Both Spotify and YouTube have become the two main options for listening to music online for free. However, both services are far from perfect. The official Spotify client works a little worse every day, while YouTube's interface doesn't help users at all. These details lead us to the doors of Wefre, a new service that presents the best of YouTube's music through a simple and elegant interface.
The State of Free Online Music
The last time I ran Spotify it stayed open for about 60 seconds. Maybe I'm a little crazy, but its client gives the feeling of being heavier and slower each day. On the other side of the street, we find YouTube. Honestly, I spend almost all day with a tab open on the service, but if I listen to three or four songs, that's a lot. YouTube is clearly designed for video distribution, although if we consider that the Top 20 of the most-viewed videos in its history are music tracks, there is definitely something YouTube could optimize. The alternative for users is to search for other compatible clients that do a more solid job presenting YouTube's formidable music catalog.
Meet Wefre
That search brings us to Wefre, a Spanish development that uses the YouTube API to offer access to millions of songs, with an interface on par with what the big players provide. Everything starts with creating an account on its official site. The main parameters and shortcuts are in a panel on the left side, and when you search for a particular artist, Wefre presents a kind of mini-site with a description, the most popular songs, and the available albums. Its web version works wonders, but Wefre's developer is seeking additional funding to create apps compatible with iOS and Android.
The Catch: YouTube's Terms of Use
If Wefre does so many things right, then what's the problem? In a single word, YouTube. The service may be one of the most popular resources for listening to music online, but it's not the best. Developments like Wefre expose this fact, and despite the opinion of users, Google hasn't flinched when sending a couple of "cease and desist" letters. The case of Streamus was very striking. Beyond the efforts of its developer, the extension had to be removed from the store for a single reason: The API's terms of use prohibit separating audio from video. Personally, I hope to be miserably wrong, and that Wefre stays online for years, because it's achieving something YouTube should have done years ago: Presenting its music in a better way.
