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Introduction

The RadioTracker Platinum 4 is available to anyone and enables the downloading of music through a clever, yet legal technique. All music that is downloaded through RadioTracker comes directly from a radio station of your choice. Radio Tracker v2 and v4 won the Computer Shopper Best Buy Award with 5 out of 5 stars in February 2007 and March 2008.

About Avanquest

Avanquest Software is a world leading developer and publisher of consumer software and business solutions. The Group markets a wide range of best-selling programs developed both in-house and by developer partners throughout all territories and through all sales channels. Founded 20 years ago Avanquest Software possesses one if the most extensive catalogs in the world, now offering more than 1,500 software titles, with an unparalleled breadth of market appeal.

Features and Specifications

• Finds your favourite music for free
• Downloads the latest Podcast entertainment
• Manages your music collection
• Integrated CD burner
• Creates ring tones from downloaded tracks
• Continuously updates podcast database
• Audio Studio for editing MP3 tracks

Installation

Radio Tracker 4 arrives on just one CD in a sleeve. After inserting the CD into my disk drive, I was a little confused as to how the program was only 4MB in file size. Installing RadioTracker was a fairly simple process that even a novice could do! All you have to do is insert the CD and then if auto play is enabled on your computer, your internet browser pops up with an installation guide- prompting you to click ‘Begin Installation’.

Once the installation starts you have to wait around 30 seconds while the installation initializes. Afterwards, you are presented with a normal dialog box reminding you to agree to the contract, you will then be able to select where you’d like the software installed.

Once the software has finished installing, you can open up the program, type in the serial number and then the loading screen will appear in a matter of seconds.

This only appears to happen when you first load the program. After rebooting, the program starts up automatically at login.

Testing/Usage

When I first received the RadioTracker and read the product information I was amazed that such a product existed. I’m curious how software like this can be made legal but I’ve been assured from Avanquest that this is indeed 100% legal.

The concept that the RadioTracker uses is that when you connect to one of the many thousands of available radio stations, the tracker will automatically download music to match your specific interests either by matching band names and artists or matching songs by the genre of music e.g. If you type in Bloc Party, it will show all tracks by Bloc Party.

As well as finding MP3’s, RadioTracker automatically finds album artwork, song lyrics, images and ID3 tags. All songs can be synced with iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones which makes RadioTracker, ‘more than just a computer program’.

Creating ring tones for mobiles phones, PDAs etc…couldn’t be easier! The only knowledge you need for this is how to use your mouse for a few simple clicks, then you’re on your way to making the coolest ring tones on the block.

The MP3 storage system is all automatic. By default, your downloaded music is stored in your ‘My Music’ folder in your personal documents. This is very useful as there is no need to organise your music as the program does it all for you.

Even though you are recording music off the radio, via the internet, the sound quality is still extraordinary. By default the songs have a bit rate of 128kbps which probably won’t need to be changed as I tested all the songs that I have downloaded, through Logitech X590 5.1 surround sound speakers at nearly full volume and there was hardly any difference in the quality at higher bit rates.

As you can probably tell, the user interface is a dark yet sleek looking design; everything is laid out well and is clearly visible to the user. Fonts and buttons are quite large making them easy to navigate around and easy to read- without squinting.

The podcast feature is not one of RadioTrackers strong points as many of the podcasts are quite unknown and there are few English ones. However, Avenquest say that their database is constantly updating so in the future there will be more available.

All the features are very useful, especially the ringtone maker, CD burner and album info.

Conclusion

Overall the product is probably one of the best multimedia software packages I have ever owned. Mainly because of all the features, but the ultimate reason is because of the legal downloading capabilities.

The only thing that I can find wrong with the RadioTracker is the Podcast feature as it cannot find many casts at all. However, I’m comparing the Podcast library to iTunes, which no software will beat in Podcast content.

To sum this review up, its definitely good value for money and is a definite buy for any music lover.

Pros

• Affordable
• Easy to use
• Feature packed
• Quick downloads
• Easy Installation

Cons

• Poor podcast library
• Incorrect ID3 tags for some songs

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