With more and more free music sites like Seeqpod, Napster and Muxtape fading into history it is getting harder to find good free music on the Internet. YouTube videos have become the major source for free music and one of the best new applications that are taking advantage of this is Moof. Unlike many made up Internet names, Moof actually stands for something – music, online, on-demand and for free.
Moof describes itself as “Search for and listen to any song you like, online, on-demand, for free, whenever you want. All the functionality of a full desktop media player, in your browser.” You can check out Moof’s own introduction in this YouTube video:
Moof’s player is simple and functional, though one of my initial concerns is that when you first login it is so basic that you are not sure what to do. However, if you explore for a minute or two you will see that Moof allows you to play music, create a music library, and build user playlists. I have enjoyed the uncluttered interface – no ads, no social media, no voting, no distractions. Just music – all the time!
And speaking of music, YouTune fuels Moof. The bottom-left of the Moof player has the corresponding video playing which is a nice feature. If you have not already realized this, after one of two searches on Moof you will be blown away by how much music is on YouTube! Moof has the additional ability to share and see music from friends. If you find friends on Moof you can browse their entire collection of music, and add favorites to your own personal library. But, as we’ll talk later, there are not may friends to pick from (yet).
The most unique feature that Moof offers is an option to import your existing xml music libraries which will allow you to upload your iTunes library. This worked for me – but I just uploaded a test instance of iTunes that is pretty small. Other users have reported trouble uploading large massive iTunes libraries. Now, if iTunes is your life you might be disappointed here as iTunes offers far more detailed information (ratings, view counts, track numbers, etc) and more playback features (fades, shuffle, etc.).
Again the word “basic” comes to mind. It does not have all the bells and whistles, but Moof has most everything you need to simply enjoy music. It is strong as a portable music library, accessible anywhere you have an Internet browser.
The developers report that “In the short time the site has been live we’ve seen massive growth (over 1,500,000 songs added, over 10,000 new registered users).” You can see the full Google Analytics for the site to get a feel for their traffic.
If you really like Moof, but think you can do better than check out this freelance job posting where the person wants a clone of Moof, with some more features and all for 800 bucks.
Or, if you really really like Moof – it can be yours! The developers are trying to sell Moof so they can focus on another startup. Unlike the yokel above who thinks $800 will build a site like this, the developers are looking for $xx,xxx. They were planning on making money either by rolling out paid subscriptions models or being an iTunes or Amazon affiliate.
I don’t have the dough to run this site, though it would be cool. So try it out, give it a listen and maybe even buy what you hear!
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