Aug 26, 2001 12:53 AM
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With the closure of Napster many other similar programs (Napster Clones) have floated in the Cyber world.
Imesh was the first file-swapping program I came across after Napster. I was very impressed with it. It (Imesh) can be used to download any and every thing right from MP3s to videos, software etc…etc. However there were many drawbacks with this program. The biggest drawback was that it was a very heavy program and took up a lot of the system resources. Infact some Celeron users could not use it at all as their system would hang on opening Imesh. Secondly the server was not all that good. However the program was good so I continued using it until a friend of mine suggested Audiogalaxy to me.
I searched for Audiogalaxy in https://download.com and was surprised to see the size of the program. I wondered whether the program is any good as it was just a few KB! However as my friend had praised a lot about Audiogalaxy, so I decided to download it.
About Audiogalaxy: The very first version of Audiogalaxy which I downloaded was not even installable. However the later versions are installable and needless to say un-installable also. As I was used to the working of Napster and Imesh, in the beginning I found it difficult to understand the working of the Audiogalaxy program. The procedure is somewhat like this -- after registering you first have to log on to the official site ( http://www.audiogalaxy.com) and then search for the required song. The is no in-built search engine in the program, no built in chat program, no extra features…which I guess is the main reason why the program is so light. While searching for any song (on the site of course), one can either search for the artist or for the song directly. The search results are fantastic. The song, which is being downloaded, is not downloaded from a single person but from a group of users, which have the same song. Of course it is possible that only one person has the song you have requested, in this particular case the user has to download the song from one user only!
All the features which are present in the Napster program or in the Imesh program are present in Audiogalaxy also but for all these extra features like chatting etc…etc you have to log on to the site.
Different Feature:A very different feature in Audiogalaxy is that it hosts new music groups and bands. All wanna-be singers out there, just have to record or encode their songs in MP3 format and upload on the site. Audiogalaxy users can download these songs and comment on their music. Hmm… this is a very unique and excellent feature.
Copyrighted Songs:As far as the legal aspect goes copyrighted songs are blocked from downloading. Try searching for some “Metallica” song and you will see what I mean to say.
Drawbacks: The biggest drawback of Audiogalaxy is that the downloading speed is very slow. I have reached a maximum of some 2.6 kbps (using VSNL and NETCRACKER ISP and a 56 kbps modem). Even with a very good connection the downloading speed is poor. Of course as the download can be resumed there are not many reasons to grumble.
Audiogalaxy program is not all that user-friendly. I probably feel this because I am used to the working of Napster and Imesh. For anything and everything you have to go to the site. Sometimes these procedures become very lengthy and boring.
Other than above I can’t think of any other drawbacks. As a galaxy is made up of a millions of stars Audiogalaxy is made up of songs and songs and more songs. A must download for all music lovers.
