Dorble is like SeeqPod’s zany little brother. Both music search engines scour the net for MP3s and serve them up on the web in easy-to-consume web-based formats, but SeeqPod is larger, far more developed, and more respectful to its elders than Dorble, which has fewer songs and features but lets users download MP3s flat-out. (SeeqPod lets users stream songs and save them into playlists but doesn’t include a download feature.)
Since SeeqPod’s API is open to outside developers, I initially figured Dorble might be using it as the foundation of its service. But Dorble founder Nicholas Sheriff told me earlier this month via e-mail, "We create our own index of mp3 files sofar we have around 1.2 million audio files, with 10,000 to 50,000 addeddaily." Anyone who has MP3s hosted on their server can contact the company to have their music directory added to the index.
So far Dorble’s reach isn’t nearly as broad as SeeqPod’s — probably due to the latter’s search algorithms being better, its longer time in operation, or both. Taking one example, Dorble currently returns one song by The Replacements, while SeeqPod returns 954 results on 40 pages (listen to the first ten below).
Dorble’s downloading feature might make it the better choice if you need a download right away (like, if you’re DJ-ing a party using DJ software and need to download an MP3 to satisfy a crowd request). But at that point, you may have resorted to using a file sharing client anyway. Still Dorble’s web-based nature makes it handy for scoring MP3s on the quick without running extra software.
In the fall, Sheriff said he plans to launch a "virtual music label tailored to monetizing in this new era of music distribution for artists," so some sort of revenue sharing plans could be in the works.
That may not be all the future holds for his company. SeeqPod is already fending off a lawsuit from Warner Music Group despite not hosting files or offering downloads, so if Dorble (formerly Gimado) grows in popularity, it could encounter even more legal resistance.
(As promised above, here’s a playlist of Replacements songs from SeeqPod.)
