Amarok - Revision history

Niktika at 17:44, 12 February 2007

2007-02-12T17:44:08Z

Niktika at 17:40, 12 February 2007

2007-02-12T17:40:38Z

New page

'''Amarok''' (formerly known as '''amaroK''') is a [[free software|free]] and [[open source software]] music player for [[Linux]] and other [[Unix-like|varieties of Unix]]. It makes use of core components from the [[KDE]] desktop environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle, and is developed with a desktop-agnostic policy.

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 (album)|Amarok]]'' by [[Mike Oldfield]]. The 1.2 release originally had a [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13944216/ wolf icon], but this was later withdrawn due to similarity with the logo of [[WaRP Graphics]] Inc. Amarok's wolf logo has now been modified sufficiently so as not to infringe on WaRP's trademark logo, and re-instated.

Originally it was named '''amaroK''', with an [[upper-case]] "K" related to KDE application [[naming conventions]]. It was, however, renamed to Amarok in June 2006 after intensive discussions on usability at a KDE-based [[business conference|conference]], K3M, in May the same year.

== 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 inferface 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, who also provided user interface insight and programming for the early 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 you play it. Thus, the first run of Amarok can be daunting for some users. Users that find the interface difficult to navigate due to the many features may hide some features (such as by closing tabs) but may simply prefer a simpler audio player. The abundance of features has also attracted some criticism that Amarok is resource-intensive or "bloated."

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]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[WAV]], [[WMA]], and [[Musepack]]. Note that Amarok will not play digital music files protected by [[digital rights management|DRM]], such as those purchased from the [[iTunes]] Music Store.
* Tagging digital music files (currently [[Ogg]], [[WMA]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[MP3]], and [[RealMedia]]).
* Associating cover art with a particular album, and retrieving the cover art from [[Amazon.com]]
* 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.
* Syncing, retrieving, playing, or uploading music to your digital music player, such as an [[iPod]] or [[Creative Zen]].
* 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.
* [[Podcasting]]

The current version of Amarok, 1.4.4 introduced the integration of the non-[[DRM]] digital music store, [[Magnatune]] so users can purchase music in [[Ogg]], [[FLAC]], [[WAV]] and [[MP3|MP3 VBR]] formats.

Note that some of these features depend on other programs or libraries that must be on your computer to operate. Furthermore, some of the features, such as support for newer iPods and AAC tag editing may only be accessible if Amarok is compiled from source, depending on how a particular distribution packages the software.

Additionally, although Amarok can be used with most Linux desktop environments, Amarok uses KDElibs and QT, so Linux users running environments such as [[GNOME]] rather than [[KDE]] will notice some quirks that are mostly cosmetic. Other projects, such as [[Exaile]] have been initiated to attempt to bring Amarok's functionality to a gtk-based program. But even under an environment like [[GNOME]] Amarok retains all of its functionality.

[[Image:Amarok2.png|thumb|right|Amarok 1.4.5 and Moodbar functionality]]
'''More Technical Features'''

* 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. (In betas, this feature was called Advanced Tag Features, and instead stored unique identifier in the song tags.)
** Collection filter (newest songs, highest rated, most played, etc.).
* Playback options:
** 10-band graphic [[equalization|equalizer]].
** Crossfading (for GStreamer, Xine and aRts).
** [[Gapless playback]] (MP3 and other codecs).
* Support for syncing, reading, and writing to the following digital music players: [[iPod]], [[iRiver]] iFP, [[Creative NOMAD]], [[Creative Zen]], [[Media Transfer Protocol|MTP]], [[Rio Karma]] and [[USB]] devices with [[VFAT]] (generic MP3 players) support.
* Support for several audio engines. The audio engine also dictates which media types Amarok can play.
** [[aRts]] (unmaintained since 1.3, and unlikely to return)
** [[GStreamer]] (disabled in 1.4 due to a lack of maintainer)
** [[Helix project|Helix]]
** [[Media Application Server]] (MAS)
** [[Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware]] (NMM)
** [[Xine|xine-lib]]
* Uses [[TagLib]] for tags.
* [[MusicBrainz]] support.
* Amarok can be controlled via [[DCOP]].
* [[Ruby programming language|Ruby]] can be used for scripting, for example, when writing lyrics fetching plugins.
* Support for [[Digital Audio Access Protocol]] and [[ZeroConf]].
* Integration with [[K3b]] for burning audio CDs.
* Support for [[KIO|kioslaves]]-based audio CD access. This allows CDs to be ripped to MP3 or Ogg Vorbis using Amarok's file browser or [[Konqueror]].

[[Image:Amarok.png|thumb|right|Amarok 1.4.3 and Wikipedia article functionality]]

==Easter Egg==
Playing a song with the [[Tag (metadata) | tag]] "title" as "Amarok" and "artist" as "Mike Oldfield" produces the following [[On-screen display | OSD]] popup:
<blockquote>
"One of [[Mike Oldfield]]'s best pieces of work, [[Amarok (album) | Amarok]], inspired the name behind the audio-player you are currently using. Thanks for choosing Amarok! Mark Kretschmann Max Howell Chris Muehlhaeuser The many other people who have helped make Amarok what it is"
</blockquote>

==See also==
{{portalpar|free software}}
*[[Comparison of media players]]
*[[meta:KDE and Wikipedia]]

==External links==
{{commons|Amarok}}
*[http://amarok.kde.org/ Amarok homepage]
*{{musicbrainz wiki|AmaroK|Amarok}}
*[http://amaroklive.com/ Amarok Live! - Amarok-centric LiveCD]
*[http://www.fugitivethought.com/projects/amarokcompile/ Guide to compiling Amarok from source without KDE]
*[http://www.jroller.com/page/nwinkler?entry=amarok_and_the_airport_express How-to: Streaming to the Airport Express under Linux] - Description on how to stream audio to Apple's [[AirPort|AirPort Express]] with Amarok under Linux

{{KDE}}

[[Category:Free audio software]]
[[Category:iPod software]]
[[Category:KDE]]
[[Category:KDE Extragear]]
[[Category:Linux media players]]
[[Category:Online music database clients]]
[[Category:Free media players]]
[[Category:MusicBrainz clients]]
[[Category:Podcasting software]]

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Amarok''' (formerly known as '''amaroK''') is a [[free software|free]] and [[open source software]] music player for [[Linux]] and other [[Unix-like|varieties of Unix]]. It makes use of core components from the [[KDE]] desktop environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle, and is developed with a desktop-agnostic policy.
+'''Amarok''' (formerly known as '''amaroK''') is a free software and open source software music player for Linux and other Unix-like. It makes use of core components from the KDE desktop environment, but is released independently of the central KDE release cycle, and is developed with a desktop-agnostic policy.
-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 (album)|Amarok]]'' by [[Mike Oldfield]]. The 1.2 release originally had a [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13944216/ 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 trademark logo, and re-instated.
+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 [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13944216/ 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 trademark logo, and re-instated.
-Originally it was named '''amaroK''', with an [[upper-case]] "K" related to KDE application [[naming conventions]]. It was, however, renamed to Amarok in June 2006 after intensive discussions on usability at a KDE-based [[business conference|conference]], K3M, in May the same year.
+Originally it was named '''amaroK''', with an upper-case "K" related to KDE application naming conventions. It was, however, renamed to Amarok in June 2006 after intensive discussions on usability at a KDE-based business conference|conference, K3M, in May the same year.
-== History ==
+[[Category:Media Players]]