FindMeMp3!
There is an interesting and simplistic new Mp3 search site called FindMeMp3! that uses Google to search for Mp3s. By logging in, you can create playlists from Mp3s you find, or by providing the URL of the file. You can also download songs, edit the song name, artist or album name.
There are negative side-effects for Mp3 bloggers for a site like this. First, it is pulling directly from the source when you listen to a song. In other words, if this site grows tremendously, Mp3 bloggers will deal with an increase of bandwidth usage… and not benefit from actual traffic to their website. Unlike Hype Machine, none of these files are cached, and the site doesn’t provide a link back to the originating website or blog post.
“Whatever you find here you can find there. We store no files locally other than a few images and the site code.”
Another issue with using Google for searching for Mp3s is that files get deleted, while the record in Google remains. So if a blogger posts a song for two days and deletes the file, it will still show up in the search results.
Searching for songs using this site doesn’t produce the best search results, though it’s not necessarily their fault. The reason is that the song’s file name may not be named in the best format, or the name of the song may not even be in the file’s name. It searches the id3 tag as well, which may or may not be accurate. The designer’s solution is to allow you to provide the correct information as tags, which is then stored in a database.
FindMeMp3! is legal, as search engines are legal. The designer is simply cloaking the engine and giving you options with the results.