The following article caught my attention and I offer it for your education.
Review: Oboe Locker protects music files By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Having your entire music collection at your fingertips is simple enough if you own an iPod or other portable digital player with multiple gigabytes of storage - until you drop it. Or the PC that you use to synch your player has a meltdown. Then what? One option is turning to MP3tunes' Oboe Locker, a Web-based service launched by the founder of the original MP3.com, one of the first online sites to offer music downloads in the late 1990s. Oboe provides an affordable way to protect against a catastrophic loss of music files with an added perk: Users can listen to their own music on virtually any computer. In testing the service, I found it simple to use, although I wasn't able to try my hand at dialing up my music collection on a mobile phone, PDA or other portable devices with Internet access. Those enticing features won't be available until later this year. The Oboe Locker's biggest benefit might be that it can serve as an unlimited online storage backup for your music files. The no-limit bandwidth will cost you $39.95 a year. A free version of the service lets users save music files found online directly into the locker and listen to them from any computer, but it doesn't allow users to make backup copies of their own music files. I tested a premium version of the service. To get started, Oboe requires users to download an application that scans the computer for music files and playlists and handles the job of uploading them to the company's servers. Oboe works with Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh computers and PCs running either Microsoft Corp.'s Windows or the Linux operating systems. It also supports most song file formats, including MP3s and copy-protected tracks purchased through iTunes and other online retailers. Copy-protected tracks retain their playback restrictions. The service limits the size of individual files to 20 megabytes. However, it puts no limit on how much music users can upload. Don't even think about using Oboe to backup your music without a broadband Internet connection. When I tested Oboe, I had about 1,800 digital tracks stored on my Windows-based computer, but it would have taken more than 24 hours to transfer everything over a DSL connection. So I ended up uploading 344 tracks, or about 1.4 gigabytes, over several hours. Uploaded files that are missing data on the artist, track name or other details are set aside until you can fill in the blanks. Users must edit the information to be able to access the tracks. Once the music is loaded, just call up and sign into the Oboe Locker site at MP3Tunes.com. Oboe has a built-in player that lists tracks by album, artist or song. Or you can search a playlist. Tracks are streamed at a bit rate of 192 kilobits per second. The company also provides a plug-in that enables the locker features to function within Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes software. I used a friend's iBook and a Dell desktop at the office to access my Oboe music locker. Both computers have a broadband Internet connection. My music files popped up in the browser and I was able to listen to a stereo stream of my music. It takes a few seconds to load up the track listing, but the sound was not discernibly different than the quality of songs played directly from the hard drive in my home computer. The Oboe file-synching software can automatically make an online copy of any new music added to a computer after the initial installation. But users can't be logged onto their Oboe account or synch files between their music locker and a computer on more than two PCs at a time. The company says it tracks whether an account has too many simultaneous users and will shut those down. Still, nothing prevents a premium Oboe account holder from copying tracks from his virtual locker to any number of computers. Oboe also allows users to load up their music locker with free tracks - typically MP3s - available for download online. One can enter the Web link to a song file into Oboe it will be copied into the virtual hold. The company has plug-ins for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers that streamlines the process to one click of the mouse. As someone sometimes disappointed with music selections at parties, I like the prospect of virtually taking my entire catalog of music across town or across the country. And knowing my personal trove of music is safely backed up in cyberspace, sparing me the unsettling prospect of having to rip scores of CDs back into my PC should it fail, makes using the Oboe Locker a no-brainer. --- On the Net: Oboe Locker: http://www.mp3tunes.com djc's Jukebox: http://paulmerrell.net:9212 Saturday Evenings 9 to midnight Eastern. 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