Playdar got a couple of steps closer to being ready for the general public this week. First of all , there are now installers for Windows and Mac that make it dead simple to install Playdar. I tried the Mac OS X version (by Max Howell). It could not have been easier to install. I downloaded a file opened it, clicked on the pane and Playdar was added to my Prefs panel. It scanned my music and I was ready to go. Quite the contrast to a couple weeks ago when I hurt myself when trying to compile Erlang from source.
Now that Playdar is easy to install, we need some apps. Luckily Toby has been working hard on Playgrub. Playgrub is a an app that you install in your browser tool bar. When you visit a web page that mentions music, click on the ‘grub’ link and Playgrub will scour the page for all the artists and tracks, resolve them using Playdar and give you a playlist for the page. Here’s Playgrub in action. I visited the Last.fm page for the Weezer Blue album. I clicked on Playgrub and in a few seconds, Playgrub showed me this:
Playgrub via Playdar was able to find the audio for the music on the page (I happen to own this album so Playdar didn’t have to go far) and give me a playlist that I could play right now, or share with others. It is really cool. Toby writes more about Playgrub and even has a video showing it in action in this post: Playgrub new and improved.
Two big steps in one week for Playdar – an installer, and a compelling app. Playdar is getting closer to being ready for the mainstream. And I think we’ll be seeing even more progress. This Friday the Echo Nest will be hosting the first face-2-face Playdar summit, where about a dozen hard core Playdar folks will gather in one room and map out the next steps for Playdar. I’m really looking forward to it.
Music Machinery 