FMGem: music video player with YouTube integration

YouTube is without doubt one of the largest online repositories in regards to music and music videos that is available on today's Internet. While it is likely that you find nearly every artist and song imaginable on the video hosting site if only you look long enough for it, it needs to be mentioned that the search capabilities are not really the best on the site itself.

While you can type in the name of a song or artist, you often end up with unrelated videos thrown into the mix and combing through all results often takes longer than it should.

FMGem is a relative new service available on the Internet that makes available YouTube's vast music archive on its own website. That in itself would not be really spectacular, but the integration of a music database that provides you with detailed information about bands, their albums and songs, is.

Here is how it works. You type the name of a song, artist or album you are interested in to the search form on top and wait for the results to be populated. Depending on that, you are either presented with a list of videos right away displayed on the left side of the screen, or a selection menu where you are asked to pick the name of the band or album from a list of results.

You can also use the add all button to add all of the songs to a playlist that is then automatically played while you are on the site. The site is also displaying related music on the right which you can also add to your playlist if you like.

What's excellent about FMGem is that it is really working well in combining music information, e.g. band names, songs or albums, with content that you find on YouTube. While you sometimes find a dud in the results listing, those seem to be less frequently there than if you would be searching for music directly on YouTube.

A couple of options are displayed right above the playlist section on the site. Here you can for instance navigate between items easily, remove the sidebars and playlist area to make more room for the actual video, or share what you have discovered on sites like Reddit or Facebook.

You can use the site to create your own playlist of music that brings you through the day. Just search for artists and albums you want to listen to and add those that you find to the playlist. Everything else happens automatic from that moment on and you can theoretically minimize the browser window or switch tabs while continuing to listen to music in the background.

The interface itself looks a bit messy, but it should not take long to get used to it. All in all an excellent site for Internet users who like to listen to music while they are on the Internet.

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