amarok live music player launches with Magnatune songs

A few months ago, the developers of amaroK (the amazingly gorgeous music player for Linux and Unix, that really does give iTunes a run for its money) asked me about Magnatune cooperating on their new release of their version 1.3. Their idea was to make a self-booting linux image, that boots into a linux desktop, with amaroK running and some Magnatune music included. I suggested that their developers each choose their favorite Magnatune songs, and we'd make that into a compilation, and include the songs with amaroK live. Because we want to be open source friendly, the songs are in the Ogg Vorbis format, which is patent-free, as opposed to mp3.

Because each of the open-source developers picked their own favorites, this collection includes a wide variety of genres, from goth-age artist Shiva in Exile to medieval harpist Cheryl Fulton to the thrashing metal of Skitzo and the rock of Arthur Yoria, this is a great cross section of what's on Magnatune. Note that this new version of amaroK uses last.fm to make "other things you may like" recommendations, yet another example of the open source community producing great things through a culture of a openness.

Check out the full press release here or download it from here.