Sure, adding album art to your
MP3 folders isn’t as high on the
priority list as, say, performing a clean
install of Windows, but MP3 Album Art
Downloader (clever name, that) makes
the process so effortless you’d be a fool
not to use it.
Just unzip the utility to the folder that
contains your music and let it run. It looksat your music files, then zooms over to
Amazon.com and grabs the associated
album art, and then deposits the files into
your music folder where it will show up
in Thumbnail view. (Note: You mustenable Thumbnail view for the images to
appear). The only other way to perform
this task is to do so manually, the tedium
of which goes without saying.
Admittedly, MP3AAD isn’t 100 percent
perfect, and occasionally either misses
folders entirely or downloads the wrong
artwork. Still, its accuracy is good enough
for us, and the time it takes to correct the
mistakes is inconsequential given the time
it saves in the first place.
Free, http://str8dog.comMP3 Album
Art Downloader
MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2004 OCTOBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC
Express WebPictures
Restoration
This is what our music folder looks
like before putting the utility to work.
Those bland folders simply must go!Once you’ve downloaded the MP3AAD
file (or found it on the CD included
with this magazine), just extract it to
the root of your music folder. Next,
simply open that folder and run the
utility. It will automatically scan your
entire collection and download all the
attendant album art.Voila! Our previously nondescript
folders now look like miniature CD
cases. It’s an MP3 folder to be proud of!Slimserver
Streaming music over the
Internet is nothing new,
but Slimserver eliminates
all the guesswork, which is why it’s one
of our newfound favorite utilities. You
might be asking, “But Maximum PC,
isn’t that the software that comes with
the Slim Devices Squeezebox?” Why,
yes, yes it is, but you don’t need the
hardware to use the application! It’ll
work on any PC, and can be up and
running in no time.
Install Slimserver on the PC that holdsall your music.
During installation
you’ll point the utility
to your music folder
and it’ll catalog all
of your music. Once
installation is com-
plete, simply run the
application and it
turns your computerinto a streaming music server. Now, while
using a different computer at, say, work
or a friend’s house, just launch the MP3
player and point it at the stream. Similarly,
you can manage the playlists via any web
browser. And all this functionality can be
yours in just a few minutes, making it much
easier to use than the streaming apps
we’ve diddled with in the past.
Free, http://www.slimdevices.comNext, pop open your web browser and
type http:// youripaddress :9000 to take
control of the music. You can browse
by artist, genre, and more, set up
playlists, and stream music anywhere,
even over a broadband connection.We’re up and running. The music on
the host PC appears on the left side,
and the current playlist appears on the
right. It’s so easy, anyone can do it!Once it’s installed on the host
computer, just open the stream on a
second computer by typing in the URL
followed by “:9000/stream.mp3.”MP3 folders isn’t as high on theSure, adding album art to yourMP3 Album
Art Downloader
The name of the app says it all
Stream MP3s over the net