I am always astounded by the ease with which it is possible to find and download almost any song or MP3 file on the internet. This program is a case in point: z33K is a small program that can find MP3s and internet radio stations on demand, and will let you download the former with ease. z33K taps into the MP3 databases of two sites (Dilandau and MP3Skull).
How to use:type something into the searchbox (a song or artist name), and watch the results fill in. If you are looking for a radio station then click the globe icon first (middle icon in the group of icons on the right) then search (note: you cannot download radio streams). Click the star icon to switch to the playlists page, the heart icon to add something to the playlist, and the down arrow to download (files will download in the background into the same directory where the app is located).
The verdict: overall, an excellent – portable- app that provides an excellent user experience. It is quite amazing just what you can find here, including spoken word and other audio files. While the internet radio function is a nice touch, the MP3-finding function is the main draw here, as there are much better apps out there for finding and recording Shoutcast/internet radio.
One thing that could have better, though, is to have an indication of the bitrate and file size of the entries in the search results list, or search filters that let the user define these, so as to skip over files that are not of the desired quality. On the other hand, the search-and-play simplicty is one of the main draws that this app has to offer.
Note that we do not recommend or condone downloading copyrighted material; you can just as well use z33K to built and listen to online playlists.
[Thanks go to reader Panzer for the tip about this software].
Version tested: 2.0 beta
Compatibility: WinAll.
Visit the Z33K Facebook page, or go to the project page on SourceForge to download the latest version (~1.63 megs).
Samer Kurdi
Does anybody thinks it helps the Dev’s having that donate button in your face like that? I would think it would make less people use their application which in turn probably lowers potential revenue. Is anyone more likely to donate because you are reminded every time you run the app? honestly, I have my doubts. By all accounts people very rarely donate anyway so you would need an enormous user base to make it worthwhile, and you’re not going to get that while that button is there. I would suggest only showing the donate button at install time and then burying it under the help menu, you can still remind people every time they update too but please not every day like CCleaner
PS haha I’m not sure I’m qualified to speak about anything I got the captcha wrong!
As a matter of fact, when I obtain free software that is useful and well made, I always make a point of making a “donation”. BUT I will NOT EVER use software with a “donate” button in my face – which disrupts even the most simple user interface and makes me feel “guilty”.
So a 1 x .5 inch donate button is “in your face”, really? I’m curious just how that button “disrupts the user interface”.
I am only getting half the window on win7. Any way to fix this ?
I downloaded the .rar file and extracted the .exe to my desktop, but when I run the program, nothing happens, yet task manager shows the program as active. Any thoughts?
@ Mark: try restarting your machine and then running as admin
Hey Samer,
You should also have a look at this app: The Pirate App.
The Pirate App is an easy-to-use graphical user interface for downloading files from social network vk.com’s media library.
I love it, especially for finding the newest (house) music.
http://code.google.com/p/pirate/
Greetings,
Martin Minnebo
Hello,
I am the coder of z33k and i would like to thank you for this post on your website and some of the comments i read above.
- A new version 2.1 is available and fix the “I am only getting half the window on win7″ which is in fact because of DPI desktop scaling (125% or 150%) activated on (very few…) windows systems.
- About : “I downloaded the .rar file and extracted the .exe to my desktop, but when I run the program, nothing happens, yet task manager shows the program as active. Any thoughts?”.
I got this problem only one time after Windows 7 + some programs made some updates… Strangely, after rebooting, all works again. So, yes, reboot
- About the “ugly donate button” : Just ask or send me an email if you want a version without it… i do not eat children & i know i won’t get rich with this little software
Happy listening people.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/z33k/
I love the comments about the donate button. You want free software and you don’t want to be reminded that someone spent the time and effort to write it and would like a donation if it’s found to be useful.
Also having it only appear during installation doesn’t make sense, because you haven’t used it yet, so you don’t know if it’s going to be helpful or not. Sheesh! Consider it an advertisement.
As for the program, I’ve only played with it for a few minutes. I think it’s really good. I think it needs little hover-over labels over the icons. I wasn’t sure what they represented at first. And I couldn’t figure out how to get the playlist function to work. It would be useful to be able to use to play files on my hard drive. Also being able to resize it would be helpful. And I wish it would display a little more information about the file, like file size and/or bit rate. But it’s an interesting app!
“I wish it would display a little more information about the file, like file size and/or bit rate. ”
Totally agree. Who wants 92bit MP3 files? If you can tell the bit rate, it isn’t worth the download time, as far as I’m concerned.
Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Oddball, Kelly’s Heroes
Firstly, I would like to say Slick Program ! I like it ! ThankYouVeryMuch.
I do not find the donate button obtrusive at all – no big deal dood !
If the file download only takes a few seconds, which is the case for me, it is not all that onerous to DL and then decide to keep a file if it is up to snuff. But I have to admit having bitrate and or file-size info would be useful. Would be nice, if the Dev has time.
And cut out all them negative waves !
Hello,
I’m the dev’ of z33k.
http://www.musicsearch.so engines (1&2) added in the 3.0 version.
Get it here : http://sourceforge.net/projects/z33k/
About bitrate & size missing in z33k nobody noticed that’s simply because ‘most’ of the search engines used in this software do not show these informations too !
See ya.