XMPlay Last.fm/Audioscrobbler plugin (xmp-scrobbler)

[yagood]

Download

xmp-scrobbler 0.9.6 (source code)

xmp-scrobbler 0.8 (source code)

News

2007-06-26

Version 0.8 is available - this is only a quick bugfix release - fixes annoying "Wrong cache file format" bug.

2007-04-03

Xmp-scrobbler 0.7 is ready. It contains minor bug fixes in CUE sheet handling, extracting MusicBrainz Track ID from various file formats and other.

Note: This version is compatible only with XMPlay 3.4 or newer!

2007-02-09

Version 0.6 is ready. Not so many new features in this version, as I wrote below - large parts of the plug-in were rewritten so this time I wanted to focus more on stability and usability, not on features. In the next version I plan to add a few features (include / exclude directories, more plug-in status information in options), but all in all there's not much new stuff left to add, because xmp-scrobbler has quite simple task to do. Anyway, if you have some ideas, feedback is always welcome.

So, what's new in this version:

- CUE sheet support (thanks to Aux for cooperation on this feature!) - now tracks from CUE sheets can be submitted just like any other tracks if CUE sheet is detected by XMPlay (block "Cuesheet" appears in the Message window); this area of the plug-in is still quite experimental and I expect that some problems may occur

- a few options added to control the log file and now "debug mode" can be turned off to make log file contents more human-readable

- couple of bugs fixed

Please report any problems in this thread, preferably with log file contents (with "debug mode" option turned on) attached / copy-pasted. Thanks.

BTW: as you may notice - I had to remove some older news from this message, because I got "The message exceeds the maximum allowed length (10000 characters)" warning.

2007-02-04

Beta version has been updated, bug causing crashes with certain files has been fixed, please re-download the plug-in / source code.

Thanks to ec8or for reporting this bug.

2007-02-03

It's been a while since the last release

Anyway, version 0.6 is nearly finished, but I want to release beta version first, because large parts of the plug-in were rewritten. If you want to try it - links (to the plug-in and to the source code) are as always below, but if you are good with previous version - just stick with it and wait few more days until 0.6 final is released.

Beta version doesn't have too much new features, because I was focusing mainly on merging Aux's code for CUE sheets support and that's the main area that needs to be tested now, so any feedback is welcome. I've been testing new code for two days and everything seems to be working OK, but I expect some bugs hence the beta version.

In the final 0.6 version I plan to add couple of already requested features, so stay tuned if you want.

And of course big thanks to Aux for contributing his time and effort.


What is xmp-scrobbler?

It's a plugin for XMPlay. It lets you "join the social music revolution at Last.fm" with your favorite music player.

What is Last.fm?

It's a superb free online service which blends music and social networking in an unique and innovative way. Discover it for yourself. But beware - it's highly addictive!

OK, but why do I need this plugin?

Last.fm is about music you listen to. Information about what you're playing in XMPlay has to be transferred to Last.fm servers in some way. And this is where xmp-scrobbler comes in - it monitors XMPlay in realtime and submits data about what you listen to to Last.fm.

Whoa, cowboy! What about privacy?

This is what xmp-scrobbler sends to Last.fm: your username, your password (encrypted), track artist, title, album, time of play and optionally some technical data about tracks you're playing. So nothing to worry about - you share only your musical taste :-)

OK, so what do I do now?

If you don't have Last.fm account yet, create one before you install xmp-scrobbler. Then download xmp-scrobbler (link below) and copy it to XMPlay directory. Xmp-scrobbler is a DSP plugin so go to the options and add it there, then click Config, enter your username and password and tick Enable plugin checkbox. And that's all! Now just listen to your favorite music like you always do - nothing's changing, xmp-scrobbler works in background and will not bother you with popup windows, dialog box messages etc.

Nice, but what exactly can I do with all this?

Well... go to your Last.fm profile (http://www.last.fm/user/your_username) and watch it filling up with your music, then dive into forums, groups, radio stations, friends, neighbours, recommendations, journals... pure addiction!  

This plugin doesn't work / it crashed XMPlay / froze my system / ate my sandwich

Please post about your problem in this thread, give me your system configuration and send me via PM (or copy-paste it here) xmp-scrobbler.txt file (it's in your XMPlay directory) - it's a technical log generated by xmp-scrobbler to help me find and fix bugs more easily.


Source code

If you want to build xmp-scrobbler from the source code, you'll need libcurl and zlib. I develop xmp-scrobbler in Dev-C++ - project file (xmp-scrobbler.dev) is provided in the source package - but it should work just fine with any reasonable compiler I guess. Probably you'll have to adjust paths in linker parameters in project options to match your Dev-C++ configuration. If you have any problems with building or some useful technical tips or you think you found a bug - post it in this thread.

Enjoy and share your opinion / problems.

[raina]

As a total n00b, I can't say I see any connection with the names Audioscrobbler and Last.fm. Why two?

[yagood]

As a total n00b, I can't say I see any connection with the names Audioscrobbler and Last.fm. Why two?

Good point, this may be a little confusing. But it's simple - Last.fm is a rebranded Audioscrobbler (they merged audioscrobbler.com and Last.fm last year IIRC). I named this plugin xmp-scrobbler because at Last.fm they officially refer to player plugins as "Audioscrobbler plugins".

[Mordred]

Well, there's finally someone willing and/or able to write an audioscrobbler plugin for XMP. So let me first send mighty thanks to you. You're my hero. No kidding. :p

Already tried the thing and it seems to do the job properly with MP3 and MPC files at least. But I'm afraid there's an annoying bug occuring when playing audio CDs : the first track doesn't get sent to last.fm. That's quite weird.
At first I thought that might be due to the fact that XMP begins to play the CD slightly before having received CDDB information but that doesn't seem to be it as it still doesn't work after pressing stop and then play again or even closing and relauching XMP.

