February’s Favorite Radio Stations And Podcasts to Record with Replay Radio

Replay Radio 9

We recently launched our newest addition to the Applian family: Replay Radio. Our easy-to-use recorder lets you enjoy thousands of radio shows and stations on your own schedule, listen back on-demand, and convert to multiple audio formats. We wanted to make radio listening easy with Replay Radio.

In the big wide world of the Internet, there are so many options for streaming stations and podcasts. There’s more content available for your listening pleasure than anyone could imagine, and now, you can easily filter what you want from our Media Guide and experience radio whenever you want it.

Who says radio is dead? It is very much alive. Don’t believe us? Check out these radio stations and podcasts below and just try to tell us that there aren’t fantastic frequencies happening all the time! Just be sure to capture them with Replay Radio…

Nerdist: http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/nerdist/
Our favorite interview podcast with actors, comedians, writers, and overall cool people. Hosted by self-proclaimed “King Nerd” Chris Hardwick, it’s a great way to hear behind-the-scenes stories from popular culture movers and shakers.

BFF: http://bff.fm
One of the best alternative radio stations in San Francisco, Best Frequencies Forever is a great resource for indie / electronic music from the underground. Catch up on “what the kids are listening to” and by kids… more like late 20-somethings with jam-packed iPods.

TWiT: http://twit.tv/twit
Easily one of the most listened to radio podcasts out there, This Week In Tech, is hosted by Leo Laporte and follows all of the top trends in technology — from new products to business news — this podcast is the best place to get your tech fill.

All Songs Considered: http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/
Another music option for you, All Songs covers the best new emerging music without the fuss. Playing full songs from the obscure to the legendary, NPR has made this podcast a staple for audiophiles everywhere.

Of course, there are so many more, and you can discover many through our Media Guide within Replay Radio. We’d love to hear about your must-listen-tos in the comments, and be sure to use Replay Radio to record all of your favorites!

Stream & Record The 2014 Winter Olympics With Replay Video Capture

Riki can snowboard

So you can’t wait for all of the drama, snow, and Russian delight of the Sochi Games? Same here. Don’t exactly want to catch all the excitement whenever your TV dictates? We know the feeling. There’s an option this year to watch the competition live online.

In the US, NBC is broadcasting every single event online. However, you need to have a cable or satellite subscription to access with one of NBC’s partners (Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Direct TV, Dish, AT&T U-verse, among many others), but once logged in, you can set up Replay Video Capture to record video directly to your hard disk. Simple, huh?

There are a couple other options if you are not in the US of A. Mainly, BBC and CBC, which are also streaming the Games for those with an IP address in the UK or Canada.

It’s like spandex to ice skating, skis to downhill moguls, erm… weird bathrooms to Sochi accommodations? Basically, Replay Video Capture is the perfect partner for your 2014 Olympic viewing needs online.

If you don’t have Replay Video Capture yet, download the free version here and get out your country’s flag for all of the international winter sports your heart desires.

Grammy Time: Performances Worth Recording

As we’re sure you heard, the Grammys were a few days ago. Aside form the actual who-won-what part, the next best reason to watch any awards show is always the performances. This year was no exception. In fact, the show changed it up by giving out 10 awards before the cameras even started rolling, which means that this Grammy show was all about the performances. It got us thinking of some of our past favorite Grammy spectacles… so if you haven’t seen these, get comfy, and enjoy!

Although Beyonce had a seductive performance this year with Jay-Z, we prefer the flawless 2010 moves in “If I Were A Boy”, plus it turns into a perfect cover of Alanis Morissette’s “You Outta Know”… you’ll see:

We don’t want to make you depressed today, but if you need a good cry then watch Eric Clapton’s 1993 Song of the Year “Tears in Heaven”.

We had to post this 2007 performance by Christina Aguilera singing the James Brown classic “It’s A Man’s World”… because, I mean, those pipes. Yeesh.

