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If you were lucky enough to get your hands on a Nintendo Wii this holiday season, you may have gotten more than just a gaming system. A recent press release has stated that certain gaming consoles, like the Nintendo Wii and the Playstation 3, are able to act as a stereo receiver to play your online music collection.

Nintendo Wii will play online music through MP3tunes.com

In order to turn your Nintendo Wii into a music playing machine, you need to first sign-up for an account at MP3Tunes.com to receive your own "music locker". A "music locker" is basically some space online that can be used to store as many MP3's as you want, so that you can play your music from any computer instead of just having a local copy on your own computer's hard drive. It's a good way to back-up your music.

Screenshot of the MP3tunes "Locker" screen

Signing up for an account at MP3tunes.com is free for the basic membership and $39.95/year for the "premium" membership which has some additional perks. Once you are signed-up with an account, you are able to store all of your digital music in your locker. You can also get a ton of free music to your locker with Sideload.com, which is basically a collection of other user's music. It works much like a file sharing site. As of the date of this writing, there are 381,326 free songs available to put in your locker through Sideload.com.

Screenshot of Sideload.com

MP3tunes.com uses an open application programming interface (API), which allows it to work with devices such as Windows Mobile devices, Internet radio, Playstation 3, and the Wii. In order for the device to play the music in your locker, it must be connected to the Internet. Once you have your Wii wired-up for online play, you will be able to access your MP3tunes locker and turn this gaming console into a stereo receiver with access to your entire online music collection. For detailed instructions on how to set-up your Nintendo Wii to play your online music, follow this link.

Sources: PRNewswire, MP3Tunes.com, Sideload.com

Joe Eitel's Gadget Blog
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