Haven't tried the caching thingie by now but will surely try playing some tracks while being disconnected.

Anyway, keep on the good work !

[yagood]

Thank you for your report. I'll look for solution.

EDIT: I uploaded new version with some more info generated into xmp-scrobbler.txt. Could you try it and send me this file? Thanks.

[Zarggg]

Many thanks! So far, no problems. Just checked and it updated one song.

Will let you know of any crashes, etc.

Edit: I've created a group for XMPlay users titled, aptly, "XMPlay Users"! Show your support for Ian and XMPlay by joining. Membership is open to all (though I would prefer only people who actually use XMPlay to join, of course )

http://www.last.fm/group/XMPlay%20Users

[Mordred]

I've just uploaded the xmp-scrobbler.txt file here.
Says the track is badly tagged even if I start playing the CD after receiving CDDB info.
Anyway, I replayed the first track by double clicking on it in the playlist and it worked without trouble, so it's no big deal.

As for the caching, seems to work fine. I listened to five or six songs while being disconnected, connected again and all the files were submitted.

Thanks again !

[cdysthe]

What is xmp-scrobbler?

It's a plugin for XMPlay. It lets you "join the social music revolution at Last.fm" with your favorite music player.

This is great! Not much traffic in the XMPlay Last.fm group though. Are there any plans to create a playback plug-in for Last.fm as well (there are plug-ins for a lot of other players)? It would be great to be able to use my fav music player for Last.fm radio listening.

//C

[yagood]

I've just uploaded the xmp-scrobbler.txt file here.
Says the track is badly tagged even if I start playing the CD after receiving CDDB info.
Anyway, I replayed the first track by double clicking on it in the playlist and it worked without trouble, so it's no big deal.

Thanks, I'll test some audio CDs to see if I can reproduce it.

As for the caching, seems to work fine. I listened to five or six songs while being disconnected, connected again and all the files were submitted.

Good to hear that, but I still have to test it more.

[raina]

Just letting you know the CD problems manifest here too. Or actually not here per se, but my girlfriend was listening to a CD in XMPlay on another computer and she wanted to install xmp-scrobbler too. She did, restarted XMPlay, configured and continued playing where she had left off before installing. It started working eventually but the next CD track on the list, i.e. the first one after installing xmp-scrobbler wasn't sent to Last.fm. So it seems it has less to do with the actual CD track number than the order xmp-scrobbler handles the tracks. Hope this helps.

[yagood]

How exactly do you open Audio CD in XMPlay? It seems to be working OK when I drag *.cda files to playlist. But I've got some problems with associating Audio CDs with XMPlay (option in CD Audio plugin doesn't work) so I can't check other ways right now (Autoplay or playing Audio CD directly from Explorer through "Open with XMPlay").

EDIT:

OK, so it turned out that "Shell Hardware Detection" service wasn't running and Autoplay was broken. Now it's working, I'll try to reproduce and find this Audio CD bug later. Thanks for reporting.

[raina]

I use the Open and Add functions (both GUI and hotkey) as well as dragondropping on both the playlist and the player depending on how I want the existing playlist entries to be dealt with. Last night I was going the "Add" way when I tried to play a CD but for some reason I got no info from FreeDB. The songtitles were left as Trackxx and nothing was sent to Last.fm.

But the behavior I reported occurred on the exact procedure you described. Her way is dragging and dropping on the playlist. But just now, with another CD everything worked super.

[Ian @ un4seen]

When first playing (or adding to the list) a CD, XMPlay (or rather the CD plugin) will contact the CDDB server in the background, to get the info. So if the user plays a track straightaway, the info may not yet be available.

What you could do is add detection of CD tracks (eg. "cda" at the start or end of the filename), and if there are no tags available immediately, set a timer for a few seconds later to check again.

[yagood]

What you could do is add detection of CD tracks (eg. "cda" at the start or end of the filename), and if there are no tags available immediately, set a timer for a few seconds later to check again.

Yes, I've got similar idea. Now I'm setting timer when new track arrives only if there's correct tag info available - so I query both DDE channels. I think I'll query only "info0" for length, set a timer regardless of what the track is and when timer callback fires then I'll query "info1" for track tags and decide then whether to submit it.

[raina]

Sounds good. Say, is there like a time limit for how long you have to play a track before it is added to Last.fm since they really don't show up that fast? At least that would be logical considering skipping tracks and "intro scanning".

[yagood]

Sounds good. Say, is there like a time limit for how long you have to play a track before it is added to Last.fm since they really don't show up that fast? At least that would be logical considering skipping tracks and "intro scanning".

Yes, it is definied in Audioscrobbler protocol specification:

Each song should be posted to the server when it is 50% or 240 seconds complete, whichever comes first.

[Y@nek®]

This plugin works better then oryginal for Winamp audioscrobbler plugin.

[raina]

If running on an older, slower machine, is it possible that the reading of tags could take XMPlay so long that the plugin already draws a conclusion there are no tags at all and the file is considered "badly tagged". Because according to my log, properly tagged files have been rejected.

[yagood]

Hmm... I don't know how XMPlay works on slower machines (I've got Celeron 1.3 and it's OK), but maybe you're right. That's just another argument for implementing different behavior of reading tags info that I described in my previous post. I discovered a few more bugs so new tags reading behavior + these small enhancements will probably make xmp-scrobbler 0.2

[raina]

Yeah, the machine in question is the same as yours, just subtract 1 giga from the Hz value.