There’s no way we could assemble a list of best Grammy performances and exclude the King of Pop! Here’s the iconic 1988 “Man in the Mirror” performance from Michael Jackson.

Our favorite performance from this year would have to be the finale jam of Daft Punk’s stellar hit “Get Lucky” with some awesome assistance from disco-royalty Nile Rodgers and the man himself, Stevie-freaking-Wonder. It’s definitely one worth watching, and re-watching, and re-watching…

Of course, you can always record these performances for your own personal archives with our Replay Media Catcher app. Try it here and start collecting all of your favorite Grammy performances!

Which was your favorite live performance of the night? Think any of them were Replay Media Catcher save-worthy? Let us know in the comments.

YouTube MP3 Fridays

For the last couple of Fridays, YouTube has changed how they are delivering videos, which has broken our downloading software (as well as all of our competitors). In particular, the Vevo branded music videos seem to be the ones that get the new technology first. Nevertheless, we are on top of it, and have managed to get new releases ready within a day or two of the changes. The bad news is that our engineering team is starting to loathe the end of the week.

The latest format is called MPEG-DASH — according to our alpha geek. We are having to do a little extra work to turn this format into a playable file, but the end result is as good as ever.

If you’re an avid YouTube downloader, you might consider trying Replay Video Capture for Video, and Replay Music for Music if you don’t want any downtime. Both of these products take an “analog” approach to recording, and will record video and music in high quality no matter what YouTube does behind the scenes.

Replay Media Catcher is still the fastest way to download from most video and music sites, and it makes a perfect digital copy of the original file. So no matter what changes happen in the future, we’ve got you covered!

How Replay Music Helped This Guitar Player Learn His Favorite Guitar Solo

Mats has been playing guitar for 35 years. He’s a self-described “guitar nerd”.
When Mats discovered Replay Music about seven years ago he discovered a tool that could help his guitar playing.

Mats like guitar solos. He has a theory that every good guitar solo should contain the following four elements:

1.) The solo should have a good structure, e g start with the lower notes and work its way up the fret board,
2.) It should contain some technically difficult passages without just showing off,
3.) There should be some unexpected tones that stick out,
4.) And it helps if the guitar player has a good vibrato!

Mats uses Replay Music to record his favorite guitar solos and then he uses other software to slow down the recording so he can study the solo note for note.

Some of his favorite guitar players include Jeff Beck, Steve Lukather of Toto and Steve Vai. Mats’ favorite guitar solo is this one by Kee Marcello :

And thanks to Replay Music Mats can now play that solo right along with Kee.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Mats. We are so glad that Replay Music is helping you rock along with the best of them.

Enjoy!

How Replay Music Helped to Make the Perfect Housewarming Gift

Kelly lives in San Francisco. When her friends invited her to a housewarming party at their new apartment near Chinatown, Kelly was at a loss for what to bring as a gift. When she heard that their new apartment had a wok built right into the kitchen counter and she got an idea.

           

Kelly pulled out her PC and fired up Replay Music and started searching the internet for songs with the word “walk” in the title.

Kelly put together a playlist of songs from the 50’s to now. There were Country songs, Jazz songs, Folks songs, old Rock-n-Roll songs, instrumentals and vocals. A little something for everyone. Kelly created a playlist with over two hours of “walk” music and used Replay Music to burn the playlist to CD. When it came time for the housewarming party Kelly gave her hosts the CD with instructions to play the songs whenever they cooked with their wok. Her friends loved it!

           

Kelly heard later that her friends listen to the CD while using their wok and it always makes them smile. They love telling other friends about her clever idea.

Thanks for your story Kelly – we are so glad that Replay Music came in handy – and brought some happiness to you and your friends.

