Software:Amarok

Short description: Free and open source music player

Amarok

Original author(s)	Mark Kretschmann
Developer(s)	KDE
Initial release	June 23, 2003 (2003-06-23)
Stable release	2.9.71 (January 31, 2021 (2021-01-31)) [±]
Written in	C++ (Qt)
Operating system	Unix-like, Windows
Type	Audio player
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Website	amarok.kde.org

Amarok /ˈæmərɒk/ is a free and open-source music player, available for Unix-like, Windows, and macOS systems. Although Amarok is part of the KDE project, it is released independently of the central KDE Software Compilation release cycle. Amarok is released under the terms of the GPL-2.0-or-later.

History

The project was originally started by Mark Kretschmann as a means of improving 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 interface was created based upon the idea of a two-pane interface seen in Midnight Commander, and the first version of the software was based upon the idea 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.

The program was originally stylized as AmaroK, after a Mike Oldfield album of the same name. Later the artwork changed to reference Amarok, a wolf in Inuit mythology. The app's capitalization was changed to Amarok in June 2006.

A new major version of Amarok, version 2.0, was released on December 12, 2008. On June 3, 2009, version 2.1 was released, which reintroduced some of the 1.4 features which had been missing from the initial 2.0 release, and introduced some features such as native ReplayGain support.

In 2021, an alpha preview release for Amarok 3.0 was released, which plans to port the project to Qt5.

Features

Basic uses and functions

Amarok primarily serves as audio playback software, yet it serves many functions in addition to its basic purpose. Amarok can be used to organize a library of music into folders according to genre, artist, and album, and can also edit tags attached to most music formats, associate album art, attach lyrics, and automatically "score" music by keeping play count statistics.

Although a more technical list of features is listed below, some of the primary functions of Amarok are as follows:

• Playing media files in various formats including but not limited to (depending on the setup) FLAC, Ogg, Opus, 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 Vorbis, 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 play count which is stored in the database.
• 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.
• Music Management: Amarok allows users to organize and manage their music libraries. It supports a wide range of audio formats and offers features like automatic file organization, metadata editing, and album art management.
• Music Discovery: The software offers music discovery features that provide recommendations and suggestions based on the user's listening habits, making it easier to discover new music.
• Internet Radio and Podcasts: Amarok supports internet radio streaming and podcast subscriptions, allowing users to explore a wide variety of online audio content.
• Cross-Platform: While originally designed for Linux, Amarok is also available for other Unix-like operating systems and can be compiled for Windows as well.

From version 1.4.4 onwards, Amarok contains integration for Magnatune, a non-DRM digital music store, thus 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.

Technical features

• Three main window panes: playlist browser, collection and player window.
• Systray (panel notification area) icon support.
• Song collection, which includes specific folders on the filesystem.
  • Searching Files/Artists/Album/Genre in Collection can be performed using Simple and Advanced options
• Intelligent Playlists support (Dynamic Playlists)
• Integration with online services such as Magnatune, Jamendo, MP3tunes, Last.fm and Shoutcast.
• Songs can be rated both dynamically (based on how much the song is played) and by hand (giving a 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 to be moved around in the filesystem without Amarok losing track of the song statistics.
• Collection filter (newest songs, highest rated, most played, etc.).
• Support for Phonon engine. The backend of Phonon dictates which media types of Amarok can play and how they play. When using Xine, Amarok supports crossfading, but not seeking in seek pointless FLAC files. When using Gstreamer, Amarok supports seeking and gapless playback, but not crossfading.
• Support for moodbars.
• Uses TagLib for tags.
• Amarok can be controlled via D-Bus.
• Amarok Scripts, for example, when writing lyrics fetching plugins, can be written in QtScript.

Amarok 2.0

Amarok 2.0 was released on 10 December 2008. Additional features introduced include:

• Tight integration with online services such as Magnatune, Jamendo, MP3tunes, Last.fm and Shoutcast.
• Completely overhauled scripting API and plugin support to allow better integration into Amarok.
• Migration from the KDE 3 to KDE Software Compilation 4, and utilization of core technologies such as Solid, Phonon, and Plasma.

The user interface had been redesigned to make context information like lyrics and albums from the same artist more accessible and allow the user to decide which information is available by adding applets to the Context View in the middle.

Additions and changes since version 1.4

• Service Framework: This integrates networked music sources directly into Amarok. This includes online music stores, media servers, Web music lockers, and more. Due to this the users can get easy access to music provided by Magnatune, Jamendo, Last.fm, MP3Tunes Locker and Ampache.
• Biased Playlists: Biased Playlists extend the old Dynamic Playlists. They allow users to define an automatically populated playlist, based on specific probability-driven criteria called "biases".
• Context View: This view occupies the central place of the Amarok's window, replacing the old Context Browser from the 1.x series. It displays contextual information about the music one plays, like the album cover, track rating, labels, lyrics, artist information, related songs and artists and track mood.
• Other Features: Additional changes in Amarok 2.0 include a new SVG-based scalable theme, advanced scripting, dynamic collections, usability changes, updated media device handling, new podcast manager and support for more software platforms.

