Center View and Music store integration

[Mark Kretschmann]

I do believe that there is a big difference between writing a normal plugin 
and integrating an online store. The store uses Amarok directly for it's 
business, generating cash with the application. Amarok is becoming a business 
platform for the store company.

Another argument is maybe more palatable for you: Many users have actually 
asked us if the Amarok project benefits from Magnatune sales. They *want* the 
project to benefit from their purchases, this has been my experience, because 
by using the shop they can buy their music, and at the same time donate to 
Amarok, for the same price as if they bought the music directly. It's a 
win/win situation for users and the project.

Leaving this financial argument aside, the other requirements I've listed are 
also of some importance, I believe.



On Thursday 01 March 2007 12:37, Martin Aumueller wrote:
> I'm not too happy with this kind of requirements for integrating music
> stores, and I don't think that we can justify them.
>
> I think Amarok should only care about providing the best possible user
> experience, not about making money. Ok, it's nice if we have some amount of
> cash, but if someone is willing to code and maintain a plugin, then it
> should be included with Amarok svn, no matter if we receive a share of the
> sales. If some music store promises to share its profits with us, then this
> might drive some developer to code a plugin for the store. But if there is
> some other motivation for doing so, then that's just as good. That's just
> how we handled plugins for media devices, and I don't think that we should
> deviate from this route for music stores. We don't expect to profit from
> the extra digital audio player sales to Linux users, which good media
> device support might create, either.
>
> On Thu Mar 1 2007, Mark Kretschmann wrote:
> > On Wednesday 28 February 2007 23:41, Bart Cerneels wrote:
> > > This is related to the results of the FOSDEM brainstorm session, mainly
> > > the Context View idea, which I'm re-branding the Center Pane.
> > >
> > > Now that the context browser is in the center and always visible it
> > > might be a opportunity to rethink it's concept.
> > > This is related to music stores because I don't think the current tree
> > > view browser will scale when music stores get a bigger catalog.
> > > Consider a music store that has a web-like interface, it's easier to
> > > browse, looks better, albumart, browsing through a catalog based on
> > > related artists, genres, recommendations, etc.
> > > To implement a store like that we need screen real estate. The only
> > > place I can think of that we have that is in the center pane.
> > >
> > > Now what is interesting is that, when implemented right, context and
> > > music stores are just themes for the Center Pane. A reminder: Themes
> > > control Widget that display data supplied by Scripts.
> > > The things we can show in the center pane are only limited by the
> > > complexity of the widget it uses.
> >
> > While we're at this topic, let me repeat my proposal that I had presented
> > on IRC:
> >
> > 1)
> > We need to create a set of minimum requirements for a store to be
> > included in Amarok. Requirements could include:
> >
> > * No DRM.
> > * Allows free preview of the music.
> > * Maybe also ethics: Is the store allowed to offer any kind of music
> > (e.g. Nazi music)?
> >
> > 2) The store must fullfill our minimum requirements, and make a deal with
> > us (we get a share from the sales, like we do with Magnatune).
> >
> > As a result, stores need to be *certified* by us, to be allowed to bundle
> > their store interface with Amarok. This also implies that we *cannot*
> > allow stores to offer plugins for download on their website, which are
> > loaded at runtime in Amarok. This would totally circumvent any of the
> > requirements I've listed above.
> >
> > All store plugins (be it C++ or a scripting language) should be certified
> > and bundled by us with Amarok, and ideally put into KDE SVN.

-- 
Mark