launch.com

I am always ahead of my friends when it comes to music, at the moment they are just getting over Pretty Ricky's single, Grind with Me, myself, I was looking for the album before the summer began, and have since enjoyed their latest single. That is just one example, I do not care to share with you all the times I have profited from the site.

I came across this site, as people often come across the best sites, by accident, I believe I was probably using windowsmedia.com to find the latest song out, when it directed me towards this site, and to tell the truth I haven't looked back, it is a great site, although there are several problems, which I will go into shortly.

Front Page
The front page looks good and is well set out for easy navigation. There is a search area, where you can find a video, or artists quicker, this however will only work if you can spell the name correctly. Below that are four dropdown lists, one for Launchcast Radio, Music Videos, Y! Music Unlimited and Artists, these contain all the facilities available on the website. The rest of the options are in neat little boxes, all containing pretty pictures (lol) and links, for example you will get a box showing off the latest video, or advertising Yahoo Music Unlimited, an advanced idea of Launch.com, costing $5 a month (remember this is an American website). In the bottom left corner the top 10 videos for the time are stored, and if you click on the underlined link you can get to the video.

Viewing a Video
I'm going to now give you my step-to-step guide to getting a video up.
1. You must first make sure that you do not have a popup blocker on, if you do you will be taken to a page instructing you that you must take the popup blocker off and you will have to start the video up again.
2. Now you must select the video. For ease of explanation we will look for 'Nite Nite' by Kano. Because the video isn't on the top ten, we must search for it, we will do this by simply searching for Kano.
3. This displays several results for artist, sponsor results, albums, videos and songs. Looking in video we can see the song we are looking for. To bring it up we just select the little orange box with a video camera in it.
4. A popup box should come up. The first time you select a video you will be asked to click a box when you see a short video, this is to determine the speed of your internet, it is quite self-explanatory.
5. Before the video there will often be a short advertisement from one of the sponsors, then we can sit back and enjoy your video.
I will now try and describe the screen to you, and the features (I hope to also include a picture of this). On the right of the screen you can see your video, and on the left is the video information and sometimes an advertisement.
There are three choices of video quality, 56k, 100k, 300k, I always have mine on 300k, not being completely computer literate I am not sure how these different values effect everything, except the size of the video screen, which increases with the numbers. If you want a full screen there is a button which says 'FULL SCREEN' (quite self-explanatory). There is also the option to change the volume, pause and start the video, and if for some reason you want to completely stop the video, without being able to restart it, you need only press Esc. There is also a search facility at the top, which I don't usually use, but by searching, or clicking on the links, will open up a new window with the link, or search you have selected (does that make sense?).

Rating
This is one of the great things about this site, by rating each video and artist, the computer will select tracks that you might enjoy. Next to the video information on the left side of the video screen there is the facility to rate, from 1 to 5 stars, or somehow, I am afraid I can't remember how, you can change the rating system to a more accurate one, with a rating out of 100. The rating facility is also available on each artist's page.

Pros of Video
After a video ends, the player automatically moves onto another video, which it thinks you might like, this means that you will be able to listen to many other songs you would never have chosen.
Send to a friend - If you want to you can send a video you like to one of your friends via email, this is a thoughtful facility, although it doesn't always work.

Cons of Video
Quality - I often have trouble when a video will just stop half way through, the song will continue, but the screen will remain frozen.
Availability - Because the site is American, publishing laws allow it to show videos which are not able to be shown out of America, therefore when you select them you will be told that it is unavailable and to try launch.co.uk. However I have found a solution to this, as I have said the videos will continue, and while you cannot select the videos shown, they may show one of the videos that you can't select.

Launchcast Radio
There is a link to Launchcast radio on the front page. It is a great facility if you just want music, not a video. By selecting this option you will then go through several steps where you will select your favourite music genres and artists. This will help you to have a better station. The radio will play tracks that it is recommended you will like, and as with videos, you rate each track, artist and this time album, which will narrow the choice of music, so it will be more likely that you get a track you enjoy.
For a more advanced version of this you can sign up for Y! Unlimited, but this costs money, and although I don't know how it works, I must say I am satisfied enough with what I already am provided with.

Artist Pages
If you search for an artist you will be given a page just for them, containing all the information about them. Information like a short biography, downloads, Videos, a radio featuring them, or similar music, album information, similar artists, news, reviews, groups/boards, fans, fans websites and photos. On these sites you can also rate the artist and their videos, without having to watch the video. They are very useful when you want an insight into the artist you are listening to, however some pages have more information than others.

Downloading songs
There is a possibility to download a song, but I have never done this. Any track under the title of 'Songs' is able for download, before deciding to buy it, you can listen to a 30 second sample. However as I say I have never used this facility.

Music
My favourite genre of music has to be Rap and R'n'B, so this site provides very well for me, it has most of the songs I want to listen to, and others that are just fantastic. Other possible genres of music include Pop, Rock, Country, Blues, Electronic/Dance, Jazz, Latin, New Age, Reggae and Religious. Hopefully enough music for you to find a video you like. You can find the videos by selecting Music Videos on the dropdown list I described earlier.

Other all I am very impressed with this site, over the years it has been more restricted in the music it will allow you to listen to, however while British inhabitants can still use it, I will still use it. To use launch most effectively you must sign up to a Yahoo account, which also allows you to use their other facilities, e.g. email.

I would recommend this site, it is handy, allowing you to listen to great music of many genres, allows you to watch the latest videos, and you can know all about the latest music long before it comes to the UK. The British version is not nearly as goods in my opinion, there is not as much choice in music, however if you do want to use it you can find it at www.launch.co.uk.