Magnatune integration and Amarok2 progress

As a relative newcomer to the Amarok project, I thought it was high time that I posted a little blog about my work on the project.

I wrote the integrated Magnatune store that was included in Amarok 1.4.4 and have been maintaining and improving this part of Amarok since. Originally just a silly little "what if" idea, it quickly grew into a pretty big project in its own right, and for me this has been a tremendous learning experience.

Currently, as you no doubt know if you are reading this, we are busy porting Amarok to Qt4 and KDE4. My main focus is of course the porting of the Magnatune store. All in all it appears the the Magnatune store has survived the switch to Qt4/KDE4 with very little adverse effect compared to some other parts of Amarok. Below is a screenshot of the Magnatune store as it currently looks in Amarok2 (which is very similar to the way it looks in 1.4.5).






A number of things still do not work, but it is currently possible to download the Magnatune database, browse tracks and get info about artists and albums. Playing preview tracks do not work as Amarok2 still cant handle streams and purchasing only works right up to the point where the actual download is to take place (which is a bit of a drag if you have just payed for an album... Good thing the confirmation email has already been sent at this point!).

It will take a while to get the music store fully functional in Amarok2, but when that is done, I have a number of ideas for improvements, from minor additions such as a parser for pre Amarok Magnatune purchases emails so these albums can be added to the re-download manager, to major undertakings such as a more generic framework for adding online music stores/services to Amarok.

On a more general note, I am really exited about the move to Qt4/KDE4 as it should enable a series of exiting new features for Amarok and allow us to reach more people through ports to additional platforms which will hopefully allow more people the experience an alternative to the mainstream record labels. It probably won't instantly revolutionize the music industry, but one can dream...