20 Awesome Music Extensions for Chrome | Dramel Notes

For those of us who love using Chrome for our daily browsing, having the perfect music extensions on hand is pretty much essential to enjoying the day.

Music is life!

And since the selection of music extensions available for Chrome is changing all the time, it can be easy to miss the best ones coming onto the scene. You may not even realize how much you needed a certain one until you try it.

Drumbit

This drum machine is incredibly simple and totally addictive. All you have to do is hit a few squares and press play to get your totally unique drum loop. Save as a WAV file when you’re done, and use it in whatever other creation you’re working on.

Instant Music

This extension is for really lazy people who just want the right sort of music to play. Click the button, choose a genre and listen to tunes. It’s that easy. It will find you popular tunes that fit your choice and you just sit back and listen.

My Music Cloud

This neat service lets you store 250 songs in the cloud for free and play them using their Chrome app. You can automatically sync music from iTunes or import from Google Drive or Dropbox so the music is easily playable.

An upgrade costing €39.99/year will let you sync up to 10 devices and store unlimited tracks. This is basically the point of this app for most people: to be able to store music in Google Drive and access it on their iPhone.

AudioBox

The Audiobox app and extension combination is an excellent way to tie all your online music together. Connect your YouTube, SoundCloud, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and more all in the one place. Most of these services require paid accounts to connect, but paid accounts start at just $0.99/month, and also let you store files on their cloud servers.

What’s really impressive about this app is that you can create simple or smart playlists using your songs from a variety of online services. Then you can play your AudioBox playlists from any connected device (iOS and Android included).

Last.fm Scrobbler

This scrobbling extension has been around forever, but is the essential tool for people who still love tracking their music listening habits in Last.fm. Make sure you have it.

Deezer Control

For Deezer users, this is the ultimate extension. It gives you hotkeys, notifications and a popup for info and playback tools. There’s no web app for Deezer, so be sure to bookmark it.

Music Plus For Google Play

This is the Google Play user’s ultimate extension: notifications, a popup of information and playback tools, Last.fm scrobbling, and lyrics. Just what you need to keep the tunes coming.

Spotify Playlist Extractor

If you create a lot of playlists in Spotify, you might want to back them up in order to import them into other music players or to just keep your hard work safe. This extension makes it really easy, as you just navigate to the playlist in the web version of Spotify and click the extension button. Get your playlist as a M3U or JSON file with one more click.

Rdio2Spotify

In a similar vein to above, you might be keen to save all of your Rdio playlists to Spotify now that the service is closing down. This is the perfect tool — it’s not a Crhrome extension, but it’s a tool many of us should use quickly before it’s too late.

Songist

This is a really unique app on this list, in that it lets you play music from your own hard drive or USB. This is perfect for Chromebook users, who might have a collection of their favorite tracks on a USB they plug in occasionally.

With Songist, you can create a decent playlist for those files and listen to them using a familiar interface. This is a huge improvement on the default Chromebook tools.

Apps For Music on Chrome

There a bunch of other apps on Chrome, which basically just direct you to the web app. That said, most of these are huge sites and they are part of a Chromebook user’s essential music app collection, so be sure to get the app and also bookmark the site for everyday use.

Spotify — Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services in the world for very good reason. It rocks. Free plans are available, and paid subscriptions start at €4.99.

Google Play Music — Google’s own web streaming service. It lets you upload 50,000 songs from your own music collection, which can be automatically or manually added as you prefer. On top of that, you can buy individual tracks or subscribe to their unlimited service for €9.99. It’s a great way to blend your old favorites with new music.

SoundCloud — SoundCloud is a platform for original works of music, and has also become popular for hosting podcasts. As a free user, your uploads are limited to 3 hours of content, and paid accounts start at €4/month.

Stitcher — Stitcher is an interesting web service that lets you piece together a playlist from talk radio, podcasts and live radio on demand. It has a neat front page that will highlight some of the most interesting stories of the day, and the hot channels of the day. If you’re into random interesting stories, this is the perfect app.

Undrtone — Undrtone is a cross-platform music discovery service, allowing you to connect your Spotify, Deezer and Soundcloud accounts. From there, you can get recommendations based on your taste, your friends and their own tastemakers. Browse trending tracks, recommended hashtags or people to get a playlist for the day.

