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Share Your Music Without Sharing Your Headphones


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Have you ever seen kids on the train with their heads pressed together to share one set of headphones? Well, a new app has come on the scene to remedy that rather unhygienic situation.MyStream is a new, free app [iTunes link] for the iPhone (soon available on the iPad) that allows music fans to listen to jams with friends and check out others collections. After downloading the app, one adds media from ones iTunes, adding either all of ones music or selections. After enabling ones playlist and streaming from ones phone, a user can then share his or her music with others who have the app. All users (in the proximity) will be listed under a tab called Streamers.In a way, the service is a lot like the Home Sharing feature on iTunes, with some key differences. The only time one can listen to a full song is when the user one is sharing with is listening to said song.So, lets say I wanted to share Lows new single with a friend (or even more than one friend). We could both listen to it at the same time on our respective devices (provided were on the same Wi-Fi network, or using Bluetooth).If my friend wanted to check out the new Peter, Bjorn and John album (residing on my phone), however, he would only be able to listen to 30-second previews of those songs, unless I was actively listening as well. Founder Richard Zelson hopes to remedy that issue soon, but the limited listening ability is currently in place to avoid legal issues.The app also includes the option to buy those songs via iTunes after listening to 30-second previews, making it a pretty nifty recommendation tool that also benefits the artist.You cant, however, share songs via Facebook or Twitter, but thats not the function of the app, according to Zelson. Its more an app for real-life sharing than virtual.At this juncture, some of you are probably invoking the name of Rdio, the music subscription app that lets you follow friends and listen to what theyre listening to, pointing out that there are no listening limits within that app. We dig Rdio as well, but we can see MyStream being useful among friends who are not yet hip to streaming services, or music fans who have a bit more obscure tastes.What do you think of MyStream? Will you keep your headphones clean by downloading?Image Courtesy of Flickr, Hygiene MattersMore About: apps, iphone, itunes, music, mystreamFor more Media coverage:Follow Mashable Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Media channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad Read More ...

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