Amarok

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    Amarok
    Amarok
      Amarok is a music manager for KDE

    Amarok is a free, versatile and powerful music player for linux. The latest 2.x release series, often referred to as "Amarok2", is cross-platform (can be used on many platforms including linux, mac and windows) and implements a completely reworked codebase that will enable it to incorporate exciting new features as the release matures. The current stable release is version 2.0.2. The screenshots and feature list below refer to the imminent 2.1.0 release.


    Features

    Plays music :)

    "Listening to The Rain Song"

    Amarok2 can support most popular formats for music files. The actual list of formats is dependent on the codecs and audio backend in use on your system.

    Device Support

    "There's my iPod"

    Currently, basic iPod and MTP device support are enabled if the required packages are installed. This will be improved upon and more devices will be supported in the future releases.

    Configurable Context View

    "Custom context view"

    The centerpiece attraction in Amarok2, the context view can can automatically fetch contextual information about the currently playing song (such as album art, lyrics or Wikipedia information) from the internet and display them.

    More Internet Services

    "Some internet services shown on the left pane"

    Amarok2 opens the gateway to a rich multimedia experience on the internet. Sporting interfaces to services such as Ampache music servers and mp3tunes lockers, it allows you to listen to your music from anywhere in the world. You can sample and buy music from stores such as Jamedo and Magnatune. With integrated last.fm functionality, you can scrobble your tracks, use last.fm features like statistics, charts and listen to radio streams customized to your music taste all from Amarok2. And that's just the beginning - you can add even more internet services using the Script Manager.

    Script Manager

    "I know Script fu!"

    Scripts are add-ons that allow you to extend Amarok2's functionality in innovative ways. Using the Script Manager, you can manage these scripts by allowing you to install/remove or enabling/disabling scripts you already have. You can also use the "Get More Scripts" feature to download new scripts submitted by other users.

    Cover Manager

    "Browsin' the covers"

    You can browse through your music collection using the nifty cover manager that displays the album art.

    Rating and scoring

    "But...But, I LOVE The Rain Song!"

    You can show your love for the songs by rating them. Amarok2 supports 1/2 star ratings, too. In addition, Amarok2 can calculate a score (a sort of guessed rating) depending on metrics such as how often you listen to or skip a song.

    Pop-Up Dropper

    "Or you could right-click, but this is cooler!"

    This is an innovative interface that offers contextual options (such as the ones you see in a right-click menu) that you can "drop" a song into. Grab a song and see it appear in the context view pane!

    Configurable Playlist View

    "The Playlist Layout Editor is flat-out awesome!"

    The currently loaded playlist is highly configurable and can show information about the songs in any form you like. If you prefered the "spreadsheet-view" found in Amarok 1.x series and other music players, you can have that, too!

    Dynamic Playlists

    "A little bit of this, a little bit of that..."

    Amarok2 allows you to create weighted random playlists that adhere to various criteria exactly ("Proportional bias") or approximately ("Fuzzy bias"). For example, you can create a playlist that's randomly populated by songs that are rated more than 3 stars and are approximately from around the year 1967!

    Interface

    Amarok2 sports a three-pane interface by default.

    The left pane

    "To the left, we have..."

    The left pane is tabbed and retractable. The first tab is the collection browser, which is the primary interface to your local collection. Attached devices will also show up here. There is a tab for all internet services that you have enabled. Here, you can browse listings of radio stations and podcasts; listen/subscribe to them, interact with your last.fm account, purchase music from online stores such as Jamendo and Magnatune and more. The Playlist tab allows you to create and manage dynamic and traditional playlists and podcasts. Finally, the files tab displays an integrated file browser.

    The central pane (Context View)

    "In the middle..."

    This is where all the action is. The pane contain applets that dynamically change to display context information about the song that is currently playing. You can see the rating, score and playcount of the currently playing song, other songs by the same artist that you have, the lyrics of the song, the wikipedia page on the artist and more. These applets can be added, removed or rearranged using the applet bar at the bottom of the pane.

    The right pane (Playlist View)

    "And on the right..."

    Amarok2 has the most configurable playlist of any music player in existence. While most offer a columnar layout as default and perhaps a few other fixed views for the playlist, Amarok2 puts the power in your hands to shape the playlist any way you see fit. To start you off, there are three example playlist layouts that you can use as starting points to create the layout that fits your flow the best.

    Rediscover your music!

    More Information