Archive
Spotify for Linux
I tried Spotify today for the very first time. Not bad :) “Spotify is a commercial music streaming service… Music can be browsed or searched by artist, album, genre, playlist, or record label. Paid “Premium” subscriptions remove advertisements and allow users to download music to listen to offline.” (source)
Visit https://www.spotify.com, register for free, then install the Linux client. It works well. So far I’ve used Pandora.com, but Pandora is not available in my country, thus I need to use a US proxy if I want to listen to it. Spotify, on the contrary, is available at us, so there is no need to do such tricks. And it’s free.
(Thanks to gegerigo for showing me Spotify on his machine.)
a terminal-based YouTube player
mps-youtube is a terminal-based YouTube player and downloader. If you use YouTube a lot for listening music, then you must give it a try.
Screenshot:
Digitally Imported station URLs
Problem
You want to listen to Digitally Imported radio channels from command line for instance. For this you need the URL of the stations but it’s somewhat hidden on the web interface.
Solution
There is a public list of stations at http://pub7.di.fm/. You can write pub1, pub2, …, pub7 in this address.
I wrote a quick and dirty script that extracts station URLs (see the script here).
The output of the script is here (download the list here):
(01) http://pub7.di.fm/di_ambient Ambient - a blend of ambient, downtempo, and chillout (02) http://pub7.di.fm/di_bigroomhouse Big Room House - The most uplifting, floor-filling Big Room House! (03) http://pub7.di.fm/di_breaks Breaks - a fine assortment of trance and house breaks (04) http://pub7.di.fm/di_chillhop ChillHop - Trip Hop infused, downtempo nujazz and chillout beats. (05) http://pub7.di.fm/di_chillout Chillout - ambient psy chillout, check out our trippy flavors! (06) http://pub7.di.fm/di_chilloutdreams Chillout Dreams - relax to the sounds of dream and ibiza style chillout (07) http://pub7.di.fm/di_chiptunes Chiptunes - Playing the best chiptunes and video game music. (08) http://pub7.di.fm/di_classiceurodance Classic EuroDance - Finest imported cheese on the net! (09) http://pub7.di.fm/di_classiceurodisco Classic EuroDisco - Relive the sounds of Euro & Italo Disco. (10) http://pub7.di.fm/di_classictrance Classic Trance - relive the classic trance hits!! (11) http://pub7.di.fm/di_classicvocaltrance Classic Vocal Trance - Classic fusion of trance, dance, and chilling vocals together! (12) http://pub7.di.fm/di_clubdubstep Club Dubstep - Enjoy the liquid sounds of Dubstep (13) http://pub7.di.fm/di_clubsounds Club Sounds - the hottest club and dance tunes 24/7 (14) http://pub7.di.fm/di_cosmicdowntempo Cosmic Downtempo - A downtempo journey into the cosmos (15) http://pub7.di.fm/di_darkdnb Dark DnB - A twisted blend of heavy hitting Dark Drum and Bass! (16) http://pub7.di.fm/di_deephouse Deep House - Only the sexiest, silky smooth and groovy Deep House. (17) http://pub7.di.fm/di_deepnudisco Deep Nu-Disco - The new sounds of Deep Disco! (18) http://pub7.di.fm/di_deeptech Deep Tech - Deeper shades of House and Techno with Dub and Blues influences. (19) http://pub7.di.fm/di_discohouse Disco House - Grooviest Disco House hits on the planet! (20) http://pub7.di.fm/di_djmixes DJ MIXES - non-stop DJ sets featuring various forms of techno & trance! (21) http://pub7.di.fm/di_downtempolounge Downtempo Lounge - Relax with some Downtempo grooves. (22) http://pub7.di.fm/di_drumandbass Drum and Bass - tasty assortment to satisfy your drum and bass fix! (23) http://pub7.di.fm/di_dubstep Dubstep - Dubstep hits and mixes!!!! (24) http://pub7.di.fm/di_eclectronica EcLectronica - An eclectic mixture of modern electronica. (25) http://pub7.di.fm/di_electrohouse Electro House - an eclectic mix of electro and dirty house (26) http://pub7.di.fm/di_epictrance Epic Trance - Epic & uplifting trance hits (27) http://pub7.di.fm/di_eurodance EuroDance - the newest and best of Eurodance hits (28) http://pub7.di.fm/di_funkyhouse Funky House - A fine selection of funky house music!! (29) http://pub7.di.fm/di_futuresynthpop Future Synthpop - Finest selection of futurepop and synthpop!! (30) http://pub7.di.fm/di_glitchhop Glitch Hop - Bit-crushing, dub-infused Hip Hop sounds! (31) http://pub7.di.fm/di_goapsy Goa & Psychedelic Trance - a voyage out of this world! (32) http://pub7.di.fm/di_handsup Hands Up - Dance to the best Hands Up hits!! (33) http://pub7.di.fm/di_hardcore Hardcore - DJ mixes, hard dance and NuNRG! (34) http://pub7.di.fm/di_harddance Hard Dance - are you ready for this! (35) http://pub7.di.fm/di_hardstyle Hardstyle - Banging Hardstyle for your ears!!! (36) http://pub7.di.fm/di_house House - silky sexy deep house music direct from New York city! (37) http://pub7.di.fm/di_latinhouse Latin House - Finest selection of Latin house!! (38) http://pub7.di.fm/di_liquiddnb Liquid DnB - Flowing with the freshest Liquid DnB!! (39) http://pub7.di.fm/di_liquiddubstep Liquid Dubstep - Mellow out to the rolling, soothing deep bass of Liquid Dubstep. (40) http://pub7.di.fm/di_lounge Lounge - sit back and enjoy the lounge grooves! (41) http://pub7.di.fm/di_mainstage Mainstage - The biggest DJs from the best festivals around the world! (42) http://pub7.di.fm/di_minimal Minimal - Finest selection of Minimal Techno & House!! (43) http://pub7.di.fm/di_oldschoolacid Oldschool Acid - Oldschool sounds of Acid Techno, House, and Trance! (44) http://pub7.di.fm/di_oldschoolelectronica Classic Electronica - old school techno, trance & rave! (45) http://pub7.di.fm/di_progressive Progressive - house, techno, and trance beats for your mind! (46) http://pub7.di.fm/di_progressivepsy Progressive Psy - progressive psychedelic grooves (47) http://pub7.di.fm/di_psychill PsyChill - downtempo psychedelic dub grooves, goa ambient, and world beats. (48) http://pub7.di.fm/di_russianclubhits Russian Club Hits - Russia's hottest club hits. (49) http://pub7.di.fm/di_sankeys Sankeys Radio - The sound of the white isle direct from Sankeys Ibiza. (50) http://pub7.di.fm/di_soulfulhouse Soulful House - house music selected from Paris with love! (51) http://pub7.di.fm/di_spacemusic Space Dreams - ambient space music for expanding minds (52) http://pub7.di.fm/di_techhouse Tech House - A fusion of techno and house with a deep, soulful vibe. (53) http://pub7.di.fm/di_techno Techno - From Minimal to Detroit to Schranz & all in between! (54) http://pub7.di.fm/di_trance Trance Channel - we can't define it! (55) http://pub7.di.fm/di_trap Trap - Electronic 808 beats with Hip Hop roots. (56) http://pub7.di.fm/di_tribalhouse Tribal House - Finest selection of tribal and tech house!! (57) http://pub7.di.fm/di_ukgarage UK Garage - The latest and greatest in UK Garage!! (58) http://pub7.di.fm/di_umfradio UMF Radio - UMF Radio (59) http://pub7.di.fm/di_vocalchillout Vocal Chillout - Enjoy the relaxing vocal sounds of ibiza chillout (60) http://pub7.di.fm/di_vocaltrance Vocal Trance - a fusion of trance, dance, and chilling vocals together!
Play a station with mplayer for instance: “mplayer http://pub7.di.fm/di_ambient“.
Update (20140703)
Another way is to extract all links and then filter the result:
$ ./get_links.py http://pub7.di.fm | grep -v "\.xsl$" | grep -v "http://http://" | grep "fm/" | sort -u
The get_links.py script is here.
Update (20141102)
As it was pointed out in the comments by one of our dear readers, Abel Omar Serú, the radio stations above are not top quality, i.e. the bitrate is 96 KBPS. However, following Omar’s tip, here is the premium list with an incredible 320 KBPS :)
Update (20150726): I got an email from Digitally Imported and they asked me to remove the list. So it’s no longer available.
Best movie/game techno soundtracks
Here I collect my favourite soundtracks. The entries come in no particular order. The list is not final, it will be extended over time.
Movies
- Mortal Kombat (half of the songs are metal that I don’t like but the other half is techno) [sample: Control]
- Hackers (orgasm for the ears :)) [sample: Cowgirl]
- Tron 2 [full soundtrack]
- Lola rennt (English title: Run Lola Run) [sample: Running One]
- The Matrix
- Quentin Tarantino’s movies (not techno but he has a good taste for choosing songs)
- Requiem for a Dream [theme song]
Games
Lord Raiden’s case with the guitar
mp3 tag editor
“EasyTAG is a utility for viewing and editing tags for MP3, MP2, MP4/AAC, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, MusePack, Monkey’s Audio and WavPack files. Its simple and nice GTK+ interface makes tagging easier under GNU/Linux or Windows.” (source)
Installation:
sudo apt-get install easytag
With EasyTAG you can process your mp3 files in batch mode. For instance, you can set the album name for several files with just one click.
Tip: if you want to edit the MP3s in the current directory, launch the application with “easytag .“.
Star Wars floppy disk
The Force is strong with this floppy:
I found this video in this post (follow this link for more videos).
Listen to Slay Radio
Did you have a Commodore 64 when you were a child? Do you miss those good old times? Then Slay Radio is for you!
“SLAY Radio is an internet-based radio station, transmitting from Gothenburg (Göteborg) in Sweden and relaying to several other relays. Normally, it automatically plays from its internal playlist of Commodore 64 remixes that have mainly come from R:K:O [see A.1.2] and the commercial CDs at C64Audio.com [see A.1.3].” (from the FAQ)
Play Slay Radio from the Desktop
- visit http://www.slayradio.org
- right click on Broadband (top left corner), and save the file
listen.m3uin your~/Desktopfolder listen.m3uwill appear on your desktop. Launch it with a double click.- To customize which application should open it: right click on
listen.m3u, Properties, Open With tab, and select your favorite media player.
Listen to Last.fm
There is a great Firefox add-on called Fire.fm that lets you listen to Last.fm from your browser.
For this you will have to create an account on Last.fm but it’s free. If you listen to Last.fm via their website, you can listen up to 30 songs for free, then you will have to pay a monthly fee. So I recommend using Fire.fm instead.
