Ingredients for an Album/Track page

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Posted by gusaus on April 22, 2008 at 1:48am
Last updated by resynthesize on Mon, 2010-01-18 17:12

This wiki is an attempt to explore the various options we have to build an album page with the ability to play individual tracks as well as the complete album/playlist. Ideally we'll get input/advice from some of those who have built and/or implemented this type of solution.

Examples

Drupal site examples

Drupal driven sites with album/tracklist players.

Non-Drupal examples

For inspiration and ideas,

Key functionality

  • Allows you to "preview/listen all"
  • Allows the user to click to play another song and automatically stops playing the previous song, if another one is clicked.
  • When a song finishes playing it automatically moves to the next song.
  • Volume, pause and play control
  • Option to 'pop-up' player

Options/Ingredients

Attaching audio

  • Audio module - http://drupal.org/project/audio
    • allows users with proper permissions to upload audio files into drupal.
    • Each audio item is created as its own individual audio node.
    • uses the getID3 library to read and write ID3 meta-tag information to and from the audio file.
  • Media Field - http://drupal.org/project/mediafield
    • CCK fields for storing audio
  • Embedded Media Field (http://drupal.org/project/emfield)
    • This extensible module will create fields for node content types that can be used to display video, image, and audio files from various third party providers.

External audio

  • Sony BMG - http://drupal.org/node/241344#comment-795344
    • Tracks are their own nodes with a node reference to the album and a cck field for the track url which is then served up through a custom player.
    • The actual track is hosted on a third party server so we just reference the location within the node and let the player deal with serving up the actual track itself.
    • Node creation of Albums and Tracks is automated through a custom module that uses the Amazon API to generate the nodes. You could use the Amazon services module for something like this.
  • Embedded Media Field and XSPF playlist? - http://groups.drupal.org/node/8757#comment-32596
    • Per athurf (http://groups.drupal.org/user/630) - XSPF Playlist is just building playlists off data that is defined from nodes. It shouldn't be hard for me to create an option to save an XSPF file in the db for retrieval- potentially, I see a mapper for FeedAPI that takes XSPF playlists and then saves them.

Creating playlists

  • XSPF Playlist - http://drupal.org/project/xspf_playlist
    • generates a XSPF playlist from files that are attached to a node.
    • It was designed for Jeroen Wijering's flash player, though it should work with other flash players.
    • The admin interface allows the administrator to select what node types it works on, choose a default thumbnail file to use, and forthcoming support for CCK fields.
    • It also supports multiple file types (audio, video, flash) that are supported by the flash player.
  • Media Mover - http://drupal.org/project/media_mover
    • a suite of modules which can convert content to FLV and then can be integrated with XSPF Playlist

Flash Media Players

Controlling the player

Comments

hi

Posted by illSleepWheniDie on April 22, 2008 at 3:22am
illSleepWheniDie's picture

last.fm?

Audio module as multi content type

Posted by slipxnot on May 4, 2008 at 10:34pm
slipxnot's picture

hey i was wondering if it can be done to create a new content type of music album that got album image and multiple fields of the "Audio module - http://drupal.org/project/audio " and also got few fields in place of submiting every audio in single node and then join them

check this out.`

Posted by philk on May 8, 2008 at 9:44am
philk's picture

You can use views to group all the album tracks together and add in the album artwork that way. check this out:

http://groups.drupal.org/node/10869

That's what is described

Posted by thomas23 on June 4, 2008 at 12:28am
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That's what is described above under "Controlling the player":

The Four of Us (example by dublin drupaller here - http://groups.drupal.org/node/10869) - The audio player is controlled using a mix of mainly prototype and soundmanager2. It's a fairly heavy set of js at the moment but the plan is to trim it down and either create an add-on .inc for the audio.module (if there is enough interest) or integrate it into views, so it can be used for any drupal playlist.

how do you group the tracks

Posted by davebv on June 3, 2008 at 3:15pm
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how do you group the tracks with views? may you point to some example? I didn't find any views filter/field in which I can select album name.
thanks!

The album names come from

Posted by theohawse on September 24, 2008 at 12:50am
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The album names come from the id3 tags, which aren't very reliable anyway.
There is a nice way to do this with Node Reference Fields within an "Album" Content Type.
Then each Track/Song Can be chosen at the create album screen, referencing a new custom view on a per track basis
(single table row in the final list-view).

I'm trying to do this on a multiple-artist site and passing arguments is giving me a real headache.
Single-artist sites should be much easier.

Album names as taxonomy terms

Posted by dwees on September 24, 2008 at 4:56am
dwees's picture

Why not Album names as Taxonomy terms? Then each artist becomes a top-level term in the vocabulary, and each next level term is an album, and each song has an album term associated with it, as does an Album node type.

Then you can leverage existing views to view artists, etc...

Dave

Nodes & Content types = A proper ALBUM

Posted by xaccrocheur-gdo on November 2, 2008 at 8:36pm
xaccrocheur-gdo's picture

Wow, Darkbrewery, you ignited a spark in my foggy brain. Thank you about that. Could please elaborate a little ? I too am setting up a multi-artist site, and I'd like to know :

I already created an "album" content type, how can I create "Node Reference Fields within it" ? Using the taxonomy module ? Or the CCK one ?

