[Dixielandjazz] Spiralfrog.com 101

[Lowell Busching]

I received the following private email from Larry Swain and am now 
posting it to the DJML with his permission.

Laurence Swain wrote:
> Lowell:
> 
> Thanks to your post, I signed up.  Sadly, I could not find on the Jazz 
> page I was able to bring up a place to click on "Other" to get to OKOM.
> 
> Can you send me the link to "Other" so I can take a look?
> 
> Or even, to avoid being asked to respondi to others who might be having 
> the same problem, post the link to DJML?
> 
> Thanks so much for telling us about spiralfrog.
> 
> Larry Swain

I had hoped to avoid cluttering up the list with more on this FREE 
download site where they pay the performers and producers with money 
from advertising, or that is their plan.  Only if they get enough 
support from music fans of all kinds, or artists and producers who post 
their products, will it continue. Artists and producers are still 
generally resistant to "giving away" any of their product even if their 
CD's languish in closets or warehouses forever. Pride. Ego Etc.  Your 
choice now.

Spiralfrog SHOULD bridge the gap. The artist or producer get something 
for the downloads rather then nothing from pirate or illegal sites. 
Perhaps it is not what you think your time, efforts and talents are 
worth, but something. There are links to contact them to offer your 
products. Think about it. Their mailing address may be slightly in 
error. Look close. The error is obvious, but apparently not to them!!
I did notify them of the typo. Look under producers for the right one.

Finding OKOM on Spiralfrog.com is NOT a walk in the park for a product 
OUT of Beta testing. Here is an example of what it takes to get to some 
extensive downloads for Sidney Bachet. Use the method to find others 
currently available. Hopefully more will be added from OKOM. Banu and 
John Sheridan are listed, but apparently have not cleared any tracks for 
downloading!  Mostly older artists currently or albums, but after all, 
the music is old! How many free ones are enough for some people?

For those without the time or inclination to explore the site, but like 
the idea of free downloads of OKOM and other types of music:

Spiralfrog 101

1. Log into www.spiralfrog.com with either IE or Firefox. Standard 
Mozilla products like Netscape will not work. NS 9.0 might as it can 
emulate IE if necessary. They do not mention that as an option. Most 
people have IE so use it. Some plug in updates may be required, plus a 
short Download manager installed.  It works well.

2. No credit card needed. Sign up with your email address and a 
password. They use the graphic letters and numbers to verify you are a 
person before downloading files one at a time, even if you choose an 
entire album.  Some albums have one or two tracks not available for 
download. Possibly singles from that album?

3. Even if you allow a cookie and it recognizes you on log in, you have 
to log in again to download once you SELECT a download. Browsing does 
NOT require an extra log in. The site is NOT blind friendly and is for 
the US only. Perhaps Canada?  Downloads are in .wma protected format. 
Real Player may play the files from backup disks. WMP will not.

4. You know you are ready for downloads if on the right side of ANY page 
  you see the download window. It is always on top, but not in the way. 
Good feature. The usual bar graph shows the download in progress. Then 
it asks for Next or Play. No full auto downloads I could find so far.

5. Generally only Independent labels on the home page. Jazz is not 
mentioned, but A jazz album may be available. Click on "Genres" at the 
top to go to the page with all genres available including jazz.

Note: Under Editors Picks,  Jazz is one of the few genres NOT mentioned! 
The editor is obviously not a jazz fan. Keep scrolling down to the ONE 
displayed Jazz album.  this is NOT the only one. :-)

6. Click either on the Title of the Jazz entry shown (it will not 
download at this point) or on the small button labeled "More" which will 
take you to the featured albums home page for JAZZ.

7. Key step: Next to the main album title in SMALL print is a link that 
says "view detailed list". This is the "more" mentioned by Larry. Click 
it or miss most of the Jazz entries available.

8. On this page you will see the detailed list of Jazz sub genres. 
Overkill for sure.

Jazz Styles
African Jazz Afro-Cuban Jazz Avant-Garde Jazz Ballads Big Band 
Boogie-Woogie Bop Brazilian Jazz British Dance Bands Chamber Jazz 
Classic Jazz Contemporary Jazz Continental Jazz Cool Crossover Jazz 
Cuban Jazz Dance Bands Dixieland Dixieland Revival Early Creative 
Experimental Big Band Folk-Jazz Free Funk Free Jazz Fusion Hard Bop Hot 
Jazz Jazz Blues Jazz-Funk Jazz-Pop Jive Latin Jazz M-Base Mainstream 
Jazz Modal Music Modern Big Band Modern Creative Modern Free Neo-Bop New 
Orleans Brass Bands New Orleans Jazz Novelty Ragtime Orchestral Jazz 
Post-Bop Progressive Big Band Progressive Jazz Ragtime Smooth Jazz 
Society Dance Band Soul-Jazz Standards Stride Sweet Bands Swing Third 
Stream Trad Jazz West Coast Jazz World Fusion

At least 3 or 4 for OKOM.

9. Example: For Sidney Bachet select New Orleans Jazz. Scroll down to 
Top Artists. Select Sidney Bachet's name with the download indicator 
line. It looks almost like a microphone drawing.

10. On Sidney's home page they have links for what THEY think are the 
best songs in small print. Clicking on them will bring up ONLY that song 
for downloading.  Again, this is not all those available.

11. To download entire albums scroll down to an album and click on the 
title of the album. You will get a list of all songs on the album and in 
his case, most are available on each album for download.

12. Select full album and the download manager will put them all in a 
list. After each track downloads it asks if you want to play it or 
download the next one. If it is one you do not want, there is a vertical 
black bar near the title that reads delete. It will take it out of the 
list. Or just download individual tracks of your choice.

13. 30 second samples are available for each download track to decide. 
NOT all from the beginning, so good samples.

14. Repeat the above process for other Genres and artists. or use the 
search box at the top right. It may or may not work.

There you have it. Not plain and not simple. But it is free.  Sorry 
again for the long post, but Sundays are usually a light day for the 
DJML. Live with it.  I was asked to post.

The verbose one.

Mad Dog.