Often, in the "Artists Related to ..." screenthingy, I can see artists that are listed on Magnatune. You can listen to these for free, download their mp3's, or buy them if you like it on http://www.magnatune.com . How about this gets integrated into amaroK, so that it can automatically download selected songs/album if you tell it to, if you want to try to listen to these suggested artists but you don't have anything of them? Or is this too far off from the idea of amaroK?

Okay, got a better idea. The simplest to do is probably just to add all magnatune's tracks to the database, using their http://....mp3 thingy, using correct tags. That way the user can add them like they're normal tracks, and they are downloaded automatically (like I just discovered, another cheer for amarok).

Perhaps a plugin or a file that adds them, which users can then download seperately. Is there an easy way to add lots of stuff to the database? Some big SQL statement?

I have actually just started looking into how this could be done! I am totally new to amaroK development, but I have been thinking about this for a while and though it would be pretty cool. I like open source software and I like the buisness model that Magnatuen promotes, so why not try and bring the two together?

I floated the idea on the irc channel a few days back and got a few responses from people who thought it was a good idea.

I am currently trying my hand at making a new Magnatune browser that will display the artists, albums, and tracks and let you select one for streaming. This will be based on the xml file available at http://magnatune.com/info/album_info.xml. If this proves feasible and I get enough positive feedback, I will attemt to contact Magnatune to hear if they have any suggestions on how to integrate buying and downloading music (this will require some work on their part, but they seem very open to almost any idea that will bring their music to more people)

I have just started familiarizing myself with the amaroK code, so please dont expect miracles to occur overnight. If anybody is interested in helping out with this (especially people with some amaroK hacking experience) or has any suggestions or comments please contact me!

later!

Nikolaj

I don't think it would make sense to have a "Magnatune browser." I mean, they already have a website and users already have a browser.

But that might not be what your planning.

Well, you pretty much got it right, and yes, I do think it makes very much sense!

Magnatune.com offers an xml-file witht the stated purpose of allowing 3rd party apps and websites easy access to their catalog. By making a magnatue browser integrated into amaroK, the users get a very easy way of adding streaming preview tracks (all songs in full 128 megabit qality) to their playlists in an integrated manner.

I have a screenshot here of what I have got so far. Please remember that I just started looking into this a few days ago:

[img]http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6782/amarokmagnatune8gk.png[/img]

My first task is to allow any of these tracks, albums or artists to be inserted into the current playlist. Also, the xml-file contains links to album information, cover art and so on, and all this should of course be displayed.

Long term, my plan is to investigate if it is possible to buy tracks directly from within amaroK. this is actually the main goal. This would require some cooperation from magnatune however. The net result of this would be an open source / creative commons integrated music shop (iTunes style) and I hink this would be a very interesting thing to have in KDE.


Basically I am doing this to scratch my own itch since I am a huge fan of Magnatune and amaroK and i like things to be nicely integrated. If I am lucky, maybe there are other people who will find it usefull

Nikolaj

Been working on this a little more. Heres what i have got so far: (clickable thumbnail)


[img]http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5981/amarokmagnatune48xg.th.png[/img]

Note that this as actual working code using real data from magnatune (not a mockup!
I have contacted Magnatune to hear what they think about this whole Idea and am waiting for a repply to that.

Please tell me what you think. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Monroe: You still think that this does not make sense (consider this concept with integrated music purchase)?

DavidV: I sendt you an email, dont know if you check that adress. You seemed to be looking for a project, and I could really need the help with this!

Nikolaj

Replying to my own message, again....

Just wanted to post this. John from Magnatune mailed me earlier today to let me know about his lates blog entry, so here goes:

http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2006 ... urcha.html

... now I REALLY have something to live up to! Will get busy hacking as soon as time permits (After this weekend)!  I really need some help from someone who knows his way around the database structure, so if that could be you, please let me know!

- Nikolaj

I think this could be quite useful and what you're doing so far looks pretty good. I hope you continue

Great work on magnatune integration.
I'm just trying this with my svn version of amarok.

I just have a question : Magnatune tracks are not submitted to last.fm.
Do you think it may be possible considering there's no track duration, and the title/artist/album info has some advertisement in it (PREVIEW: buy it from magnatune) .
If it was, that woulb be perfect 

I really like the magnatune idea and album, but two suggestions. It is only possible to pay per credit card, so it would be nice if you can provide a link to the paypal payment or the page where to pay per paypal. Now I have to search the album on the magnatune page, even if I had chosen it in amarok.

The second Idea is to provide two more functions:
- Download the preview, because it is impossible to jump a little forward to listen to the main part of the song
- and a listen to this album (and only this album). Now I have to delete all Songs from the playlist and than add the chosen album to the playlist

But everything else is great so far. 

Freespirit, this is neat and work like yours is why I run Linux. Are you sharing the code yet? I agree with the other poster that paypal would be great. If it were one or the other, I would prefer paypal. I have not been on Magnatune for awhile, so this was a good reminder to go back for a visit.

Rusty Lingenfelter wrote:Freespirit, this is neat and work like yours is why I run Linux. Are you sharing the code yet? I agree with the other poster that paypal would be great. If it were one or the other, I would prefer paypal. I have not been on Magnatune for awhile, so this was a good reminder to go back for a visit.

The code has been in SVN for some time and will be featured in 1.4.4.

Hi.

Magnatune integration is a good thing(tm), but why isn't it a compile time option like amazon, musicbrainz, media devices, etc? Sure you can disable it in the menu but it still takes extra compile time and resources. Please, make it optional in the future releases.