We love hearing stories like these. If you have a story about the way you like to use our products please send them to us at: [email protected]

Comcast will Double my Speed – after I Visit The Comcast Store

Calling Comcast about my internet service is always an adventure, but today was especially interesting. I was getting less than my promised 20 Mbps download speed, even after upgrading to a DOCSIS 3 model like they told me to three weeks ago, and so I gave them a call. The really polite gentleman on the phone had me read the MAC address and serial number of the modem to him, and then told me that Comcast speeds would be doubling in a week or so. Good news, right?

Next, he told me I had to go visit the nearest Comcast store, and give them the same information I had just given him about my modem. I asked why, but never got an answer. When I finally persisted, explaining that the nearest store was all the way across the city, he told me he could just use the information I had given him over the phone, and that I didn’t really need to visit the store after all. WTF?

I’m sure this is a ploy by Corporate to get more people to the stores so that they can be talked into upgrading to some new DVR or service, but was it really necessary – or even a good idea? Had I not kept asking why I had to do this, I might have spent half a day just to become victim to a sales effort. Not cool.

Anyone else have this experience? Let us know in the comments.

Will Google Ever Let Us Advertise? Help me Susan Wojcicki.

Until about five years ago, we used to be good sized advertisers on Adwords. Google abruptly changed their policies, and with very little warning banished us from Adwords and AdSense. Forever. We never really had a good explanation as to why this happened, only some vague references to “hacking and cracking” in their Terms of Service. (We are fully DMCA compliant, so this is quite puzzling – and unfair.) It was more frustrating at the time because our competitors were allowed to continue advertising. And even today, we still see Google ads for competing products. Google even subsidizes RealPlayer, which offers a basic download functionality along with the bloatware (IMO) that makes up the rest of the product. Today – I’ve finally had enough.

At Ad:Tech in San Francisco, I watched an excellent presentation by Susan Wojcicki, Google’s SVP of Advertising, on the future of online ads. After her speech, I cornered her backstage and explained to her that we never really got a fair hearing, and that Google being the #1 advertising platform has a duty to keep an open playing field. She took my card, and promised to get their Policy Team on the case. She wouldn’t give me her contact info, but I know where she works 😉

I’m not optimistic that Google will change for us. I believe the MPAA and other studios pressure Google to block downloading products. That being said, I wonder why the MPAA doesn’t raise a fuss about RealPlayer being bundled with Google Toolbar and Chrome – both of which subsidize Real’s downloads. Our tools are superior, but it’s still a competitor we have to deal with, and having exclusive access to Google’s products in our category gives them an unfair advantage.

Susan Wojcicki – I’m awaiting a reply…

Five Great Sites for Streaming Music

Every other month or so I put together a list of sites that are great for streaming audio or video and publish the list in our newsletter. Here are five sites that were featured in the March newsletter:

I like having 1.FM on while I am at work. I am a total fan of the 70’s pop station. The songs crack me up.

1.FM

Band of the Day is an adventure – you never know what kind of music you’re going to hear. And if you miss a day – no big deal – they recap the bands they’ve chosen from earlier days at the bottom of the home page.

Band of the Day

I confess I haven’t set up my own station with earbits – instead I like the editors’ picks – always a good listen.

Earbits

8 tracks is my absolute favorite for discovering new music and new bands!

8 Tracks

Thanks to Mixcloud I now have a few DJ favorites that I like to listen to and follow. Always great for livening up my afternoon at work.

mixcloud

And of course all these sites work fabulously with Replay Music. 🙂
What are some of your favorite sites for discovering new music?

Explain Like I’m Five: Video Series – Download them all with Replay Media Catcher

I just discovered Reddit’s Explain Like I’m Five Video Series (okay so I am a little behind in my reading ) – You can see an example of one here.

It’s a fabulous series for two reasons – 1.) It brings to video their already popular text series ELI5 – and who wouldn’t rather watch a video than read a web page? 2.) It takes the concept literally – and actually tries to explain complex concepts to five year olds. Their reactions are great.

Of course I used Replay Media Catcher to download my favorites – put them on my phone – and showed to anyone who seemed mildly interested. 🙂