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May 26, 2005

ICYG Update

Even before I've delved too far into my new PHP/MySQL book I've got ideas as to how I want to architect the next version of ICYG. I'll leave the Python song-picking scripts intact for the time being, and will work on creating a database backend that's populated with info from songs as they're played. That backend will first be used to power a new PHP version of the ICYG website, hosted (along with the database) on this web host. It'll be nice to get the website off my home server, even though the stream will have to continue to be generated there.

The other advantage of moving to a DB-based system will be the ability to add interactive features to the station. The first would be what I've always wanted - some sort of voting system for club members that would give each track weight. Many systems call that "karma"; I think I'd call it "mojo". ;) I also want to implement a buzz-bin type feature, probably based on the newness of the song (taking into account both when it was uploaded and its date tag).

Ross's upload of iTunes AAC files made me realize one of the reasons I've used Vorbis for so long is that it's got decent quality, a completely open format, and enough application support for me to be able to extensively use it for ICYG and computer-based listening. I notice its super gapless support everytime I listen to an MP3 encoding of an album with seamless track changes. ;) I don't see much of a point in natively supporting codecs/containers other than MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC. They cover the bases -- lossy vs. lossless, varying hardware support, excellent software support -- well enough. Transcoding stuff into Vorbis or MP3 to take advantage of ICYG's tag-parsing features shouldn't be a big deal, right?

Something I'll do in the short term is add support for CD Universe links that's similar to my support for Amazon links. I've used them occasionally, but my interest is peaked since I just signed up as an affiliate. CDU seems to have better availability on more obscure titles.

I'm not ready to re-add support for member-created shows yet, but one thing I'll probably do is schedule "member spotlight" hours where an hour or two is drawn from a single member's submissions. Don, Scott, Brian, Ross, and I all have enough uploaded to support this.

Posted by Alex Harden on May 26, 2005 8:58 PM |

Comments

Thought I'd point something out that I found. I was using Kung-Tunes to create a text file which was then automatically ftp'd to my server and included via PHP. The developer stopped development of this app because of something even more extensive. It's called Audioscrobbler. There's a plugin for quite a few music apps and a pretty extensive music/social network via the site. You can see my profile up to this point here.

Posted by: Jonathan Smith | May 26, 2005 10:51 PM

Good idea. I've heard of Audioscrobbler a number of times over the last year or two, but never used it. I think the service has been through some fits and starts. It looks nice, and I think there's a FB2K plugin for it, so perhaps I'll get ICYG talking to that. Will post a link when I do.

Thanks!

Posted by: aharden | May 26, 2005 11:00 PM

I went ahead and signed up and installed the plugin in the ICYG FB2K instance. The profile page is http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/ICYG/. One thing that will definitely skew the stats is the short little promos I play every few songs. It's no replacement for the ICYG site (custom tag parsing/purchase links, etc.) but it's nice to have an online repository for the station history that's free. :)

I'll take a look at it tomorrow to see if the stats are getting out there.

Posted by: aharden | May 26, 2005 11:22 PM

It's alive...

Posted by: aharden | May 27, 2005 7:41 AM

I noticed that I had signed up for this service a while back. This service for "listeners" of streams like ICYG does not function correctly. It picks up individual tracks fine, but when I listen to ICYG it does not register that I am listening to anything.

Still, having it directly attached to ICYG is very cool. Just wish these services could get them to correctly log what users are listening to. They seem to key on the wrong features, within iTunes the plugin seems to key on the Library listing rather than the track playing, because the correct tracks on ICYG do show up in the display. So it has to be possible to have this feature to work correctly.

Posted by: Scott | May 28, 2005 12:27 PM

Curious, I decided to search on streams on AudioScrobbler. It seems they will never be supported. They claim that streams do not represent one's musical tastes. I really disagree with this, I think since I run a webserver on my Mac I might write my own application that reports what I am listening to.

I believe I have only ever used one of these services that reported on streams. I think it is more a result of the developers having more difficulty reporting at this level than it is a choice by them.

Anyway, Audioscrobbler is pretty cool, but I whole heartedly disagree with them refusing to support streams. I listen to a stream because that is the musical taste I prefer, if I did not prefer the taste of music being played I would not be listening.

Posted by: Scott | May 29, 2005 4:09 PM

If you're talking about Audioscrobbler's plugins not passing along the metadata from your player if you're listening to a stream, I can see their point. Besides the point you mentioned, there are technical problems as well - not all streaming formats pass well-formed metadata. Metadata on MP3 streams is completely free-form, for example.

However, I think the argument could be made that the architects of Audioscrobbler aren't accounting for (perhaps even unaware of) the concept of a group-programmed stream like ICYG.

Posted by: aharden | May 29, 2005 9:15 PM

Yes I am talking about AudioScrobbler's plugin, I wrote an 11 line bash/apple script that extracts the data from your stream if I am listening to a stream otherwise it prints out the mp3 or other audio track I am listening to. I am sorry but if I can do that in one evening, how difficult can it be to program an if statement that checks for the data and if it does not exist echo such? I guess I am just a perfectionist. ;)

No matter, gave me something to tinker with. You got me thinking and now I might save the info in a MySQL database. Something to look at down the road, not sure if I want to goto that extent yet.

Posted by: Scott | May 29, 2005 11:08 PM

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