amarok

Ever since I started on Linux, I’ve heard about Amarok and what a fine example of real quality it is.  I’ve known many people who swear by it; it IS the music player of GNU Linux.

Even so, every time I opened it, I would quickly decide that I just didn’t like graphical music players and I’d close it.

Lately a friend was looking for the music player for GNU Linux, so obviously I mentioned Amarok because…well, that’s the player to mention, right?  But before I installed it for her, I figured I should check it out myself.  Having someone ask for an app is great inspiration to actually sit down and learn something, and so I went into the desert, I wrestled the beast, and came out victorious and — by accident — loving Amarok.

Here’s how you too can run with the wolves (Amarok’s logo is a howling wolf, get it?)

1. Your Music Collection

Amarok starts by asking which (if any) folder you’d like to use as your main Collection.  A collection is simply a folder that Amarok will use by default when you want to browse your music; the best feature of amarok is that amarok isn’t going to re-arrange or encapsulate or manage anything.  Your data is safe and will remain untouched.

I created an amarok folder in my home folder and designated it as my playable music folder.  If you’re not ready to decide on a “Collection” folder yet, no worries; you can always set it later in Settings > Configure Amarok.

2. Your Layout

Amarok opens with a default layout that, frankly, I can’t imagine ever using.  Now, I used to apologize for this sort of thing; I’d say “well, it’s free software and…well, the programmer just didn’t have a visual sense…designers…skill…blah blah blah” but now, thankfully, I’ve come to my senses and realize that this is one of my favourite Free Software features: give me a canvas and let ME configure my application!  In this case, it’s not a blank canvas; it’s a cluttered canvas, but that’s OK too.

So the way to do the correct my Amarok layout is to first unlock the current one by unchecking View > Lock Layout

Now that the layout is unlocked, the usual Qt4 “unlock” and “close” buttons appear within each pane of the Amarok window.  I close the middle Context pane altogether; if I ever want that, I can activate it manually.  This leaves the media sources on the left and a space for playlists on the right.

You can also use a smaller toolbar via the View menu, and find lots more options in Settings > Configure Amarok.

Once you have a layout you like, use View > Lock Layout again to avoid accidentally closing one of your panels.

My Amarok Config

3. Using Amarok

Media Sources:
You can always browse your default music collections by clicking the leftmost folder icon just under the Music Sources label.  “Local Collection” will be whatever folder you defined as your default music folder, but you can always browse external drives or networked music shares as well.

In fact if you have an external music drive, you can enable that as a collection all its own, so that when you mount it, Amarok sees it and scans it for new music automagically.  You’ll see these kinds of options (use as collection, configure, and eject) when you mouse over the drive in Amarok.

Browse your music any way you please

Of course you can search your collection by using the search bar at the top of the Media Sources pane, and you can configure how you view the music (artist – album, or album – artist, and so on) with the little spanner icon on the right of the pane.

Playlists:

The top of the playlist pane is the same as the Media Sources; a search bar for filtering, and a spanner icon for view options.  In the very top left corner of the pane, however, there’s a handy list of pre-set, dynamic playlists, such as Last Played, Rating, Shuffle, and so on.  I don’t use these features myself but I like to know that they’re there.

The playlist area itself is a blank canvas; you can drag stuff from the Media Sources to the playlist area, and it will just keep adding tunes to play.  If it gets cluttered, you can hit the icon with the red X on it at the lower left of the pane; that clears the playlist area.

Conversely, maybe you create a playlist that you love and want to save forever; in that case, hit the little floppy disk icon instead and you can save the list.  You have two choices here; save to Disk or save to Database.  If you are one of those mix-tape type people and you want the playlist preserved in an easy-to-access format that you will always be able to get to even if you lose track of that install of Amarok, then save to disk.  I just save it to the Amarok database.

Amarokian Playlists

To load a saved playlist, go back over to the Media Sources pane, click-and-hold on the folder at the top left of the pane, and choose the Playlist view.  Choose the playlist you want to load, and listen to your music.

4. Preferences

There are lots and lots of ways to configure Amarok from the Settings menu.  You can configure every aspect of it.  Me, I have different needs from the same applications depending on which computer we’re talking about.  If it’s on my minimal-ish laptop, I like my apps to have a small footprint and stay out of my way; no overlays announcing what song is playing, small toolbars, no menu bars, no album cover thumbnails, collapsed view of albums, and so on.  If I’m on my nice big powerful workstation, I like the extra decoration (well, except the menu bar; those I always hate..control-M ftw), and I like the semi-transparent overlays announcing a new track.  The important thing is that you CAN configure it.  Poke around in the Settings menus, let yourself design your own application; that’s why you’re using Amarok and not some little push-over app that tries to do everything for you 😉

5. Plugins

I haven’t even discussed the plug-in architecture that you’ll enjoy with Amarok.  Find these in Settings > Conffigure Amarok > Plugins.  Many will already be active, but feel free to turn more on, or turn some off if you know you’ll not be using, say, an NFS or SMB music share.  Via the plugins, podcast and music store integration is possible, plus any variety of music share or music server you can possibly imagine.  And more is on the way, of course!

That’s it.  Amarok is now your music player.  Enjoy!