Forks and variations

Clementine: A fork of Amarok 1.4.

The transition from version 1.4 to version 2.0 was criticized by many users. In response to these updates, various new projects have been established, based on Amarok version 1.4.x.

• Amarok Live was a live CD Linux distribution created as a co-promotion with magnatune.com to promote the idea of Free Software and Open Music. The self-bootable CD was distributed with songs mostly selected from the Magnatune library by the developers.
• Clementine is a multi-platform fork of Amarok 1.4 to port it to the Qt 4 framework.
  • Strawberry Music Player is, in turn, a fork of Clementine, with regular updates as of 2023.
• Exaile is a GTK+ clone of Amarok 1.4.
• Gereqi is a clone of Amarok 1.4, written in PySide.
• Pana was a fork of Amarok 1.4. The intention of this fork was to keep the original program up to date. However, the author has since discontinued the project.

Release history

{{{2}}}

Major Version	Codename	Minor Version	Release date	Notes
0.5	Wocka	0.5.0	2003-06-23	Initial release
0.6	?	0.6.0	2003-09-20
0.7	The Last Zombie	0.7.0	2003-11-16	Added support for crossfading 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, improved 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 icons 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 bugfix, so it was 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	In the beginning	2.0.0	2008-12-10	Complete redesign of interface, increased graphical features, KDE 4 support, first (unstable) release for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.
	Magellan	2.0.1.1	2009-01-11	Searching and filtering in the playlist, reintroduction of queueing and stopping after track. (Immediately superseded 2.0.1 after a security bug was found in the initial release).
	Only Time Will Tell	2.0.2	2009-03-05	Bug and stability fixes.
2.1	Let There be Light	2.1.0	2009-06-03	Native ReplayGain support, a refactoring of context view, a playlist layout editor, and Amarok URLs and bookmarks.
	Oceania	2.1.1	2009-06-17	Mostly bug and stability fixes.
2.2	Sunjammer	2.2.0	2009-10-01	Layout editing, photo and video plasmoids, breadcrumb navigation in the collection browser, and much improved sorting and editing in the playlist.
	Weightless	2.2.1	2009-11-16	Faster collection scanner, podcast grouping, autofetching podcasts, SMB (samba) support in playlist.
	Maya Gold	2.2.2	2010-01-11	Moodbar support, custom labels for music, podcast refinements, and many bugfixes.
2.3	Clear Light	2.3.0	2010-03-15	Better podcast support and saved playlists, many small improvements.
	The Bell	2.3.1	2010-05-31	Automated Playlist Generator, two new applets for the Context View, cover fetching improvements, and many bugfixes and small improvements.
	Moonshine	2.3.2	2010-09-21	Dynamic Collection fixes as an attempt to work better with hard drives and USB mass storage devices, compatible with KDE's 4.5 release, other bugfixes.
2.4	Slipstream	2.4.0	2011-01-15	Conversion of tracks from one file format to another when copying from the file browser to the local collection, other bugfixes.
	Resolution	2.4.1	2011-05-08	Lyrics and iPod handling both improved along with remote collections, you can now better preview your changes in the Organize Collection feature, other bugfixes.
	Nightshade	2.4.2	2011-07-07	Enable drag and drop on collections to copy/move within Local Music and directly from the playlist, other bugfixes.
	Berlin	2.4.3	2011-08-01	Compiles with the LLVM frontend Clang, Enable drag and drop on collections to copy/move within Local Music and directly from the playlist, other bugfixes.
2.5	Earth Moving	2.5	2011-12-20	Re-written USB Mass Storage support, integrated Amazon MP3 store, other bugfixes. Windows version of Amarok officially stable.
2.6	In Dulci Jubilo	2.6	2012-08-13	A complete overhaul of the iPod and iPhone support, transcoding for iPod-like and USB Mass Storage devices.
2.7	A Minor Tune	2.7	2013-01-18	Preliminary version of the Nepomuk Collection plug-in. Statistics Synchronization between collections and with Last.fm. The File Browser's behavior and appearance was greatly improved. Audio CD playback was resurrected.
	Harbinger	2.7.1	2013-05-15	Fix inability to reverse "Use Music Location" decision and inability to clear database once all collection directories have been unset. Fix inability to create database when home directory contains non-ASCII characters.
2.8	Return To The Origin	2.8	2013-08-16	A fancy audio analyzer visualization applet. Smooth fade-out when pausing music. Many UI improvements and visual tweaks including better support for alternate color themes. Significantly enhanced MusicBrainz tagger. Power management awareness with a pair of new configuration options. Performance optimizations and responsiveness tuning all over Amarok.
2.9	Hibernaculum	2.9	2018-03-07	The last Qt4/KDE4.x based release before porting Amarok to Qt5 and Plasma5

External links

no:Liste over KDE-programmer#Amarok