Amarok (software)
| Amarok | |
|---|---|
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 A screenshot of Amarok, showing the playlist browser, the OSD and the optional player window. |
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| Developed by | The Amarok Team |
| Initial release | 2003-06-23[1] |
| Stable release | 1.4.10 (August 13, 2008 (2008-08-13); 22 days ago) [+/−] |
| Preview release | 1.90 Beta 1 (codename Nerrivik) (August 22, 2008 (2008-08-22); 13 days ago) [+/−] |
| Written in | C++ Qt |
| OS | Unix-like |
| Available in | Multilanguage |
| Type | Audio player |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | amarok.kde.org |
Amarok (pronounced /ˈæməɹɒk/)[2] is a free software music player for Linux or other varieties of Unix. It makes use of core components from the K Desktop Environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle.
Despite the fact that Amarok uses wolf-based artwork, and that the name "amarok" or "amaroq" literally refers to the Inuktitut word for "wolf", it was originally named after the album Amarok by Mike Oldfield. The 1.2 release originally had a wolf icon, but this was later withdrawn due to similarity with the logo of WaRP Graphics Inc. Amarok's wolf logo has now been modified sufficiently so as not to infringe on WaRP's trademarked logo, and reinstated.
Originally named amaroK, it was renamed to Amarok in June 2006.
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History
The project was originally started by Mark Kretschmann as a means of bettering XMMS due to several usability problems, which interfered with the addition of new files to the playlist due to several user interface elements existing for one task. The original amaroK was created based upon the idea of a two-pane interface seen in Midnight Commander, and the first version of the software released solely by Kretschmann, was based upon the ideal of allowing users to drag-and-drop music into an interface in which the playlist was displayed on the right and information on the left.
After the initial release of amaroK, several developers joined the project to form the "Three M's" the first of whom was Max Howell, who acted as an interface designer and programmer for the project, alongside Muesli (Christian Muehlhaeuser), who also provided user interface insight and programming till the late 1.4 versions.
Development goals
Amarok's tagline is "Rediscover Your Music", and its development is based around this ideology. Amarok's core features such as the unique "context browser", integrated Wikipedia lookup and lyrics download help users to find new music, and to learn more about the music they have. Amarok also features integration with last.fm, giving users suggestions about what to listen to next and which artists may fit their mood, as well as with Magnatune integration, allowing no-cost full listening of all the music in their catalog, and DRM-free purchasing.
Features
Basic uses and functions
Amarok serves many functions rather than just playing music files. For example, Amarok can be used to organize a library of music into folders according to genre, artist, and album, can edit tags attached to most music formats, associate album art, attach lyrics, and automatically "score" music as it is played.
Although a more technical list of features is listed below, here are the primary functions or uses for Amarok:
- Playing media files in various formats including but not limited to (depending on the setup) FLAC, Ogg, MP3, AAC, WAV, Windows Media Audio, Apple Lossless, WavPack, TTA and Musepack. Amarok does not play digital music files embedded with DRM.
- Tagging digital music files (currently FLAC, Ogg, WMA, AAC, MP3, and RealMedia).
- Associating cover art with a particular album, and retrieving the cover art from Amazon
- Creating and editing playlists, including smart and dynamic playlists. The dynamic playlists can use such information as the "score" given to a song by an Amarok script, and the playcount which is stored with the song.
- Synchronizing, retrieving, playing, or uploading music to the following digital music players: iPod, iriver iFP, Creative NOMAD, Creative ZEN, MTP, Rio Karma and USB devices with VFAT (generic MP3 players) support.
- Displaying artist information from Wikipedia and retrieving song lyrics.
- Last.fm support, including submitting played tracks (including those played on some digital music players) to Last.fm, retrieving similar artists, and playing Last.fm streams.
- Podcast
From version 1.4.4, Amarok introduced the integration of Magnatune, a non-DRM digital music store, enabling users to purchase music in Ogg, FLAC, WAV and MP3 formats.
Some of these features depend on other programs or libraries that must be installed on the computer to operate.
More technical features
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- Two main windows: playlist browser and player window (latter is optional).
- Systray (panel notification area) icon support.
- Moodbar functionality provides a graphical overview of a song.
- Song collection, which includes specific folders on the filesystem.
- Can be stored in an internal SQLite database, or external MySQL or PostgreSQL database.
- Songs can be rated both dynamically (based on how much the song is played) and by hand (giving rating of 1-5 stars to the song).
- Amarok File Tracking (since 1.4.3): Stores file checksum in the collection. This allows the file be moved around in the filesystem without Amarok losing track of the song statistics.
