6 ms·

Google Music natively on Linux

93 points by Tiksi 12y ago

durzagott 12y ago
This looks brilliant, thank you for such a comprehensive guide. I look forward to trying this out tonight at home.
throwawayaway 12y ago
can someone explain to me how google can hold deduplicated files of copyrighted works and give access with only an assumption that the user uploading has the right to do so? or is that just "not how it works"? if it is how it works, what kind of questions can google be asked by copyright holders about those who are uploading? their lobbying and legal department must be so far ahead of the content owners that it's not even funny.
- sp332 12y ago
  I thought it was similar to iTunes "music match"? They pay a small amount of money to the copyright holders, who accept it on the premise that it's better to get some money for pirated music than none. Also it's a way to make former pirates "legitimate" without asking them to pay huge amounts of money for their collections. The copyright holders hope that they will stay straight after signing up.
  - Consultant32452 12y ago
    After I uploaded my music collection to google music I've since bought 50 or so songs on the service. Before that I'd only purchased one CD from a local band in the last decade. So a good solid product at a reasonable price converted me.
    - fidlefodl 12y ago
      Are you using all access? I don't buy most music now, since it's on GMAA.. makes me feel guilty, but also happy heh
      - sp332 12y ago
        I used All Access for a while but if I really wanted some music, I often went and bought it. That way, even though I don't subscribe anymore, I still have some of the music I really like.
chambo622 12y ago
Great post. I may check this out, although I usually need more flexibility than just playing radio. It is pretty sad to me that in 2014, my Sandy Bridge Core i7 machine with 16GB RAM occasionally stutters while playing Google Music in Chrome.
- throwawayaway 12y ago
  pretty sure the hardware isn't the problem then! could be your internet connection?
- Tiksi 12y ago
  Thanks! I'm not much of a writer but I figured someone else might be looking for this, so I might as well put it out there. And you can do more than just radio, pretty much anything you can do on the web interface, you can do with GMusicProxy, short of uploading files.
- nkozyra 12y ago
  That would give me pause considering I run it without issue on a much slower Mac and have in fact run it on 5-year-old PCs without that issue.
  - Tiksi 12y ago
    When you're pushing triple digits of open tabs, it can definitely become an issue. Plus the web interface runs on flash and support isn't great for Linux, even chrome's Pepper version has a ton of issues. edit: Point being that playing an mp3 should never freeze any system built in this millennium, and yet it does. So this is a bit of a workaround to avoid that. Plus with this setup you can enable global media keys/hotkeys and get a lot more control over playing your music.
    - nkozyra 12y ago
      I'm certainly not saying what they have is ideal, so don't take offense on that note. I welcome a native-ish client ala Spotify since I foolishly subscribe to both. But as someone who keeps their open tabs in the double digits (although pushing it sometimes), I've not encountered much playback issue.
simon_weber 12y ago
I'm the author of the unofficial client library OP referenced. It's great to see folks building such awesome things on it =) Shameless plug: gmusicapi has plenty of contributor-friendly work for all skill levels. If you're interested, shoot me an email or feel free to dive right into some issues. https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-API https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-API
kingosticks 12y ago
If you were to go down the mopidy route instead, you could use the mopidy-gmusic extension and not bother with GMusic Proxy or those extra scripts. http://docs.mopidy.com/en/develop/ext/external/#mopidy-gmusic http://docs.mopidy.com/en/develop/ext/external/#mopidy-gmusi...
- jboynyc 12y ago
  Could you? It seems to me that mopidy-gmusic does not have All Access support. That's according to this issue: https://github.com/hechtus/mopidy-gmusic/issues/5 https://github.com/hechtus/mopidy-gmusic/issues/5
  - malnourish 12y ago
    It does have all access support now but I can't get it to work at all for me.
Sodman 12y ago
For anyone interested in this purely for the hotkeys/media keys functionality that a desktop client provides, you should check out this chrome extension - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-music-medi/icckhjgjjompfgoiidainoapgjepncej https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-mus... I've only tried it on my dell latitude with media keys, but it works great.
nahiluhmot 12y ago
Awesome! It would be great to see this on the AUR.

