With FlowSongs, You Can Pluck MP3 Files Straight From Online Radio

In a harmonious tech world, songs you hear and love on the radio would fall from the airwaves like shimmering rain and land seamlessly on your radio, MP3 player, or computer to be played anytime you wanted. Right now, plucking a great track from over-the-air radio signals is science fiction, but putting us one step closer to the dream is a new music download service called FlowSongs.

Designed by PURE, the British digital and online radio service that moved into the U.S. in 2010, FlowSongs eliminates a few action points between hearing a great song and owning it. Most music discovery adventures involve crossing from one closed system to another (i.e. hearing a song on Pandora, then signing into iTunes or AmazonMP3 to  buy the download). PURE and FlowSongs, on the other hand, condense the process to a single system. Here’s how they do it and how you can test the service for free.

Each track streamed over PURE’s substantial selection of FM and digital radio stations is marked with an individual digital tag. When listeners hear a song they love, they can use a proprietary PURE radio to purchase and download their beloved jam.

Bought downloads are stored in the cloud, specifically at a user account (also where credit card details are saved) within PURE’s media portal called The Lounge (www.thelounge.com). From there, tracks can be set to stream on any PURE radio device or, because no downloads are locked with digital rights management software, they can be saved over and over and over again to as many devices, computers, or thrifty friends’ hard drives as needed. The FlowSongs service will cost PURE radio owners $5.99 a year and tracks will range the typical $.99 to $1.49 of any MP3 download.

FlowSongs include other perks.

• Playlist support. Users can use The Lounge to group purchased tracks into playlists that stream over their PURE radio devices.
• Customer service. Any technical problems with streams or saved files can be routed through PURE’s own customer service network. Also, the company keeps a record of each purchased track, so users should be able to re-download paid-for songs, if needed.
• PIN protection. Parents with music-hungry kids and people with greedy, inconsiderate roommates can lock the purchasing option behind a password PIN to keep abusers out.

And there are, of course, some low points to the service.

• Closed is closed. FlowSongs only works on PURE radios with FlowSongs technology built-in. No word yet on when those will hit the market.
• Don’t download and drive. You can’t. PURE offers several stand-alone radio devices (ranging from $100 to $200-plus)  but none that are built for automobiles.
• Don’t expect to purchase full albums. At least not yet. PURE says album buys are a priority for the near future.

Once PURE internet-connected, digital radios hit the market, enthusiastic music-philes can start a free 90-day trial of the FlowSongs service beta. The annual fee of $5.99 is waived during the trial period, but you will still need to create an account at www.thelounge.com with your credit card details to purchase music.

We’ll be stopping by the PURE  booth during CES 2011 for more details, so until those radios hit the net, keep that dial tuned here.