Clementine Music Player & ProjectM

    Out of all the great music players out the Clementine is a personal favorite. On Linux we have quite a few options for a top notch music player and library manager, there is Banshee which is written with mono which is a cross-platform programming language that takes minimal code changes to target multiple platforms.  While Banshee used to be the default on some systems it isn't the default on many nowadays as allot of the Linux distros have have decided to shy away from packaging the mono framework with their installation. Instead you'll most likely be Rythmbox if you using a GNOME based install or Amarok if your using a KDE base install. All of the music players with the exception of Rythmbox can be installed on Winows as well. If I wasn't using Clementine I'd definitely be using Amarok, there are a ton of cool features that aren't necessary but really nice, like the wikipedia article about the track that's playing for example.

Podcasts with gPodder

    gPodder downloads free audio and video content (podcasts) for you Listen directly on your computer or on your mobile devices. If you have an android device you can follow my guide at Android Relish on Podax Podcasting & gPodder. In the guide it mentions the gPodder.net service and Podcast Directory, the desktop and mobile version can both be synced with the free gPodder.net service. The website has been unreachable once but aside from that there isn't a better place to discover and manage good podcasts.

 gPodder is available for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS X and mobile devices like the Nokia N810, N900 and N9. Some of the highlights are that it has support for RSS, Atom, YouTube, Soundcloud, Vimeo and XSPF feeds, as well as exporting to OPML which can then be imported on an Android device. Easily synchronize between devices with full gpodder.net API support. gPodder is also easy customization with its' choice of supporting Python as it's extension language.

Homepage: http://gpodder.org/
Download: http://gpodder.org/downloads
Documentation: http://gpodder.org/documentation
Source Code: http://gpodder.org/wiki/Git
Wiki: http://wiki.gpodder.org/

Tutorial for using the gPodder.net for syncing multiple devices.

Android Relish - Podax Podcasts & gPodder

Mozilla Launches Popcorn Maker

    Popcorn Maker is an HTML5 web app for combining web media with images, text, maps, and other dynamic web content. Its appearance is unique, but not unfamiliar, providing a timeline-based video editing experience for the web. Once created, Popcorn Maker hosts remixes as simple HTML pages in the cloud, which can be shared or embedded in blogs or other sites. Furthermore, every remix provides a “Remix” button, allowing anyone watching to become a creator themselves by using the current remix as a base project for their own creation. This “view source” experience for web media is a key aspect of Popcorn Maker’s goals as part of the larger Mozilla Webmaker project.

    On a technical level, Popcorn Maker is the combination of a number of separate projects, each heavily influenced by the “12 factor” philosophy: a node.js-based web service called Cornfield; a JavaScript framework for creating highly-interactive web apps; and Popcorn.js, with a set of custom Popcorn.js plugins.


Watch one of the creators of Popcorn Maker explain the project


See an example in action


Make something with Popcorn Maker today: Popcorn Maker

More info about the code and development team and process

Repositories
https://github.com/mozilla/butter
https://github.com/mozilla/popcorn-js

Bug Tracker

https://webmademovies.lighthouseapp.com/projects/65733-butter/overview

Mixxx - DJ Software Review

    Mixxx has everything you need to start making DJ mixes in a tight, integrated package. Whether you're DJing your next house party, spinning at a club, or broadcasting as a radio DJ, Mixxx has what you need to do it right.

    Best of all it's Open Source, free and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux!

Here is a quick 5 minute review of Mixxx by InfinityGalatic (who's been doing Linux App reviews on youtube). He is using the Ubuntu Linux Operating System which is also free and Open Source.



Links:
Download: Mixxx DJ Software http://www.mixxx.org

Download: Ubuntu Linux http://www.ubuntu.com

Old Post featuring Mixxx http://openrelish.blogspot.com/2011/10/dj-software.html

The Internet Archive Offers Over 1 Million Torrents

    The Internet Archive has seeded over 1,000,000 torrents of creative commons and public domain media, as well as complete websites

    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". The Internet Archive permanent handles the storage of and free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public-domain books. The only problem is that it costs so much to share that infomation with direct downloads, torrents are the perfect way to share this legal content.

    Torrent is a protocol for computers to communicate and share files in such a way that as a user downloads a file they share it as well. When a user has the full download they can choose to seed the torrent longer or remove it from the torrent application while keeping the downloaded data. A single torrent file can have hundreds of files in it, and users can choose to download certain files or the whole torrent.

     A torrent file only works with a torrent downloading program. The Opera web browser can handle torrent files and I'd recommend using Opera, it has allot of good features and is secure. If your running a Linux operating system there is most likely a torrent application installed by default. For windows users the best torrent programs are Azureus which is open source and hosted by sourceforge.net it is also a torrent browser and media player. Utorrent also has torrent browsing capabilities but is more lightweight.

Internet Archive blog post - 1000000-torrents-of-downloadable-books-music-and-movies
Internet Archive - Torrent Hotlist
Internet Archive - Torrents Over a Million Books

Music Sites for Digital Artists

    Creating a multimedia piece online is relatively easy now, with the rise of Youtube videos, and sites such as Qik and Animoto, make publishing multimedia content even easier. One of the problems many digital creatives face, is music licensing. If you want to use / share someone else’s music, you have to be careful.

    Regardless if you live for music or make a living off of music we can all enjoy Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.

    Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. By allowing your work to be available to millions of other creators on the web, you might be responsible for the next big thing.

Here are a couple of artists that use Creative Commons licenses

BradSucks
http://www.bradsucks.net/
Brad Sucks is the name of a one man band. All MP3′s are available for free download and can be mashed up and used in youtube videos / animations etc.

Josh Woodward
http://www.joshwoodward.com/music/
Using the same strategy as Brad Sucks, Josh Woodward offers free albums licensed under Creative Commons.

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts
http://ghosts.nin.com/

    Those are just a couple of the popular artists using the Creative Commons License, a great place to discover new artists is Jamendo. Linux users should be familiar with this site, as access to it is a feature built in more then one music application by default on the Linux desktop.
Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com/en/

When browsing for some music to add to your collection go with Creative Commons with help from this list of music sites.

Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/audio/

CCMixter
http://ccmixter.org/
ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.

SectionZ
http://www.sectionz.com/cc.asp
An electronic music community that offers Creative Commons-licensed tracks from genres like IDM, drum ‘n’ bass, and ambient.

Audionautix
http://www.audionautix.com/html/free_music.html

FreePD
http://freepd.com/
This site currently has 19 pieces of music dedicated to the Public Domain, contributed by 1 composer.

SoundClick
http://www.soundclick.com/business/license_list.cfm
SoundClick offers a search engine interface to find creative commons mp3′s.

Magnatune
http://www.magnatune.com/

Personally a big fan of the Magnatune approach to music distribution. Their offering allows you to use music in your project, whilst it is being created, then once you create something commercial, you can move to a commercial license.

FreeSound
http://www.freesound.org/ -  Freesound's focus is only on sound, not songs, which separates it from the crowd. They provide collections of sounds as w

Overview

    This is only scratching the surface. There are plenty of brilliant artists out there using creative commons licensing, now at least we have some great sites emerging online to find them. If you offer you music open source, stick a link in the comments for me, and I’ll get you added in here.