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Titre T h e U n u s u a l S u s p e c t s Do we really need more Open Source music players? What’s wrong with Banshee, Amarok and Rhythmbox? BORN OUT OF FRUSTRATION “Tomahawk was born out of frustration, frustration that the most widely usedmedia players were designedto solve problems of a different era. No longer do we needdesktop music players built 10 years ago that jam in CD ripping, label makers, device syncing, into a massive wadofcode that takes minutes to even launch.” Jason Herskowitz, part of the Tomahawk team, was brutally honest in enumerating the reasons for a new music player: • Social music services are fundamentally broken given that everyone uses different sources – can't there be an interoperability layer that enables users of different music services to easily share/listen? • Why can't I easily listen to all the music I have scattered across multiple computers, at multiple locations, from a single interface? • When I am reading a website that talks about a song, and I own that song, why can't I play my copy directly from that page? • Why can't I subscribe to, and import, playlist metadata from all over the web - and then have that resolve against any/all songs that I have access to? • Why do I have to listen to songs I have on my hard drive, and songs from services I subscribe to, in totally different user experiences?
NOT REALLY A PROTEST Clementine creator David Sansome explained his reasons for starting the project. “I started coding Clementine in November 2009. I'djust upgradedmy distro to a new version which came with Amarok 2.0, andI decidedI really didn't like it. I triedto finda better music player, but I couldn't find anything that was as awesome as Amarok 1.4, which I'dbeen using since about 2005.” Mr. Sansome went on to clarify, “I wouldn't say Clementine was a ‘protest’against Amarok 2.0. I think Amarok has some awesome developers with some really passionate opinions about where they want their software to go and what they want it to look like. Open-source is really fun because it lets developers do what they enjoy with no strings attached.”
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USER INTERFACE Tomahawk has a dynamic two- or three-column user interface – depending upon the option selected. The central dashboard consists of three panes - ‘Recent Additions’, ‘Newest Stations and Playlists’, and ‘Recently Played Tracks’. The music controls are located at the bottom – with shuffle, repeat buttons, and volume control. There is a global search bar in the top right-hand corner. There are also ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ arrows that serve a function similar to those in browsers; indeed Tomahawk is like a browser albeit a musically inclined one. In a nutshell, the UI is straightforward, modern and intuitive, it has everything you need in a music player. One interesting point is that Tomahawk doesn’t support rating tracks, you simply ‘love’ a track – represented by a heart icon (Last.fm also has a similar system). The approach is interesting, some power users may feel the omission in making automatic playlists; however, I like the simplicity of the idea. Tomahawk has a notification icon that offers the standard ‘Play’, ‘Stop’, ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ track options. Clementine has a fixed three- column UI. The first column essentially consists of broad categories, you choose whether you wish to search, go to your local library, browse your hard drive, see connected devices, or use Internet related features. The second column then shows the options available within each of the categories. The third column has the standard music list interface with the inclusion of a unique moodbar. The list of music shown is a playlist. Clementine has both normal and automatic playlists. The music controls are again at the bottom and are similar to Tomahawk. Overall, the UI is simple enough but, compared to Tomahawk’s, seems a bit cluttered. Clementine also has a notification tray icon.
INTERNET INTEGRATION Here’s where Tomahawk excels. From the beginning, Tomahawk was designed to be a music player for a fully connected world. Tomahawk offers seamless integration with Last.fm, SoundCloud, Jamendo, Grooveshark, Spotify, and many more. Further, Tomahawk can identify other Tomahawks on the network and allow you to listen to your entire library from one location. Tomahawk uses the power of the Web to collect meta-data for your collection. It not only auto-magically retrieves album art but also has a feature called ‘Artist Page’ – which gives you a sufficient bio of the artistand his work. Further the ‘Artist Page’ points you to new music by listing ‘Related Artists’. Tomahawk is meant to be a social player - it allows you to see what your friends are listening to. Conversely, your friends can see what you’re listening to. If you don’t want the whole world to know which songs you’re listening to, you can choose ‘Listen Privately’ from the ‘Controls’ option in the Universal menu. One criticism I have is that ‘Listen Privately’ should be the default option, saving users from any hidden surprises.
The most important feature of Tomahawk, however, is that it provides an interoperability layer for music. If you chance upon a song while browsing through the albums, and you have a copy of it on your own library, just click on it and Tomahawk will find it and start playing. Whenever you open a song, Tomahawk shows you the rest of the songs in the album in gray if you don’t own them. Incomplete meta-data is simply not a problem for this music player. Clementine is not far behind either with its easily accessible ‘Song Info’ and ‘Artist Info’. It uses the Web to provide lyrics for the song, artist bio, and similar artist recommendations. It too offers integration with Last.fm, Jamendo, SoundCloud, Spotify, Magnatune, and even Google Drive. Even though its UI may not be quite as avant-garde as Tomahawk’s, it’s Internet integration is commendable and certainly at par.
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ADDITIONAL MUSINGS AND DEVICE SUPPORT If Tomahawk was a person, he would have been an extrovert. With integration options including Google Talk, Jabber and Twitter, and the ability to chat with one’s friends, you may be excused for wondering whether it’s a music app or social networking client. However, snide remarks aside, the feature is a perfect option for users who want to share great music with their friends from the comfort of their music players. Tomahawk disappointed me by failing to recognize my music player; this is one of the few blemishes in an otherwise sterling application.
Clementine has an interesting moodbar feature which looks great and is perhaps a slight nod to the ability of music to influence our feelings. Clementine also has a slightly unusual and eccentric sense of humour. In the ‘Extras’ menu entry, it has ‘Rain’, ‘Kittens’, ‘Make it so!’ and ‘All Glory to the Hypnotoad!’ options which, when clicked, cause some hilarious effects. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you beforehand, but Clementine’s quirkiness clearly shines through. Clementine connected with my Samsung music player immediately. It took about a minute to scan my 300+ song collection. One small irritation was due to Clementine’s playlist-based song view. If I wanted to view my MP3 player’s entire music collection in the main pane, I would have to first drag them to the the playlist.
CONCLUSION Clementine and Tomahawk are certainly two very good alternatives to the standard troika of Linux music players. Clementine is a great feature-rich music player that has a good interface, decent Internet integration and device support. Tomahawk, on the other hand, is one of the most innovative music players I have ever seen; it seamlessly integrates meta-data from the Web and music from your local collection into a pleasurable (and even social) listening experience. Though I love the quirky Clementine, the winner of this showdown is Tomahawk for its unique Internet-based approach to music organization.
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SUMMARY - CLEMENTINE The Good • Great device support. • Unique and aesthetically pleasing moodbar feature. • Great Internet integration options. The Bad • Slightly cluttered UI. • Playlist-based music management can sometimes be irritating. Website: http://www.clementine-player.org/ Available on: Linux, Windows and Mac OS X
SUMMARY - TOMAHAWK The Good • Amazing Internet integration - shows artist info, album art and recommends other artists (without even signing into Last.fm). • Social features reflect the new fully-connected world, and will make listening to music an even more joyful experience. • Seeing what your friends are listening to allows you to discover more great music. • Clean, modern UI that looks amazing. The Bad • Device support issues. • ‘Listen Privately’ should be the default option. Website: http://www.tomahawk-player.org/ Available on: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X THE WINNER OF THIS SHOWDOWN IS Tomahawk!