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The Anywhere.fm service lets users upload and store their music online

Users have long craved a method to upload music and have it available anywhere they go, but very few services are available to cater to their needs. Three Bay Area entrepreneurs, funded by venture firm Y Combinator, created Anywhere.fm to allow iTunes users to upload their playlists directly from iTunes to their Anywhere.fm account.

Although the service is fairly rough in the early beta stages, Anywhere.fm could be an ideal solution for music fans who want to have a playlist uploaded and available on the Internet anywhere they go.

The Anywhere.fm uploader works only on Microsoft Windows and OS X, though Linux users can play the songs but are unable to upload additional tracks. Support for other music players aside from iTunes - including Microsoft Windows Media Player and Winamp - is currently being developed, with an estimated arrival date unknown.

Anywhere.fm currently only supports MP3 file uploads, but "we plan to add additional support" for other music files in the future.

Users are free to upload as much music as they want for free during the beta phase of the service, but Anywhere.fm is working on a paid service that will apply to users who upload a large number of tracks. The exact cost was not revealed, but it is likely to be a flat rate that users pay once.

Initial user response showed concern over possible legal issues that Anywhere.fm could face due to its service.

"Anywhere.FM serves as a digital locker service for users to upload their licensed music and listen to it anywhere," said Sachin Rekhi, Anywhere.fm co-founder. "Users are legally allowed to make personal backup copies of their songs for use with this service."

Rekhi added that the company's main attorney used to work for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), allowing the Anywhere.fm team to have great insight into possible legal issues of the service.

"Anywhere.FM enables sharing of music through Friend Radio in the form of non-interactive playback and complies with the rules under the statutory license for public performances," Rekhi said. "Anywhere.FM pays the associated royalties to SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC to legally operate these radio stations."

Anywhere.fm briefly thought about creating an on demand service so users can select what kind of music they wish to listen to, but the company's attorney cautioned the founders over possible legal ramifications.

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Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 12:36:43 PM , Rating: 5
I dont trust uploading my content to the internet. You never know who is watching.

Now, dont get me wrong. I'm not accusing this service of being part of mediadefender, riaa, mpaa, etc. Im merely just stating that by uploading your files to the internet is like signing your name to a document that you dont want anyone else to see.

Personally, if i dont want anyone to know what i have, ill just keep it to myself.

:-)




RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By MatthewAC on 9/20/2007 12:43:27 PM , Rating: 2
All my music is either 100% CD, or off spiralfrog and probably won't work with this, if I uploaded I'd prolly be checked out for the 11.1 hours of U2 tracks I have.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By omnicronx on 9/20/2007 12:55:05 PM , Rating: 2
This is not a file sharing network, you are not making these songs available to other people. So i do not see what the fear is here. You can bet your ass if this site is an riaa trick or something like that, the first time anyone gets charged, the popularity of the site will go downhill, and fast.

In my mind this is not an issue anyways, no judge is ever going to take any case seriously involving somebody uploading illegal music for their own private use. The penalty for doing so is probably so small (minor.. minor copyright infringement) that no case would ever make it to court anyways.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By h0kiez on 9/20/2007 1:19:40 PM , Rating: 2
The fear is not that you'll be busted for sharing, but that if you upload 50 Gigs of MP3s, someone (read: RIAA) might wonder how exactly you acquired so much music. Of course you purhchased it all legally :)....sure ya did.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By omnicronx on 9/20/2007 2:16:45 PM , Rating: 2
And as i said, this matters because? When was the last time you heard of someone getting arrested solely for the possession of illegal software or content. What you do get busted for is, sharing those files, not the possession of them. Let alone under what reasoning would the authorities even be able to look at your account in the first place, being a private account and all.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 2:21:04 PM , Rating: 2
Why even chance it? Its like people do things just to see how far they can go before getting caught. Then when they caught, they try to blame it on somone else or say they were caught illegally.

Either way, if the content you have is not in your possession legally, it doesnt matter what reason by which they caught you. The point is you did something stupid enough to get yourself caught.

So again I ask, why even chance it? Why even go out to the internet and associate your name with illegal files?

That, my friend, is stupid.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By omnicronx on 9/20/2007 2:48:43 PM , Rating: 2
By your logic why download anything illegal at all? If one could easily be arrested solely for downloading illegal content do you not think law enforcement agencies would be all over the ISP's asking for information?

Oops, they probably do, but only for those who are usually extensively sharing files over the web, but for those people like us that just download these files, its not worth the time and money of any law enforcement agency to go after some kid with 50gigs of illegal music in which he uses exclusively for himself, just to give him a slap on the wrist.

You probably have more of a chance getting hit by lightning (around 1-million) than ever getting caught for an offense like this.
quote:
Why even go out to the internet and associate your name with illegal files?
What do you think your ip is .. If you are worried about this, i suggest never using Bittorrent again... as once again, more chance getting caught here, then plainly uploading your private files to the internet, legal or not..


