July App of the Month: Shazam

Shazam lets you identify, discover, and explore music that’s around you. Whether you’re listening to a song on the radio, in a restaurant, or on TV, Shazam can identify the title and artist of the song with one tap. The app also links to the song’s YouTube video, information about the artist, and your device’s online music store for easy download.

Apple users, download it here!  
Android users, download it here!
Website: www.shazam.com 

how it works…

When you’ve come across a song that you’d like to identify, open the Shazam app and tap the button in the middle of the screen.

Shazam will identify the title and artist.

To explore more about the artist, scroll to the bottom of the screen.

Here you can find links to the song’s YouTube video, iTunes or Amazon MP3 store, lyrics, and more.
Once you’ve identified a song on Shazam, that title, along with the other titles you’ve identified, are stored for later review. To access these saved songs, or tags, tap on My Tags.

Shazam also has a social component. After signing in to your Facebook account, you’re able to see what songs and artists your friends are tagging.

Exploration ideas…

The Shazam app can be fun to use alone or with your friends.

Try these ideas:

  • While traveling on a road trip in the car as a passenger, try scanning the radio stations in the area every once in a while. Shazam songs you’re unfamiliar with.
  • Head to a local music show or concert and try Shazamming a live performance to see if the band’s or artists’ songs appear.
  • Watching a commercial and trying to pinpoint that song in the background? Shazam it!
  • Link your Shazam account to Facebook and encourage your friends to as well. Check and see what songs everyone is Shazamming. Are there any similarities? Try listening to what your friends have tagged to discover new music.
  • Shazam an artist you’re familiar with, and then try to guess what will show up in the “Artist’s popular songs” section. Check to see if you’re right!

Changes coming for Freegal!

Many of you have by now (hopefully) heard about Freegal, the library’s music download service.  With your library card, you can download three mp3 tracks per week – legally and without annoying DRM limitations!


On June 1st, Freegal will have some exciting new features!

Music videos 

Freegal is adding 8,000 MTV type music videos – the complete music video collection of Sony Music Entertainment.  Patrons who choose to download (and keep) a music video will only use 2 of their 3 weekly downloads.

New search features

A brand-new search engine and a whole new look which will make Freegal easier to use and more dynamic than ever.   The update will also have new features like song delete on the app, and iTunes backup on the app, a wishlist for downloads and more!

Expanded content 
Freegal is expanding their collection from 3 million tracks to nearly 7 million! They will be adding Some of the best music that we don’t have from Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Dion Warwick, George Winston and the London Symphony Orchestra.

2013 Grammy Winners… Get the Music @ the Library!

Did you get to watch the 2013 Grammy Awards this past Sunday? From awesome music to funny moments to red carpet style, it’s always an awesome event!

Did any of your favorite artists win? Were any of them nominated? Did you know you can download these songs for free using your library card? That’s right! Just log into Freegal through the library’s home page and download up to 3 free songs per week using your library card. See below for detailed instructions.

Here’s a rundown of some winners and nominees…

2013 Grammy Award Winners:

  • ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Babel, Mumford & Sons
  • BEST POP SOLO PERFORMANCE: Set Fire to the Rain, Adele
  • BEST POP VOCAL ALBUM: Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You), Kelly Clarkson
  • BEST R&B PERFORMANCE: Climax, Usher
  • BEST TRADITIONAL R&B PERFORMANCE: Love on Top, Beyonce
  • BEST R&B SONG: Adorn, Miguel
  • BEST COUNTRY SOLO PERFORMANCE: Blown Away, Carrie Underwood
  • BEST COUNTRY SONG: Blown Away, Carrie Underwood
  • BEST REGIONAL MEXICAN MUSIC ALBUM (INCLUDING TEJANO): Pecados Y Milagros, Lila Downs
  • BEST AMERICANA ALBUM: Slipstream, Bonnie Raitt
  • BEST FOLK ALBUM: The Goat Rodeo Sessions, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile
  • BEST ENGINEERED ALBUM, NON-CLASSICAL: The Goat Rodeo Sessions, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile

