HawaiiStories Soundtrack

When an `ohana blogs on the web, and lots of people read it, does it make a sound? It might now, with the new HawaiiStories Media library! The idea has been around a while, but only in my recent flu medicine-induced haze was I finally able to install some software, run some tests, and even research some attorney repellant (in the form of "fair use" fine print). It's "HawaiiStories Radio," KHSR if you like, with a geekly twist.

So who wants to play?

The software can handle everything from RealAudio up to MP3s and even video clips. Of course, given file sizes and bandwidth concerns, we might have to settle for a middle ground of sound quality (and probably few video selections), and a rotating (rather than permanently archived) collection of tracks.

But I just love the interface, which is clean, simple, yet does important things elegantly, like reading ID3 tags, allowing searches, and of course, streaming and multi-song playlists.

I envision a collaboration where a monthly theme is chosen — say, cover songs, or food songs, or bad-mood songs — and members are encouraged to submit a favorite track along with a short paragraph on why it was chosen, or why it's significant to them. Then we build the library, include the comments, and plop a little "Play Now" button on the front page. Voila, it's The Original Blogging Website Soundtrack of HawaiiStories.

Of course, we could do just genre "channels" too. For example, I think, no matter what, a Hawaiian collection is a must, because we love it, and because I know lots of our readers outside the islands probably hunger for it.

So what do you think? What would you like to try? And, for that matter, does the setup work? (I'd recommend WinAmp to take the stream for PC users... what works best on Macs?) Any other technical bugaboos I missed?

Finally, if you've got an MP3 you just have to share right now, just send it to media@hawaiistories.com. Hawaiian songs and the personal stories behind them wanted in particular. Anything else, until we try our first themed "song stew," I can post it to a "Mixed Plate" folder.

Try and keep file sizes to under 4MB... unless it's really cool, of course!

Comments

sign me up! I want a cool login thingie so I can upload stuff :)

For playing streaming music, iTunes on the Mac is pretty much the bomb. If you still have an old copy of SoundJam, that works, too. So does Real player. Oh, and Quicktime player works fine, too.

Watch it, though, Prophet: You'll get whacked for royalties by RIAA--7 cents per song, per listener. Ask Rabbett of IRH.com (I know he's a wild man, but in a nice way!).

Oooh! Can I suggest a comedy section?

Hmm...for some reason I got an error.

I've streamed music using Shoutcast in the past. It's really easy to setup and works very well with Winamp, you might want to look into it.

Hmm...for some reason I got an error.

D'oh! What kind? On what system? I tested it at work, home (both PCs) and at my mom's house, but you never know...

SHOUTcast is interesting, but seems Windows/WinAMP focused , and primarily for users looking to stream from their home PCs over their broadband connection... something I know Oceanic wouldn't be too fond of. I'm sure there are lots of options (I even looked into a paid Live365 feed), but at first glance I liked Andromeda... not in the least because it runs with the installation of exactly one file.

Oooh! Can I suggest a comedy section?

Absolutely! A great idea. And quite relevant to what comes up in discussions here quite often.

You'll get whacked for royalties by RIAA--7 cents per song, per listener...

I hope not! Of course, I've been following the whole CARP controversy (including the recent break for big business). And I've known Rabbett a long time (he used to read my news reports "on the air"), and I'm glad IRH lives on.

Of course (he said, picking up hairs to split), HawaiiStories Media Isn't an online radio station or a broadcaster in the traditional sense — with a single, programmed stream, or the ability to "join" mid-stream — but specifically a library of categorized files that can be accessed in any way or order required by the user (including only one piece), obviously created to facilitate the academic/critical debate and discussion for which the HawaiiStories site was created. Ahem.

I want a cool login thingie so I can upload stuff

Andromeda is cool, and has 'user' capability to access the library, but I'd have to build a direct-upload functionality. For now, I gotta FTP the files in (although after that, Andromeda does all the work). So for now, media@hawaiistories.com is your friend!

