SonicSwap has announced that theyive relaunched their service with dramatically improved playlist upload times and a new "mashup" service that automatically ties a song in iTunes to its music video counterpart on YouTube.

The service, launched in 2005, has gone through several phases of development. Most recently, SonicSwap was designed to upload a useris iTunes playlist to its social networking site where other members can explore their friendsi music. The service doesnit actually upload any music, just the playlist contents.

Dan Skilken

An early problem with the service was the length of time it took to upload the itunes metadata in XML format in a usable way. It took so long that SonicSwap had to send an e-mail when the upload was complete. Now, after the relaunch, that upload takes less than a minute thanks to a much improved algorithm.

iPO spoke with the SonicSwap CEO, Dan Skilken, who explained the service and the relaunch.

"Itis amazing how many matches we get between any given song and its corresponding version or music video on YouTube. Itis a much higher percentage that we ever thought. But if no match is made, then we look for 30 second sample. The idea there is that the friend may end up going back to Apple and buying the original song," he said.

Mr. Skilken also told iPO about the attention to security. "While every playlist is uploaded," he said, "we make sure via password security that only the useris iTunes metadata is accessed and uploaded. There is no way for the system to see any other files on the useris computer. And you can turn the sharing service off if you wish, and just personally explore the corresponding music videos on your own."

A little known trick was also described. Users who donit want a playlist uploaded, can just put an asterisk in front, and it will be ignored. Movie and TV show playlists are also ignored.

"Every thing we do is absolutely legal," Mr. Skilken pointed out. Weire an Apple developer, we use Appleis standard tools for developing software, we use the published YouTube APIs, and no actual music is ever transmitted. Also, at this relaunch, we added object permanence -- the system will automatically update changes to your playlists on our server."

With attention to user security, the auto syncing, greatly improved upload times, and the mashup video linking service, Mr. Skilken believes SonicSwap provides a great service for those who want to learn about new music from their friends.

"That also helps Apple sell more music, and everyone wins," Mr. Skilken concluded.

Membership is free at SonicSwap. Currently, the business model involves commission for sales from Apple and Amazon. Advertising on the site is also contemplated for the future.