Soundtrap — This web app is one of the hottest things in music production right now. It lets you create original music with musicians from around the world, and mix the creation just as you would in Audacity — but it’s an online alternative Audacity tool. The beauty of it is that it’s a collaborative effort. If you make music, you need to try this.

Earbits Radio — This is a simple way to listen to free, curated, independent, ad-free music.

AccuRadio — Just about every online radio station in the world at your fingertips. The beauty of it is that they’ve created collections of stations for you, such as Christmas music, workplace moods music, genres and more featured collections.

PocketCaster — This unofficial Chrome app leads to the official PocketCasts web app, which is an awesome way to listen to your favorite podcasts on the web. And for a one-time fee of $9 you can sync your podcasts with your smartphone forever.

TuneIn — The unofficial TuneIn Chrome app takes you to the official TuneIn page, which is another fantastic directory of online radio stations and podcasts. One of the most unique things about this directory is you can get a list of local stations and podcasts in any area worldwide, talk radio stations, sports, music, language learning or pretty much whatever else you’re looking for. Children’s music, Christmas music, Folk, Disco, 80s, Classical and more. You can even organize all the stations you follow into your own folders.

What Do You Listen to?

So really, get all these music extensions and apps installed in your Chrome browser right now. You’ll never be at a loss for interesting music to listen to ever again!

What are your favorite music extensions for Chrome? Which web apps do you turn to every day? Which stations and podcasts keep you entertained the most? Tell us!

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8 Online Habits to Kick Because They’re Costing You Money | Dramel Notes

Online shopping is really convenient — but it can also be really dangerous. It’s easy to get caught up in browsing lists of things you don’t really need, and it’s far too simple to order them with a single click.

You’re not making it any easier on yourself by keeping up the bad habits listed below. Check them out and be honest with yourself — which ones are you guilty of? Share in the comments below and we’ll talk about good ways to turn them into better habits.

“Window Shopping” on Pinterest

This is the first thing that has to go. Browsing products on Pinterest is like walking through the mall looking at stores and saying you’re not going to buy anything.

It could happen, but it requires a huge amount of willpower to stick to your shopping prohibition. The same goes when you’re browsing any website that contains images and details on a lot of products that you’ll probably like (which is especially true on Pinterest, as they’re really good at learning your preferences).

Instead, start filling your Pinterest feed with things that will inspire you to save money. Search for things like ‘combine clothes in new ways’, ‘thrifty outfits’, or ‘DIY organization ideas’. These are the kinds of things that will help you stop spending impulsively, but still be fun to look at.

Pinterest can be really useful if you know how to use it effectively, but you need to be a very disciplined when following boards and liking posts.

(Quick note: this goes for other social networks, too, especially Instgram. The outfit of the day tag, #OOTD, can lead to an urge to shop.)

Following Too Many Brands

Following brands on social media can be really useful; you can get exclusive coupons, for example, or find out when big sales are coming up. But you’ll also get exposed to an awful lot of marketing. It’s easy to fill up a good portion of your Facebook and Twitter feeds with ads and product recommendations from retailers, and that’s going to make it hard to stay disciplined and resist impulse shopping.

Not following any brands on social media is a good goal, but if you absolutely need to know what this week’s fashions are, just follow the companies that you buy from regularly. Don’t follow the companies you buy from once a year. It’s not nearly as entertaining or exciting, but it could save you a lot of money and lower the temptation you have to deal with every day.

Getting Caught Up in Sales

Ah, online sales. How much extra money do you think you spend when your favorite retailer is having a sale? It always feels like you’re saving money, but usually what you’re doing is getting more for spending the same amount, or just spending more.

Obviously, if you can maintain your self-control, you can save quite a bit. However, it’s very difficult to resist temptation when you see that something you previously couldn’t afford is now on sale.

Some financial bloggers advise not shopping sales at all. Instead, they say to make a list of the things that you want and to go online and buy them, regardless of whether they’re on sale or not. This is certainly a viable strategy, but that’s not going to be everyone’s preferred choice.

