Incorporating A Media Player

[Melton Fox]

Webbo,

Inspired by the last 10 songs thread.

Is the technology available to incorporate a media player into the forum.

I don't mean embedding one, I mean in the same way that MSN users can see the tracks that are playing in another members media player.

Is there anyway in our username column that other members can see what tracks we are currently listening to in a given media player

 

[MHS]

I was thinking about something similar to this....

There's lots of different music that members listen to that I've never heard of. Webbo, is there anything you could install that would mean we could easily upload and listen to other peoples' music?

 

[webmaster]

Webbo,

Inspired by the last 10 songs thread.

Is the technology available to incorporate a media player into the forum.

I don't mean embedding one, I mean in the same way that MSN users can see the tracks that are playing in another members media player.

Is there anyway in our username column that other members can see what tracks we are currently listening to in a given media player

I think it would only be possible by hacking into the media player program and getting it to sent the info to the website, maybe there are add-ons that will do this, but I don't know of any.

 

[webmaster]

There's lots of different music that members listen to that I've never heard of. Webbo, is there anything you could install that would mean we could easily upload and listen to other peoples' music?

I think there's a radio station add-on for the forum which would allow people to upload stuff, but it's not legal to use it without having a broadcasting licence.

 

[Melton Fox]

I'm not bothered about sharing, more of a voyeur type of interest really as to who listens to what and also letting people know what I listen to without typing it

 

[Han]

a few of my friends used to use audio scrobbler (here) which has now changed to lastfm (here)

basicly you download it and it records everything onlien. what you listen to, how often you listen to songs and builds up charts and thing (if you want to)

more importantly, for what you're talking about, i remember it produced an image of your last 3/5 played songs (or something very similar) that updated automaticly so that you could link to it using tags and you don't have to change the url everytime you play a different song. similar idea to sloganiser they use the same url for each update/different picture. my friends then put this image in their signature on forums.

but as you can't have pictures in sigs on here, you could put the picture on your user page then link to that in your sig.

I've never downloaded the software myself because i can't be arsed. but it may be useful for yourself. i know it got people talking about music a lot on the mosh messageboard.

is that clear enough to understand?

 

[Han]

more info

Last.fm user can build up a musical profile using two methods: by listening to their personal music collection on a music player application with an Audioscrobbler plugin, or by listening to the Last.fm internet radio service, usually with the Last.fm Player. Songs played are added to a log from which personal top artist/track bar charts and musical recommendations are calculated. The user's page also displays Recently Played tracks, and these are available via web services, allowing users to display them on blogs or as forum signatures.

from wikipedia, link

 

[Melton Fox]

Will be looking into it Nathan, thanks

 

[Jeff]

Webbo,

Inspired by the last 10 songs thread.

Is the technology available to incorporate a media player into the forum.

I don't mean embedding one, I mean in the same way that MSN users can see the tracks that are playing in another members media player.

Is there anyway in our username column that other members can see what tracks we are currently listening to in a given media player

Looks like we have four options if people want this feature.

1. Find a way to use the data provided by the site in Nathan's post. This will require people to register for a site and install special software if they want to use this feature. I can probably hack the forum to then use the images provided by last.fm, probably displayed below the user's avatar. This may slow down the forum though. If I can't make the necessary changes to the forum people could put it in their profile or their user page instead.

2. There's an add-on available for this forum which will include a box at the bottom of each new post, where you can type what you're currently listening to. The good thing about this is that it doesn't need any special software on your PC. But obviously the downside is that it isn't automatic, you have to type it in.

3. There's an add-on for this forum that will automatically display the last song you listened to if you use Winamp as your music player, and have a special Winamp plug-in installed. The problem with this is that it requires you to use a media player you might not have (or like), and you have to install a special plug-in. But once you've done that everything should be automatic.

4. The forum stays as it is, and if you want to tell people what you're listening to, posted in the music forum.

 

[Melton Fox]

Option 1 - looks good if it doesn't slow the forum down

Option 2 - there's nothing to stop us doing this at the bottom of each post anyway

Option 3 - Don't like Winamp, WMP all the way for me

Options 1 or 4 for me

 

[newtonfox]

number sounds good but so dose number 4 why not just have a on site radio ,one that plays anything and everything

 

[Jeff]

number sounds good

?

why not just have a on site radio ,one that plays anything and everything

That's not what MF was asking for.

There are plenty of online radio stations, I could add a feature that would allow people to access them from this site, if there was a big enough demand.

 

[newtonfox]

sorry number 1 jeff

 

[Lboro fox]

3 sounds spot-on for me, but i am a winamp user.

 

[Han]

never even seen what winamp looks like let alone used or downloaded it.

option 3 is the only one i wouldn't use.

option 2 is the easiest. although it does mean that any thread could suddenly change into a music discussion. am i right in understanding that when you type in what you're listening to, it will only be visible on that post? or will it update on every post you've made when you change it? if not the latter then i think it would be a bit pointless.

 

[Joe_Fox]

audio scobbler is as far as i can see, a bit of a waste of time.

 

[webmaster]

audio scobbler is as far as i can see, a bit of a waste of time.

Why?