What is the alien listening at – when it is the midnight hour?
Simple: I never know in advance.
At home I run a Slackware Linux server on which I have installed Icecast. Icecast is a Shoutcast-compatible (and Open Source) multimedia streaming server. In other words, my server outputs a continuous stream of music (exactly like Internet Radio stations work), which I can tune into with my desktop computer.
I have digitized a great deal of my music collection and Icecast enables me to listen to these songs – any mediaplayer that understands ShoutCast streams is able to tune in. On Linux I use XMMS, sometimes Audacious, but Amarok and even mpg123 work just as well. On the Windows computer in the living room I like WinAmp most.
Now, Icecast is nothing special, but I added a playlist manager which randomly selects songs from my collection (unless I select songs from the database myself). Every new song that plays over the speakers is a surprise 🙂
And how does that playlist look in the management console?
| ** now playing ** |
|
| Rubicon (Chris Kimsey Mix) Killing Joke For Beginners |
|
| ** on deck ** |
|
| Flowers of Love • Deine Lakaien • 1987 | |
| Domestic Departure • Au Pairs • Playing With A Different Sex | |
| [Untitled Track] • Chumbawamba • Singsong and a Scrap | |
| Spoeida Menneke • Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel • Special Manubre! | |
| You’re The Reason I’m Leaving • Franz Ferdinand • You Could Have It So Much Better With Franz Ferdinand [UK] | |
| Gib mir mehr • Unheilig • Gastspiel – CD 2 | |
| le Chant Du Cygne Du Serpent • Mecano • Snake Tales For Dragon | |
| I’m not angry • Elvis Costello • My Aim Is True | |
| Kill The Great Raven • Snakefinger • A Collection | |
| I Thought • Nitzer Ebb • Big Hit | |
| Slice Of Life • Bauhaus • The 4AD Dark Sessions Part 2 C | |
| Misty In Roots – Judas Iscariote 6.mp3 • Various | |
| Lam Phouthay • Jah Wobble And The Invaders Of The Heart • Molam Dub |
…
I hope you find inspiration in this shortlist. Surely it shows my age 🙂
Cheers, Eric
O yeah… about the title for this post. Me and my flatmates once held a big party in our student flat, and my choice of music was somewhat “off-beat”. We had covered part of the corridor wall with paper so that the guests had something to leave their comments on, and somebody wrote “Beter herrie dan kutmuziek“. Which translates to “Better to endure this freaking noise than having to listen to lousy music”. Not all of those present agreed but I owned the stereo! I still use the phrase as a slogan to describe my record collection.
Which playlist managers can you suggest?
Well, if I had to start from scratch I think I would try out XBMC. But so far, I have been very happy with Calliope (http://neil.verplank.org/opensource/calliope/) as my playlist manager. Unfortunately the development is excruciatingly slow and there is no automated setup process. But the setup instructions are good and the functionality it offers is exactly what I need.
Calliope is the playlist manager I was referring to in the article, but I forgot to mention its name…
Eric