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 3:05:34 PM , Rating: 2
Well yeah, that is pretty much my logic. I dont use bittorrent, limewire, etc - not because i actually think i'll get caught, but because its not worth it to me to take the chance of getting caught.

I usually just copy music & movies from my friends when they bring their portable HD's over. Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that is legal either.

In the case that they do go after and catch some kid who downloaded illegal music, im not going to feel sorry for him and im not going to defend him. Im not saying that hes a bad person because he downloaded music, or that there isnt anything more important for cops/feds to do than monitor downloads. But what i am saying is that people who download know what they are doing, and they know the risk they are taking. If they dont get caught, good for them - they got a bunch of free stuff. But if they do get caught, then they had it coming.

Therefore, you already take the risk by obtaining the material. Why take another risk of uploading and storing material - that wasn't yours to begin with - on someone elses's harddrives/server with your name & account information attached to me?

I think of it like this:

If you and a few friends are talking and you make fun of someone who isnt there - your friends may or may not tell on you. Chances are, they will not.

Now, if you physically write down on a peice of paper what you are saying about that kid, and sign your name to it, then give it to someone else to hold onto - can you really be sure that the note won't find its way into the hands of the person you dont want to see it?

Again, chances are probably not, but its a much greater chance that it could because you are no longer in control of your possessions - someone else is.

I personally choose to be the one in control of my things. And will not associate my name with things that i may or may not have purchased, by leaving the proof into the hands of someone else.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 2:21:04 PM , Rating: 2
Why even chance it? Its like people do things just to see how far they can go before getting caught. Then when they caught, they try to blame it on somone else or say they were caught illegally.

Either way, if the content you have is not in your possession legally, it doesnt matter what reason by which they caught you. The point is you did something stupid enough to get yourself caught.

So again I ask, why even chance it? Why even go out to the internet and associate your name with illegal files?

That, my friend, is stupid.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 2:22:15 PM , Rating: 2
And why the hell does my computer randomly post things twice?!?!


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By xphile on 9/20/2007 10:28:38 PM , Rating: 2
Perhaps occasionally the MediaDefender Spybot gets mixed up and sends its copy to the same place instead of home :-)


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By MonkeyPaw on 9/21/2007 7:49:24 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
When was the last time you heard of someone getting arrested solely for the possession of illegal software or content.


Didn't the RIAA try to sue a 12 year old once?


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By Oregonian2 on 9/20/2007 2:48:22 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
This is not a file sharing network, you are not making these songs available to other people. So i do not see what the fear is here.


Of course they and any users will be sued up the ying-yang. That's something easy to see. It's a way to keep from having purchased another copy of the music to keep everywhere one might be and therefore is costing the RIAA and the producers of music money that is rightfully theirs, and therefore is illegal.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By SunAngel on 9/20/2007 1:14:43 PM , Rating: 2
your so right. what is the point of this service. you can easily (and probably more cheaply) FTP your music or anything else from your pc.

some of the services on the net make me shake my head.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By TimberJon on 9/20/2007 2:13:31 PM , Rating: 2
What kind of content are you afraid of becoming public?


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By mdogs444 on 9/20/2007 2:15:25 PM , Rating: 2
Its not the actual content per say. The content itself is all over bittorrent, limewire, etc.

However, since alot of peoples music is not legally owned, im pretty sure they dont want to have their own user account attached to it.


RE: Hmm......mediadefender?
By Parhel on 9/20/2007 3:34:19 PM , Rating: 2
I understand your suspicions, and probably wouldn't sign up for it either, but it wouldn't make sense to use such a service to find people in possession of illegal copies of mp3s.

For example, let's say I used a site like that and I received a letter saying that I had 5,000 mp3 tracks on the web and I would be taken to court if I couldn't furnish proof that I legitimately owned them. I would dodge the issue for as long as possible, and then if a trial became unavoidable I would go purchase all of those CDs as cheaply as possible. Then, I'd countersue for legal fees, expenses, defamation of my character, and anything else I could think of.

That's a hypothetical example. I'm not saying I advocate piracy. But I think that any litigation that resulted from such a honeypot, so to speak, would be cheaper to resolve by just buying the music.


Already exists
By ninjit on 9/20/2007 2:03:31 PM , Rating: 2
Mp3.com used to offer a similar service, where you downloaded their program, which would verifty you owned a CD, then add that album to your online library for streaming anywhere.
But that was a long long time ago, before they were bought by CNET, the service isn't offered anymore.

Besides that, there's also mp3tunes.com




RE: Already exists
By michal1980 on 9/20/2007 2:52:41 PM , Rating: 1
thats what I was thinking of. sure it wasn't called cd(something)

they were in trouble of getting sued, around the same time napster was getting pulled under.


RE: Already exists
By BigLan on 9/20/2007 3:09:11 PM , Rating: 2
It was my.mp3.com and they were sued out of business. The domain was sold, but the business is completely different.

This service seems different to my.mp3.com though in that you have to upload all the music yourself. That wasn't the case with mp3 - you put the cd in and were granted access to a digital