strunkworks

The eMusic + Pandora mashup lives on! Awhile back I created a mashup with eMusic & Pandora that a lot of people found useful. But a couple of months ago Pandora changed their API’s and broke everything. I finally got some free time to fix it. It looks like Pandora has chosen to tighten things up considerably, but in the end I was able to resurrect it and add some new features.

The new implementation required a redesign. The banner ads from Pandora are required with the new implementation. I could probably work around this, but decided to leave them. Hopefully the other new features I’ve added make up for that new annoyance.

Launch the eMusic/Pandora Mashup 2.0 »

New Features in this version:

• New eMusic browser tab at the bottom of the page monitors the track “now playing” and automatically displays the closest corresponding eMusic album page, artist page, or similar artist page
• New “Recently Played” tab keeps a running linked list of the tracks & artists played/mashed
• New “eMusic Radio Charts” tab highlights eMusic content receiving heavy airplay on various online radio services
• Coming soon: More radio stations to choose from… KEXP, Seattle; WFMU, Jersey City; Soma FM, Last.fm, Selected Shoutcast stations, etc.

Note: The automated eMusic search function is experimental and far from perfect. It is known to occasionally produce unexpected matches or no matches where there should be matches. If the album or artist you are interested in was not automatically found on eMusic, you should try a normal manual search on eMusic.com.

Related i-Tunes Plug-in:

Create a Pandora/eMusic station based on any artist or track in your iTunes Library

A friend asked for an easy way to launch a new station based on any artist or track in his iTunes Library. Here is the handy iTunes plug-in I made for him. Note: The new Pandora API clams up a bit in this mode and doesn’t seem to share the now playing information properly. That makes it impossible to match things up with eMusic. Until I have more time to take a closer look at it, the (poor) solution is to just close your browser once your new station has been created and then reopen it. This is only a problem if you launch the Pandora/eMusic mashup using the iTunes plug-in.

This desktop widget is for fans of radio station KEXP, in Seattle. Use the widget to listen to live streaming radio from KEXP. As the songs change, the widget displays the song name and artist name. The widget also automatically checks to see if each song or artist is available on eMusic.com. If it is, the widget gives you audio and visual ques and links directly to the corresponding eMusic album page, artist page, or similar eMusic artists page.

Features:

• Listen to live streaming radio from KEXP in Seattle
• Get visual and audio alerts when songs and artists are available for download at eMusic.com
• Monitor now playing information such as artist name, song name, DJ name & radio show name
• Click the small gray arrow next to the “now playing” info bar to slide it in or out / operate in “mini-mode”
• Configure preferences for colors, fonts, spoken audio alerts, etc.

Installation

1. Download & Install Yahoo Widget Engine [Download Yahoo Widget Engine]
2. Download and double-click the widget [eMusicRadio.widget]

Usage

• Click on the “listen MP3″ tab on the widget to listen to the live KEXP Radio stream.
• The widget will display the current song and artist playing, and if available, the current DJ Name and Show name.
• The eMusic logo will spin every few seconds indicating it is communicating with KEXP
• The eMusic logo will light up if the current song or artist is available for download on emusic.com and a spoken audio alert will sound.
• Click on the song/artist name or eMusic logo to visit the emusic.com for more info.
• By default, the widget announces “Download It at eMusic” when a track is available for download. You can change the text spoken or disable this feature in the widget preferences (right-click the widget).
• Click on the “playlist” tab to view the items recently played.

Note: The automated eMusic search function is experimental and far from perfect. It is known to occasionally produce unexpected matches or no matches where there should be matches. If the album or artist you are interested in was not automatically found on eMusic, you should try a normal manual search on eMusic.com.

To Do:

• Add a running linked list of songs played that are available for download at eMusic
• Add other radio stations

This desktop widget displays real-time, personalized eMusic RSS feeds on your desktop. You can use it to display up-to-the-minute eMusic content like “Today’s Top Downloads”, “Today’s Free Tracks”, “Freshly Ripped Punk Albums”, “Advance Releases” - any eMusic “Browse” page, “Charts” page or “New on eMusic” page can be added as a real-time feed.

Features:

• Displays a scrollable list of albums with listen links & links to album and artist pages on emusic.com
• Automatically cycles through an unlimited number of eMusic feeds at a customizable rate.
• Configurable preferences for timing, colors, fonts & feeds (right-click the widget)
• Drag & drop capability. Drag & drop any eMusic “Browse”, “Charts” or “New on eMusic” page URL from your browser address bar to add a feed of that page to the widget.

Installation

1. Download & Install Yahoo Widget Engine [Download Yahoo Widget Engine]
2. Download and double-click the widget [Download eMusicFeeds.widget]

Usage

• To add a personalized feed of albums, visit any browse, new or charts page on eMusic.com. In your web browser, there is an icon to the left of the URL in the address bar. Drag this icon onto the feeds widget and follow the instructions.
• Right-click on the widget to change preferences like colors and fonts or to manually add or remove feeds.
• Double-click the feed name to advance to the next feed
• Click the arrows to scroll forward and backward through albums in the current feed
• Click the album cover to visit the album page on emusic.com
• Click the listen icon to stream audio samples from the album
• Click on the artist name under the album to visit the artist page on emusic.com
• Note: The automatic cycling through feeds is paused as long as your cursor is hovered over the widget

To Do:

• Need to add more robust drag & drop functionality
• Need to add feeds for “eMusic on the Radio” charts

Too many toolbars? Want eMusic search and browse added to your existing Google Toolbar?

Install eMusic Search & Browse for Google Toolbar »

Features:

1. Adds eMusic Search to google toolbar
   
2. Adds quicklinks button to google toolbar with links directly into eMusic:
1. Today’s Free Download
2. Browse eMusic
3. New on eMusic
4. Power Charts
5. eMusic Magazine
   

System Requirements:

1. Windows XP/2000
2. IE 6+ [Download] or Firefox 1.5+ [Download]
3. Google Toolbar 4.x [Download]

This iTunes plug-in allows you to easily launch a Pandora + eMusic mashup station based on any artist or track in your iTunes Library.

Installation:

1. Download The Script: [Mac] [PC Not Yet Available]
2. Put the script in your iTunes Scripts folder. This is located in user name > Library > iTunes. If there is no folder named “Scripts” there, create one and put the script in it. It will then appear in iTunes’
   Script menu.

Usage:

1. Highlight a track in your iTunes library
2. Select “Create Pandora Station” from the scripts menu
3. Choose whether you want to base the station off of the artist or the song
4. Click OK to launch the station

(more…)

I’ve added a bunch of internet radio stations to the eMusic + Pandora Mashup. This round includes KEXP, KCRW, WOXY & SomaFM.

As the streams play, it displays eMusic content related to the track/album/artist, so that you can download the track if you’d like or read about it, find similar artists, etc.

What other stations would you like to see?

Launch the Mashup »