If you do decide to keep shopping sales, make a budget first. Tell yourself how much you can spend before you start, and then only spend up to that limit.

Keeping Your Credit Card on File

One of the reasons why it’s so easy to spend a lot of money online is because retailers make it so very easy. Amazon has it down to where you just need to click once — no entering credit information, no entering shipping details, no confirming the purchase, nothing. Just one click and it’s on the way. And that’s really dangerous (not only when you’re being tempted, either: my mother-in-law once accidentally used one-click purchasing to buy a $1,000 chair).

Even if you don’t use one-click ordering, keeping your credit on file at your favorite stores is not a good idea. Humans are lazy, and we try to minimize the effort that we need to use to accomplish things. Even little things — like entering your credit card information — can be a deterrent.

If nothing else, it gives you one more chance to reconsider your decision. Don’t let companies save your credit card information, and you’ll be more likely to make better decisions.

Subscribing to Retail Newsletters

Just like following brands on social media, getting newsletters in your inbox with offers will expose you to a lot of marketing. And online marketers are really good at what they do — they know all the tricks. Which means you’re making yourself a lot more susceptible to making poorly planned purchases. And you’re cluttering your inbox, which is another thing you don’t want to deal with.

Just like with social media, if you can’t unsubscribe from all of the newsletters, stick with the ones from the brands that you buy from all the time. You’ll be more likely to actually save money with these. And if you can’t bear the thought of unsubscribing from them, use Unroll.me or another strategy to keep them from distracting you when you’re in your inbox.

Again, putting another step between you and a purchase is a good thing.

Getting Distracted by Recommendations

Related to both “window” shopping and browsing sales, allowing yourself to be distracted by the items that Amazon, Target, or any other online retailer presents to you when you’re buying something is bad. If you buy an Arduino starter kit, for example, Amazon will recommend a bunch of other Arduino-related things, and you’ll probably be tempted to buy them.

But if you didn’t set out to buy them in the first place, you almost certainly don’t need them. Sure, some would be nice, but if you didn’t think to put them on your list in the first place, and you’re thinking about buying those items, it’s probably due to advertising. And that’s not a good way to shop.

Remember that online retailers know a lot about you, and they know exactly what to put in front of you to make you spend more.

Subscribing to Groupon

Groupon, LivingSocial, and other “social couponing” sites can save you a lot of money if you grab the right coupons. If you grab the wrong coupons, you could end up spending a lot on things that you don’t need — or, worse, forgetting about them and losing the value of the coupon.

The key is knowing when to see if there’s a Groupon that you’re interested in. If you want to buy something, and you think that you might be able to save on it with a Groupon, check out the site and search for what you need. If you want to go out to eat, take an affordable vacation, or go on a weekend outing, you’ll almost certainly be able to find what you want.

When you get emails from Groupon, however, you see what they want you to see. Groupons for specific stores, classes, and items that you never thought about before can look awfully appealing when you’re saving 50% or more (or if you think you’re saving that much).

But don’t get drawn into the black hole of buying Groupons; it feels like saving money, but it’s still spending. Unsubscribe, and hit the site when you think it would be useful.

Paying for Shipping

There are tons of ways to get free shipping online — so many, in fact, that paying for shipping is almost always a waste of money. On Amazon, you get free shipping if you spend over $35, which isn’t hard (even if you don’t get caught up in a sale).

Free shipping is also one of the awesome Amazon prime benefits (sign up for Prime here) that you should be taking advantage of. Other sites often have similar deals, where if you spend over a certain amount you don’t have to pay to have it delivered.

Where shipping really hits your finances is if you make a lot of small purchases — you often won’t reach the threshold, and you’ll pay a couple bucks for each item. It doesn’t seem like much at the time, so you don’t think about it, but it adds up over months and years.

Those little, one-off purchases are often impulse buys too, making them doubly bad for your budget (you do have a budget, don’t you?). Consolidate your purchases to save on shipping costs.

Start Small and Build Up

Being financially responsible isn’t always easy, and maintaining bad online habits can make it even harder. You don’t have to become a model of resisting temptation overnight– start with one or two of the above tips, and work your way from there. Or take on one each week over the course of a couple months. Just make sure you start somewhere.