- Collection filter (newest songs, highest rated, most played, etc.).
- Playback options:
- 10-band graphic equalizer.
- Crossfading (for GStreamer, Xine and aRts).
- Gapless playback (MP3 and other codecs) (however it's dependent on Xine and does not always work properly yet).
- Support for several audio engines. The audio engine also dictates which media types Amarok can play.
- Uses TagLib for tags.
- MusicBrainz support.
- Amarok can be controlled via DCOP.
- Amarok Scripts, for example, when writing lyrics fetching plugins, can be written in most languages that can speak a simple standard input/standard output protocol and invoke the external "dcop" command. Such languages include Perl, Python, and Ruby.
- Support for Digital Audio Access Protocol and ZeroConf.
- Integration with K3b for burning audio CDs.
- Support for kioslaves-based audio CD access. This allows CDs to be ripped to MP3 or Ogg Vorbis using Amarok's file browser or Konqueror.
- Support for the libvisual audio visualization system.
Amarok 2.0
The next release of Amarok, version 2.0 is currently in development. The Amarok team has started a nightly build service called Neon.[3] The next version will make use of KDE 4 technology like Phonon for audio and Solid for device interaction, along with extensive use of SVG and Plasma for the new interface. Amarok will also have better integration with online services with Magnatune, Jamendo, Ampache and MP3tunes already supported. A robust services framework will make adding support for other services much easier.[4] This release will also add support for Windows and Mac OS X.[5]
Release History
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old release; not supported |
| Yellow | Old release; still supported |
| Green | Current release |
| Blue | Future release |
| Major Version | Codename | Minor Version | Release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | ?? | 0.5.0 | 2003-06-23 | Initial release |
| 0.6 | ?? | 0.6.0 | 2003-09-20 | ?? |
| 0.7 | ?? | 0.7.0 | 2003-11-16 | Added support for cross fading and customizable columns. |
| 1.0 | ?? | 1.0.0 | 2004-06-17 | Added searchable 'collection', file browser, cover art from Amazon and statistics. |
| 1.1 | I am a rock | 1.1.0 | 2004-09-27 | Added song ratings and support for Xine, MAS and K3b. |
| 1.2 | ?? | 1.2.0 | 2005-02-14 | Support for iPods, Audioscrobbler, MySQL and a themeable browser. |
| 1.3 | Airborne | 1.3.0 | 2005-08-14 | New playlist browser, work on interface, dynamic playlists, support for podcasts, relative paths in playlists, playlist queue, Wikipedia integration and cuesheets. |
| 1.3.9 | 2006-03-26 | Helix and GStreamer engine, nicer interface, work on podcast support. | ||
| 1.4 | Fast Forward | 1.4.0 | 2006-05-17 | Improved support for mobile devices, work on memory usage and interface design, integration of Last.FM into the context browser, gapless playback using Xine, lyrics now fetched with scripts, advanced Wikipedia integration, CD ripping via drag n drop, improved handling of podcasts. |
| 1.4.1 | 2006-07-02 | Improved performance and usability, name changed from amaroK to Amarok, Last.FM streams, rating via scripts. | ||
| 1.4.2 | 2006-08-22 | DAAP client, MTP media device support, dynamic collection, custom Last.FM stations. | ||
| 1.4.3 | 2006-09-05 | AFT (Amarok File Tracking). | ||
| 1.4.4 | 2006-10-30 | Magnatune integration, 3 different ways of crossfading with Xine and helix engine. | ||
| 1.4.5 | 2007-02-04 | SHOUTcast streams, labels. | ||
| 1.4.6 | 2007-06-21 | new icon set, Rockbox support. | ||
| 1.4.7 | 2007-08-13 | updated icon and Cool Streams. | ||
| 1.4.8 | 2007-12-20 | Added/improved support for latest iPods (using libgpod3): 6th-Generation iPod Classic, 3rd-Generation iPod Nano, iPod Touch | ||
| 1.4.9 | 2008-04-09 | only released in Kubuntu, it was missing one important bug-fix, so it got immediately superseded by 1.4.9.1 | ||
| 1.4.9.1 | 2008-04-12 | updated translations and bug-fixes | ||
| 1.4.10 | 2008-08-13 | very important security update | ||
| 2.0 | 2.0.0 | 2008-10-23 | Complete redesign of interface, increased graphical features, KDE 4 support, first lifecycle for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X[6] |
See also
References
External links
- Amarok homepage
- #amarok on freenode
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