, and record full songs from the very beginning.

Downloadable and Streaming Music

If you prefer to select specific tracks to stream or to download separate music tracks and listen to them offline, here are some websites offering free music files.

Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive (FMA) is an interactive library of high-quality, free, legal audio downloads. The FMA library is freely available to the public. You do not have to register to download music, but, if you do, you can create your own playlists to keep track of music you discover and participate in discussions.

You can also use the music on FMA in podcasts, videos, or other forms of digital publishing.

Amazon Free MP3 Songs and Extras

You may not have realized, but you can even find free MP3 files for download on Amazon. They have over 1,000 tracks available for free in such genres as Rock, Alternative Rock, Classical, and Pop.

NOTE: The free MP3 files available on Amazon are only for U.S. residents with a U.S. Amazon account.

Google Play Free Music

Google Play also offers free MP3 songs, featuring new free tracks every day. Add them to your Google Play library so you can instantly access them from any web browser or your mobile device.

Music Oasis

Music Oasis is a software program that provides access to a library of high-quality, non-DRM, MP3 files for you to stream or download for use with any music player. Music Oasis is completely free and there are no restrictions when downloading or streaming music from their library.

However, Music Oasis is ad-supported. During the installation of Music Oasis, you are offered additional software from their partners. These offers are free to download and are 100% optional.

BearShare

BearShare is a website that allows you to download over 15 million songs and videos, legally and for free. Use their software to download music and video from other peers for free or to buy songs not available for free. BearShare offers some premium content only available if you subscribe to BearShare Premium. In addition, the BearShare ToGo subscription allows you to transfer BearShare music to your compatible MP3 player on an unlimited basis.

You must register to use BearShare, but it’s free and allows you to access to millions of songs to download, use state of the art search tools and other features such as the ability to browse the enormous library by different genres, artists, moods and more so you can discover new music. Each artist’s page provides details about the artist and a discography you can download.

iMesh

iMesh is a file sharing software program that gives you free and legal access to over 15 million songs and videos. Sync your music with your iPod, listen to a personalized DJ station of your favorite artists, or discover playlists and albums for new artists.

SoundClick

SoundClick is a free music community featuring signed and unsigned bands and state of the art social media tools. They offer free member profile pages, mp3 downloads, streaming audio and video, music charts, custom radio stations, a proprietary music store, message boards, and more.

More than 60,000 new songs and more than 6,000 new bands are approved every month. That makes it easy to find tons of great full-length songs and bands. All songs on SoundClick are available in streaming audio in up to near CD quality and most of the songs are also available as free, legal MP3 downloads.

Mufin Player

If you have so much music that you store it on an external drive and don’t get around to listening to it much, Mufin Player may be what you need. “Mufin” stands for music finder. Mufin Player contains a music discovery engine that analyzes your music collection and allows you to sort and explore your music by sound. You may rediscover music you forgot you had and you can enjoy it all over again.

You can also sign up for Mufin Player Pro, which provides space in the cloud (mufin.drive) to store your music, in addition to other features. Mufin Player for Android is included in Mufin Player Pro, allowing you to manage the music on your phone as well as download your music stored on your mufin.drive to your phone.

We can’t mention every site on the music site web, but here are some additional sites for listening to internet radio, streaming music, and discovering new music:

• ListenMusic.fm– Search for favorite artists or for playlists based on your mood.
• StereoMood– Listen to playlists based on your mood.
• Shuffler.fm– Listen to a dynamic free internet radio service that streams the content from music blogs around the web.
• Mugasha– Use Mugasha at your party to play cool electronic music sets from DJs around the world.
• TheRadio– Select from a large collection of radio stations from around the world.
• Musopen – Listen to an online music library of copyright-free (public domain) classical music.

The Best Websites for Listening to Internet Radio and Downloading and Streaming Free Music - How-To Geek