93 points by Tiksi 12y ago

This looks brilliant, thank you for such a comprehensive guide. I look forward to trying this out tonight at home.

can someone explain to me how google can hold deduplicated files of copyrighted works and give access with only an assumption that the user uploading has the right to do so? or is that just "not how it works"? if it is how it works, what kind of questions can google be asked by copyright holders about those who are uploading? their lobbying and legal department must be so far ahead of the content owners that it's not even funny.

sp332 12y ago
I thought it was similar to iTunes "music match"? They pay a small amount of money to the copyright holders, who accept it on the premise that it's better to get some money for pirated music than none. Also it's a way to make former pirates "legitimate" without asking them to pay huge amounts of money for their collections. The copyright holders hope that they will stay straight after signing up.
- Consultant32452 12y ago
  After I uploaded my music collection to google music I've since bought 50 or so songs on the service. Before that I'd only purchased one CD from a local band in the last decade. So a good solid product at a reasonable price converted me.
  - fidlefodl 12y ago
    Are you using all access? I don't buy most music now, since it's on GMAA.. makes me feel guilty, but also happy heh
    - sp332 12y ago
      I used All Access for a while but if I really wanted some music, I often went and bought it. That way, even though I don't subscribe anymore, I still have some of the music I really like.

chambo622 12y ago

Great post. I may check this out, although I usually need more flexibility than just playing radio. It is pretty sad to me that in 2014, my Sandy Bridge Core i7 machine with 16GB RAM occasionally stutters while playing Google Music in Chrome.

throwawayaway 12y ago
pretty sure the hardware isn't the problem then! could be your internet connection?
Tiksi 12y ago
Thanks! I'm not much of a writer but I figured someone else might be looking for this, so I might as well put it out there. And you can do more than just radio, pretty much anything you can do on the web interface, you can do with GMusicProxy, short of uploading files.
nkozyra 12y ago
That would give me pause considering I run it without issue on a much slower Mac and have in fact run it on 5-year-old PCs without that issue.
- Tiksi 12y ago
  When you're pushing triple digits of open tabs, it can definitely become an issue. Plus the web interface runs on flash and support isn't great for Linux, even chrome's Pepper version has a ton of issues. edit: Point being that playing an mp3 should never freeze any system built in this millennium, and yet it does. So this is a bit of a workaround to avoid that. Plus with this setup you can enable global media keys/hotkeys and get a lot more control over playing your music.
  - nkozyra 12y ago
    I'm certainly not saying what they have is ideal, so don't take offense on that note. I welcome a native-ish client ala Spotify since I foolishly subscribe to both. But as someone who keeps their open tabs in the double digits (although pushing it sometimes), I've not encountered much playback issue.

simon_weber 12y ago

I'm the author of the unofficial client library OP referenced. It's great to see folks building such awesome things on it =) Shameless plug: gmusicapi has plenty of contributor-friendly work for all skill levels. If you're interested, shoot me an email or feel free to dive right into some issues. https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-API https://github.com/simon-weber/Unofficial-Google-Music-API

kingosticks 12y ago

If you were to go down the mopidy route instead, you could use the mopidy-gmusic extension and not bother with GMusic Proxy or those extra scripts. http://docs.mopidy.com/en/develop/ext/external/#mopidy-gmusic http://docs.mopidy.com/en/develop/ext/external/#mopidy-gmusi...

jboynyc 12y ago
Could you? It seems to me that mopidy-gmusic does not have All Access support. That's according to this issue: https://github.com/hechtus/mopidy-gmusic/issues/5 https://github.com/hechtus/mopidy-gmusic/issues/5
- malnourish 12y ago
  It does have all access support now but I can't get it to work at all for me.

Sodman 12y ago

For anyone interested in this purely for the hotkeys/media keys functionality that a desktop client provides, you should check out this chrome extension - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-music-medi/icckhjgjjompfgoiidainoapgjepncej https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/swayfm-unified-mus... I've only tried it on my dell latitude with media keys, but it works great.

nahiluhmot 12y ago

Awesome! It would be great to see this on the AUR.