What I'd like to do is
- allow reg. users to create albums
- Attach cover artwork
- upload audio files
- attach them to the said album(s), and then use getid3() to write user-entered tags to the audio files,
- create a playlist on the fly per album, so that the

Then anonymous users will then be presented albums, not audio files, and will be able to listen the whole XSPF playlist through a player that knows how to handle them, then (possibly, this is not even prototyped) download the whole album properly tagged and gathered into a nice zip, along with the aforementioned playlist.

I tried various setups, had a go at taxonomy but got lost. I know I have to learn and master the drupal node concept, but I wiew this challenge as a way to do just that.

So my question really is : How do one start to create a full-featured "Album" object ?

Excuse this long introduction in a poor 2nd grade english but I wanted to present myself a bit to you guys.

Now I'd feel bad if I would not say : Drupal rules. Every core, optional, module developper and every person working on this wonderfully elegant and powerful tool deserves my total admiration.

Hope to hear from you soon

Hi, I am trying to achieve

Posted by Jumoke on January 4, 2011 at 1:01pm
Jumoke's picture

Hi,
I am trying to achieve this same exact task you have laid out here for a site i am just starting. How did you go about this? Can you give me your recipe? Can i ask for 10 minutes of your time please? I look forward to your reply

demo music shop

Posted by Phillip Mc on November 4, 2008 at 6:08pm
Phillip Mc's picture

worth mentioning on this page the demo music downloads shop by dublin drupaller that's being used to showcase a new payment module that allows ppl to pay for stuff using their mobile phone.

You'll want to use CCK

Posted by theohawse on November 19, 2008 at 5:45am
theohawse's picture

Well at least this is where I've had sucess (CCK)- http://www.discoverrock.com/album/style

I actually have 3 main content types: Artist Album Audio
Where audio content type has been created by the Audio module.

Each content type references the next as below:
Audio references the Album and Artist it belongs to (select list)
Album references the Artist it Belongs to (select list)
Artist doesn't contain any node reference fields

So to add an album node, one must first have an artist node to reference.
Then to add songs to an album you must have an album node to reference.

I believe that the best way to format the album pages is as a view:

  • Name: album_tracks
  • Description: Table of Track Info for album panels
  • URl: track-table (won't be used anyway)
  • View Type: Table View
  • Title: Track Table (overwritten later)
  • Pager: None
  • Provide Block: Yes
  • View Type: Table View
  • Nodes Per Block:100

Fields:

  • Audio: Tag track
  • Node Title
  • Audio: Play count
  • Audio: Length
  • Audio: Player link/flash

Arguments:

  • Node Reference: Album (field_album_reference)
  • Default: Display All Values
  • Argument Code: $args[0] = arg(1);

Filters:

  • Node:Published Equals:Yes
  • Node Type: Is One Of:Audio

Sort Criteria

  • Audio: Tag track
  • Order: Ascending

In the link I've given above I'm using the block we just created in a "node override panel".
This is used on every album page to separately bring in the album cover and artist reference.
More about this site at: http://drupal.org/node/279043

Hope this helps.

What is the player do

Posted by adrianmak on March 5, 2009 at 11:34am
adrianmak's picture

What is the player do Daughtry and sony mplay used ?

Soundcloud Integration?

Posted by cookiesunshinex on July 15, 2009 at 10:54pm
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Has anybody used Sound Cloud with a Drupal site?

I would like to build a site that uses artist, song title, ratings of the songs, but host my audio files at Sound Cloud (http://soundcloud.com/)

Any ideas of how best to do that?

They have an API here - http://soundcloud.com/api

Would it be possible to create a custom CCK field type for sound cloud. I know there are custom CCK field types for Media (video - youtube, and images - flickr, and audio) so this must be possible.

Thanks

Symetrik Design
Drupal Consulting
http://www.symetrkdesign.com

no player

Posted by whiteDiamonds on December 28, 2010 at 4:18am
whiteDiamonds's picture

I'm trying to build a catalog of all my music that's not on my computer. So, I don't need a player. Would this module help me?

Nice Information thanks -gusaus

Posted by skalak1111 on December 28, 2010 at 7:27am
skalak1111's picture

Ton of thanks - gusaus. Im trying to use these modules for my website.
Will let you know guys once it is done and sure i will be back for your suggestions if im facing any pblms.

Hi, WhiteDiamonds, you can achieve through "External Audio". If you don't need a player just don't install modules related to "Players".
This should help you. And let all know once it is done and myself also looking for your similar requirement.

Thanks

Re: no player

Posted by lostcarpark on December 28, 2010 at 9:51am
lostcarpark's picture

You should be able to do everything you need with CCK and Views. If you don't need a player, then I don't think the other modules will help you.

James

Some 3 years later...

Posted by gusaus on May 18, 2011 at 6:21am
gusaus's picture

Some 3 years later this wiki and comment thread still provide some really good information. Curious to hear of any new approaches made possible with Drupal 7. Are CCK/Views/Node References still the preferred route?

Gus Austin

subscribed I would also be

Posted by Joe Huggans on June 19, 2012 at 12:11pm
Joe Huggans's picture

subscribed

I would also be interested in any more recent methods of creating an album type playlist