2013 Grammy Nominees:

  • Blunderbuss, Jack White (Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song)
  • Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You), Kelly Clarkson (Record of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, Song of the Year)
  • The Truth About Love, P!nk (Best Pop Vocal Album)
  • Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel (Best Urban Contemporary Album, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance-Adorn)
  • Alabama Shakes (Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance)
  • Babel, Mumford & Sons (Best Americana Album, Best Rock Performance & Best Rock Song)
  • Let’s Go, Calvin Harris featuring Ne-Yo (Best Dance Recording)
  • Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen (Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song)
  • Impressions, Chris Botti (Best Pop Instrumental Album)
  • I’m Alive, Anthrax (Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance)
  • Ghost Walking, Lamb of God (Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance)
  • The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More than Ropes Will Ever Do, Fiona Apple (Best Alternative Music Album)
  • Real Good Hands, Gregory Porter (Best Traditional R&B Performance)
  • If You Only Knew, SWV (Best Traditional R&B Performance)
  • Fortune, Chris Brown (Best Urban Contemporary Album)
  • Back to Love, Anthony Hamilton (Best R&B Album)
  • Write Me Back, R. Kelly (Best R&B Album)
  • Cost of Livin’, Ronnie Dunn (Best Country Song & Best Country Solo Performance)
  • Four the Record, Miranda Lambert (Best Country Album)
  • From the Ground Up, John Fullbright (Best Americana Album)
  • Let It Burn, Ruthie Foster (Best Blues Album)
  • And I Still Rise, Heritage Blues Orchestra (Best Blues Album)
  • Live Ananda, Krishna Das (Best New Age Album)
  • Deep Alpha, Steven Halpern (Best New Age Album)
  • Seeds from the Underground, Kenny Garrett (Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Best Improvised Jazz Solo-J. Mac)
  • Multiverse, Bobby Sanabria Big Band (Best Latin Jazz Album)
  • Come to the Well, Casting Crowns (Best Contemporary Christian Music Album, Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance & Best Contemporary Christian Music Song)
  • Go Get It, Mary Mary (Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance)
  • I Win, Marvin Sapp (Best Gospel Album, Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance & Best Gospel Song-“My Testimony”)
  • Jesus at the Center Live, Israel & New Breed (Best Gospel Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Song)
  • When Mercy Found Me, Rhett Walker Band (Best Contemporary Christian Music Song)
  • Illusion, Fonseca (Best Latin Pop Album)
  • Kany Garcia, Kany Garcia (Best Latin Pop Album)
  • Electro-jarocha, Sistema Bomb (Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album)
  • La Bala, Ana Tijoux (Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album)
  • Sembrando Flores, Los Cojolites (Best Regional Mexican Music Album)
  • El Primer Ministro, Gerardo Ortiz (Best Regional Mexican Music Album)
  • Cubana Soy, Raul Lara Y Sus Soneros (Best Tropical Latin Album)
  • Desde Nueva York A Puerto Rico, Eddie Montalvo (Best Tropical Latin Album)
  • Retro, Marlow Rosado Y La Riquena (Best Tropical Latin Album)
  • Formula Vol. 1, Romeo Santos (Best Tropical Latin Album)

To Access Freegal:

  1. Visit www.plainfieldlibrary.net
  2. Scroll down a bit, and on the right side of the page click the blue Freegal logo.
  3. Enter your library card number in the box on the page that appears.
  4. Find your desired song and click the download button.

Follow us on Pinterest

Pinterest! It’s all the rage lately, and we’re happy to finally be joining in the fun!

If you haven’t already  stumbled into the Pinterest craze, let me fill you in: Pinterest is basically an online set of your own, personalized and organized bulletin boards. Think of it this way: do you tend to clip pictures and articles out of magazines, or recipes, or newspaper articles then save them to be lost forever in a drawer? Pinterest is a way to organize these things for yourself and to browse what others are clipping, or pinning.

The vast array of ideas people are finding are evident everywhere! Just this week someone asked me about some garlic monkey bread I brought to a potluck dinner. When asked where I found the recipe, I responded simply, “Pinterest.”

Now your favorite library (that’s us!) is on Pinterest, too! Find us at pinterest.com/pgtpl. We’ve got pin boards for movies, music, and books we love, as well as boards for money saving, John Green stuff, tech tips & tricks… the list goes on, and just keeps growing! We invite you to follow us and enjoy our pins, and we’ll follow you back so we can enjoy your favorite things, too 🙂

Check out a few of our pinteresting Pinterest boards…

Straight No Chaser

Check out Indiana’s own Straight No Chaser:

They started out on the campus of IU (I will not hold a grudge as I am a Purdue graduate!) and with growing popularity have now been featured in the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and made other national TV appearances!  If you are into A capella sounds, this group is worth a listen.  They have a soft, smooth sound with a variety of slow and fast tracks.  I like that they have their own unique take on songs that are already popular.  One of my favorite songs is a comedic version of the classic Twelve Days of Christmas as presented in the video below:  

On a side note, while researching the correct spelling of A capella there are apparently a wide variety of opinions.  See for yourself at www.singers.com/a-cappella.html. You can chose which you think is correct!       

~Emily