Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku - Day #07 - TERRIFYING TUESDAY TUNES (Vol. 1)





Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...


... to 'Day Seven' of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku" and to the first instalment of "Terrifying Tuesday Tunes", where each week I will recommend some spine-tingling Hallowe'en music & sounds that can be streamed to your television via the magic of Roku player !!


So... whether you're planning to create your very own yard haunt to prepare a suitably ghoulish greeting for the "Trick 'r Treat" brigade on Hallowe'en, or you just need some macabre music to help your ghastly guests get into the "spirit" of things come the time of your spooky soirée, you should make a point of visiting this blog EVERY TUESDAY between now and October 31st for all the horror-themed audio you'll need to "get your fright on" in readiness for your Hallowe'en celebrations !!


Since I figure you're more likely to want to listen to actual Hallowe'en / Horror-themed "songs", rather than a selection of spooky sound "effects", this early in the month... I've decided that for 'Volume One' of my "Terrifying Tuesday Tunes" series, I'm going to concentrate more on macabre music than clips of chilling audio "bites" so you can practice the "Monster Mash" or do the "Time Warp" to your heart's content for the next few weeks and beyond.


Anyway... one of the best recommendations I can make, as to which of the available Roku channels you could use to stream audio via your Roku player, is to suggest a PRIVATE CHANNEL called "Nowhere Music" as the first port-of-call for any Roku owner who also happens to subscribe to the "Google Play Music" service, as this channel will allow you to access your Google Music account & stream it via your Roku player(s) whenever you choose. The "Nowhere Music" private channel for Roku was developed (perhaps) unsurprisingly by 'NowhereMan'... if that sounds familiar to you, it's because he's the same guy behind "Nowhere TV", "Nowhere Cast" and several other "Nowhere" channels (plus a few more Roku channels besides). You'll find all of the Roku channels developed by Chris, a.k.a. 'NowhereMan', on the dedicated webpage for his Roku projects, VIA THIS LINK, and (from there) it's a simple matter of scrolling down the page until you see this channel icon:-





ADD CHANNEL: NOWHERE MUSIC..............................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]



Once you've located the channel icon for "Nowhere Music", which should be located roughly halfway down the page, all you need to do is click on the word "install" to be redirected to the official Roku website, from where you will be asked to login and confirm that you wish to add "Nowhere Music" to your Roku account. Alternatively... if you'd like to install it right away, you can simply click on the embedded link for "Nowhere Music", alongside where it says "ADD CHANNEL" (above), and you will be redirected to the official Roku website from here. However... should any of you prefer NOT to use either of the links provided by 'Nowhereman' and/or myself, and would rather just navigate to the Roku website where you can login to your own account and use the 'Add a private channel' option from within the 'Manage Account' section, then you can do so by using the following access code:-


ACCESS CODE: nowheremusic


Should you need further convincing, or simply wish to experience the user interface (UI) for this private Roku channel, before deciding whether or not to install it, there is a useful (if somewhat grainy picture quality) video on 'YouTube demonstrating 'Nowhere Music' which can be found here:-


LINK TO VIDEO: "Roku - NoWhere Music (Google Music Client)" on 'YouTube'


PLEASE NOTE:- That the 'YouTube' video found using the above link is, as I've already mentioned, not exactly of the highest quality which is (partly) the reason why I have not posted it here as an integral part of this article. However, it does show the user navigating through most (though, not all) of the sub-menus within the channel and, for that alone, it is worthy of watching (in my opinion). I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, but these factors are beyond my control, so I respectfully ask that you please take up any issues over video quality with the original uploader. THANK YOU.



Once you have installed & setup 'Nowhere Music' on your Roku player(s), it's then just a case of searching for Hallowe'en / Horror-related content in the usual way you would search for songs, artists, albums, etc. using your 'Google Music' account. My advice is to try using one-word search terms that are relevant to the season, e.g. Halloween, Horror, Haunted, Spooky, Creepy, Ghost, Zombie, etc, etc. and, from the results, use the "Go to artist" or "Go to album" options to discover other similar content. You'll be surprised at just how much halloween-themed music you can amass (and how quickly) using this simple method. Try not to overdo it, though, because despite being able to increase the number of songs that are accessible (within the settings) if you increase to number too much, or opt for "No limit", there is always the risk of the channel crashing your Roku player and requiring a reboot which, as many of us are all too painfully aware, can put a bit of a dampener on things - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!!!!!!!!


I should (perhaps) also point out that the use of this channel does require you to input your 'Google Music' email address and password so, if that's likely to be of concern to you, then you might want to consider that before going any further. Also, on the subject of passwords, some Roku owners (though not all) have experienced difficulty in getting their 'Google' password accepted (most likely) due to the 2-step verification process involved. Judging by the experience of those few, the solution appears to be to go into your Google Account 'Security Settings' and create an application-specific password for 'Nowhere Music' which will then produce a long password that (thankfully) only needs to be entered once! Of course, access to 'Google Music' from your Roku can be revoked at any time.


In the event of your experiencing any other difficulties with the 'Nowhere Music' private channel, then may I suggest that you visit the dedicated discussion thread on 'Roku Forums', FOUND HERE, which has more than a dozen pages of application-specific comments from Roku owners that have been using the channel since it was first developed. Aside from using the link on his own website, the discussion thread on 'Roku Forums' is also a good place to make contact with 'RokuChris' (aka 'NowhereMan') if you have any questions about the 'Nowhere Music' private channel that HAVE NOT already been answered in the thread (please do read it first, before troubling Chris any further - his time is precious!). That said, you can always leave a message via Twitter: @nowhereman although, from my own experience, this does not (always) guarantee getting a reply !!


Anyway, that's all for today... just remember to come back in 24-hours for 'Day Eight' and more Hallowe'en-themed content, courtesy of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I will reveal the next movie for "Wicked Watch Wednesday", and to come back this time next week for more "Terrifying Tuesday Tunes" as we continue our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2014...



Fangs (as always) for reading !!



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