[Feedback] eMusic download store for Amarok

[Nikolaj Hald Nielsen]

Hi Elias

The idea of integrating the eMusic store into Amarok in a way similar
to what has been done with Magnatune.com comes up every once in a
while.

As I see it, there are a few issues with this.

1. eMusic is a subscription based service, whereas Magnatune is based
on purchases of single albums. I do not know how to make this work
from within Amarok, although this should be possible.

2. Magnatune (and the other services I am working on at the moment)
all offers free full length previews of all their content. This means
that the service provides value even to users who do not purchase
anything. eMusic, as far as I can tell, does not.

3. I read through the affiliate program link you sent, and it seems to
me to be entirely related to setting up websites that give away free
trial accounts. This is quite different from having access to all
content and information from within Amarok like it is the case with
Magnatune.

4. This point is entirely my personal feelings, but I would much
rather spend energy promoting online music services that embrace
openness more than eMusic does. I feel that Amarok does have a
commitment to free software, and services grounded in the Free Culture
movement are more compatible with this philosophy in my opinion. (and
tend to give the artists a much better deal). Magnatune.com,
Jamendo.org, and ccMixter.com are examples of such sites.

5. I created the integrated Magnatune store and I am responsible for
most of the work that goes into adding additional services to Amarok
at the moment, and at least until after Amarok 2.0 has been released,
I do not have time to work on this directly. I am in the process of
creating a service framework that should make this kind of integration
much simpler, but currently it only supports services with a
downloadable "inventory" that can be parsed to a database, and eMusics
catalouge is much too large for this approach to work. At some point
the framework will handle services that dynamically fetches data from
external sources, but it is not quite there yet.

If the technical difficulties can be overcome, and you feel like
taking on this challenge, I will not discourage you from trying, as
this was how I got started on the integrated Magnatune store in the
first place, but I wanted to point out the issues above.

I do feel however, that this kind of integration would require the
active participation of eMusic, as Amarok is not just another website
signing up for their affiliate program, and I am unsure if this is
something eMusic would be willing to commit to.

- Nikolaj

On 7/16/07, eeck at verizon.net <eeck at verizon.net> wrote:
> Elias Bull hat eine Nachricht mit dem Kontaktformular auf
> http://amarok.kde.org/de/contact geschickt.
>
> I use the eMusic online music store, and would like to have a store
> integrated in Amarok, similar to the Magnatune store. I would be happy to
> try to write the code for this, or turn it over to more experienced hands.
> I asked eMusic about access to their database, and they said to become an
> affiliate and then I should email someone about getting the xml content
> feed. Becoming an affilliate also pays the affiliate $6 for every person
> directed to eMusic.
> The details are here:
> www.emusic.com/affiliate/index.html
>
> And the affiliate signup page:
> https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchanti
> d=1442983
>
> I think that Amarok should register for the affiliate program and get the
> money, rather than me. If you decide to register, please email me back so I
> can email Matt Zerbo, the marketing guy, asking him to approve the account
> created by Amarok and to send the link for the content feed to you.
> Thank You,
> Elias Bull
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