Dear Amarok developers,

DISCLAIMER 1: I want Amarok to be the best.

DISCLAIMER 2: This is a reflection on why a cover browser view mode might be a good thing


(I know this topic comes up again and again and always there is the response: “Why don’t you just type what you want to listen to” Usually with a WORKSFORME attitude. )

I see that Amarok fulfills a certain use case or expressed differently, forces you to a certain workflow. Let’s call it: The decisive listener.

1) Hmm, I would like to listen to some Music and I know exactly what I want
2) First I’ll clear the playlist from yesterday
3) Now I roam through my collection and D&D stuff into my playlist
4) I click play and usually enable “random”
5) I minimize amarok

Amarok is, the way it works ATM, the best solution for this. We have the collection browser, the toolbar, the context view and the playlist view. ....Wait! The contextview didn’t appear in the above workflow. Hmmm. Straaaange....And why do we actually need the collection browser. I already know what I want to listen to, so no need to browse. A text box could easily replace the whole collection browser. Type “Metallica” Hit enter. Type “Type o' Negative” Hit enter. Type “Pet Shop Boys” Hit enter. (...Find the mistake ) ....(Ok, maybe a small browser with titles misses here)

BUT, the context view perfectly fits into a different workflow. And so does the collection browser. Let’s call it the indecisive listener or, the Explorer

1) I have half an hour of time and want to enjoy some Music
2) I don’t know what I want to listen to except maybe what genre
3) I browse the collection browser and D&D a few tracks to the playlist
4) I hit play
5) I read through the lyrics,
6) I’ll quick-read the wiki entry of the artist, look at a few pictures, videos,....

An important part in this (IMHO) is the collection browser, or to put it differently, “discoverability of music”. For some people, a big list of names just doesn’t do it. Some people want pictures. For each CD I’ve bought (or MP3) I remember the cover of the album and I attach a certain feeling to this cover, a certain mood. When I look at a list of artist names, I simply do not feel anything and I do not know which artist to choose. Give me a list of covers and I choose an album by “instinct” based on the cover image, the colors, the shapes, the mood. Give me a big cover and nothing else and I am happy.

So, basically I would love for amarok to somehow think more about workflows and to not force their users to a single flow or type. I am visual, and so are others. Help me to discover my music collection. I’m lost for/in words.
There should be a discussion about this and not always the sentence: “I said it before and I will say it again: Use the text box to search for your music, a list of covers will not help you, especially if you have a lot of music”. Well thank you for revealing to me that I my way is wrong!

The CD stack idea that is floating around might be good if it is well implemented. Having only the side would be as bad as the browser by name, maybe the cd at an angle?

Common arguments against different view modes:

- The size of your collection:
This argument just doesn’t cut it. "If you have a big collection, you will have a big list of names and it will be as difficult to choose something by text than it will be by picture." Not everybody has thousands of artists in their collection and for some browsing a hundred covers is a matter of seconds. Remember: Visual?

- Eye candy
I just love this argument. Why is eye candy a bad thing if it helps the users? Is everybody who wants to have a bit of a good-loocking player immediately an Apple fanboy? Why do they put covers on ces at all? They should just print in Monospace Bold size 60: METALLICA on the cover and on the side. Why waste time and money designing a cover if in the new age of music everybody just looks at it at size 40x40 on a 27 inch screen.

- Too much choice
Hmm ,tricky argument, This needs a lot of good constructive discussion I guess

Okay, now I feel sort of empty but at least I have stated my case. To summarize: DISCOVERABILITY

Good day

Hm, sorry, but I find your post a bit confusing to say the least. What exactly do you want, could you be a bit clearer on that, please?

Also, what Amarok version are you running? There have been many changes since the 2.2.2 release already, so without knowing what has been done already in development (which is very easy to follow with a local Git build BTW) this is not going very far.

Also, what you (and some others) don't get: we have a limited amount of developers who all work in their spare time and the days all have 24 hours only. There is already a lot in the pipeline or planned, it jsut takes time to develop and integrate this.

Seriously, I am a bit weary about random rants from random users who don't even know what we are currently working on. Everybody wants Amarok to do what they want and forget that Amarok is first of all our product, the developers do decide what is implemented, since they are the ones doing all the hard work.
And no, I am not going to detail it, my time is better spent on other things than explaining again and again the same things, there is a developer list and a public repository and sometimes there are just some things we just want to keep as surprises.

**Please read the last sentence of this post first before coming back to the middle part***

I am sorry if anybody feels personally attacked by my rant. I am using amarok since the 1.4 days (now 2.2.2) and I suppose I am one of those non-contributing "random" users. Is there another type of user?

What I wanted to express with my post is something I have read in various forum posts: Some people prefer to browse by covers. IMHO it is a simple idea. I've seen it posted several times and rejected as many times.

I think a forum was there for users or should I say "random" users to discuss what they want to see in the software they care about. As long as they do it in a non-aggressive way. I am sorry if the cover idea has come up before and that it is now considered as weary and I am also sorry if my post was not appropriate and offensive

I DO follow amarok development. All I know about the 2.2.3 (or 2.3?) release is what I got from gitorious: http://gitorious.org/amarok/amarok/blob ... /ChangeLog

I DO follow the amarok blog, and have read through pages like : http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/Proposals

I DO follow the amarok-devel mailing list and yes I lurk on #amarok also (looking forward to testing the new proposed toolbar)

If there are any surprise features that are not discussed in these places and that are to remain surprises until release,...consider myself surprised at that moment

I DO know that the developers are busy and prefer following what they like themselves. I did not say anything otherwise. I use their software because I like it, but more because I like kde. There is no other well-integrated media player alternative on kde. And as long as bangarang and plasma media center are in their early stages, I try to express my ideas on what would make amarok better.

So within one post I evolve from a random user to somebody who "does not get" that developers do not develop for users, but for themselves? And here I thought amarok was developed to be enjoyed by as many users as possible.

Ok, so much for all of us being passionate about software.

Now back to what this was about: How do people want to discover their collection. maybe browsing by big shiny covers? (You can safely ignore the rest of this post)

Sorry, I was probably overreacting, but with all those rants we get from badly informed users (and those who don't even use Amarok and blatantly copy wrong informations from others), I am a bit over-sensible when somebody starts a rant and announces it as such.

How about renaming yours a "Suggestion"?

JFYI: A Cover browsing is in the ToDo list since ages and is discussed with a big regularity on the various lists and forums, we simply don't have anybody implementing and then maintaining it. Also, with the API changes in Amarok we had to first find a reliable source for Cover downloads, and the Cover manager in general needs a lot of work, too, of which quite a lot has been done already in the current Git version.

Thanks Mamarok,

Now i AM surprised Title and disclaimer adapted

(I was angry wasting a whole evening yesterday with trying Songbird before realizing that Amarok is the best around)