And why not start reading some personal finance blogs while you’re at it? It will help keep your motivation and resistance to temptation up.

What bad habits cost you money online? Do you find yourself making impulse purchases or browsing sales? Do you get caught up in email newsletters? What have you done to help yourself resist the temptations online? Share your thoughts and tips below!

Image Credits:legs and shopping bags by haveseen via Shutterstock

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5 Sites With Tips and Tools for Creating Presentations | Dramel Notes

Have an important presentation coming up? You should really be working on that instead of browsing the Internet, but if that doesn’t sound good to you right now here are a few sites and tools that might help get you started.

We’ve shown you how to improve your PowerPoint skills overnight, but there’s more to giving a presentation than mastering presentation software. Let’s go over some sites with tips for speaking, then go over a few tools that might make the process easier for you.

You can read this article and bookmark the sites you find useful, but after that you’ve got to get back to work on your talk. Deal? Then let’s get started.

Speaking.io: A Complete Guide to Giving a Presentation

Zach Holman gives a lot of presentations as a startup adviser; this site outlines tips he’s learned over the years. You’ll find tips for writing your talk, designing your slides, and preparing for putting it all together in the presentation. Everything is laid out nicely, the writing is conversational, and the tips are straight-forward but effective.

Each of the above bullet point leads to a link with more thoughts, so there’s actually quite a lot to parse here. If you’re getting ready for a speech, this is a great place to start and get some ideas. Dive in!

Teleprompter.com: Free Online Teleprompter for Presentations and Videos

It’s usually best to memorize your presentation, but if that’s not an option a teleprompter can be a good stand-in. This lets you read without constantly shuffling cue cards, and while recording a video lets you look at the camera while reading.

Teleprompter is a free web app you can use right now, without even signing up, to quickly make yourself a teleprompter script. Put your thoughts together, give yourself breaks, and pace your speech so you don’t rush through it.

We’ve outlined teleprompter apps before, but this one stands out for being clean and functional on any device with a web browser. Give it a shot.

Swoosh (Android): Use Gestures to Control Your Presentations

Changing slides during a presentation can be awkward. You can bring along someone else to do it for you, but if they don’t have time to rehearse with you this can throw off your timing – or force you to say “next slide please” a lot.

Swoosh is an Android app you can use as a remote control for your presentation. Connect it to any computer and you can control a variety of presentation software, from PowerPoint to Haiku Deck.

It’s a little bit of work to set up, and depends on both devices being connected to the same WiFi network. But once everything is ready you can change slides by swiping your hand over your phone, which is a simple gesture that feels natural and shouldn’t distract too much. Test it out before using it on stage, of course!

Swipe.to: Share a Link and Present Online

Can’t give your presentation in person? You might want to give it over the phone, but that means whoever you’re talking to won’t be able to see your slides. Some companies use unnecessarily complicated screensharing apps for this reason, but Swipe.to offers another way.

You design your slide on Swipe itself. When it’s time to present, simply share a link with your audience. They can open the site, and see your presentation in real-time – when you change the slides, they change on everyone else’s screen. So if you want to make a presentation during a teleconference, this is worth looking into.

Slides.com: Design Presentations in Your Browser

PowerPoint is ubiquitous, but it’s not for everyone. If you can’t find a presentation app that you like, it’s always worth knowing about more options. Slides.com is a web-based presentation app with a variety of embed options and a focus on minimalist design.

There’s a variety of tools you can use during a live presentation, such as a speaker view. When your talk is done, it’s easy to share your Slides.com presentations with the world – here’s an example of what that looks like. It’s a solid alternative to the dominant players, so take some time to learn it if you’ve been wanting something different.

What Public Speaking Tips Do You Have?

Of course, websites and tools are only going to get you so far – eventually you’re just going to have to get to work and finish putting together your presentation. While you’re procrastinating, though, why not join me in the comments below and talk a bit more about your favorite public speaking tips?

I’ll get us started! We’ve outlined ways to improve your public speaking skills in the past, and ways to conquer your public speaking demons. We’ve even shown you some TED talks that are worth imitating. But I bet you have some better tips, so please share them below.

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