Okay, figured it out.

The error occurs under the following conditions:

1. Windows Media player is player of choice in IE.

2. Windows Media player plays the streamed media within IE.

3. Only if you check certain songs to play within Andromeda.

My solution was to force IE to use WinAmp instead of Windows Media player.

Glad you figured it out, Haken. That built-in media window in MSIE is bad news, to be sure!

Of course, while you were troubleshooting MP3 streaming, I was working on using the RealAudio format instead. If you hit HawaiiStories Media again, you'll see that clicking play will launch RealPlayer (or RealOne or whatever you have installed) instead of WinAmp or iTunes.

I know, I know... RealAudio is not everyone's favorite media format, and RealOne is a pain in the ass (I 'downgrade' to RealPlayer 8 thanks to OldVersion.com), but it's an attractive alternative to native MP3s to me for a number of reasons.

Okay, one, primarily.

RealAudio versions of a song will take one-third to half the space of an MP3. This is a factor both in the space taken to host the file, as well as the bandwidth consumed when music is streamed.

This morning, the Hawaiian collection I had up took nearly 20MB for five songs as MP3s. Now, as RealAudio files, they weigh in at 8MB. One way to look at it? The library can be twice as big, and songs can stick around twice as long.

But, also, I found with both Andromeda and other setups, it's not hard to backhack to get access to the original MP3 file. This could be quite directly interpreted as indiscriminate distribution, and also (should someone direct link somewhere) might lead me to waking up with a $1,000 overnight bandwidth bill.

RealAudio files aren't half as attractive to CD-shopping-averse songseekers and are the preferred "sampling" format as far as music publishers and distributors are concerned. Yet, they sound good enough for us to appreciate what's being presented... and enjoy a few tunes while we're blogging away.

There's a trade-off in sound quality, to be sure, but I'm using a good, mid-range bitrate, and for most PC speakers and headphones, you can still rock out without feeling like you're listening underwater.

If I could again ask you to be guinea pigs of sorts and test out the RealAudio version of HawaiiStories Media, I'd appreciate it. Is it still super nifty cool? Or should I bite the bullet and go back to shiny, happy MP3s?

Be sure to check out our first actual submission from my wife. A meaningful pick for us, and sure enough, listening to her song brings back amazing memories.

I think the RealAudio format is fine. However, I hate RealPlayer and the spyware and adware that goes along with it.

Hey, can I have an International section? Or perhaps World Music section?

I hear you. There are some who say Real practically invented spyware.

But, on the other hand, as early adopters and controllers of an industry standard, they've also been sued and targetted quite aggressively by privacy advocates.

The fact of the matter is, Real's players can be pretty benign... provided you take the time to customize your install and set your preferences correctly. Easily 90 percent of issues can be avoided by (1.) always installing only the core application, and specifically opting-out of fancy shmancy add-ins and enhancements — most likely you only want the player, and not RealDownload or RealJukebox, for which better, free, clean applications exist — and (2.) stop Real applications from "phoning home" — the reporting characteristic of their software that started the trouble in the first place, but the settings for which are fairly well labeled in options/settings screens.

Real's old "StartCenter" (insisting on running in the background and keeping the little logo in the taskbar) was my biggest complaint. Then they came out with RealOne with its "Message Center." Both can be disabled, though, and as I linked above, you can always go back to simpler times.

Hey, can I have an International section? Or perhaps World Music section?

I'm open to anything, although my hope is to create a collaborative library rather than separate collections for individual HawaiiStories members. Also, apart from Hawaii-specific genres, I was thinking periodic, themed "song stew" missions (i.e. "Send your favorite song about food!") would be more interesting and make more eclectic mixes than by-genre categorization.

Surely there are good break-up songs, or kids songs, or food songs in International music!

This is by no means an invitation to open up the whole Jennifer Perri discussion again, but ...

... if someone who has her mini-album could send it to media@hawaiistories.com, I'd really like to review it for Musicwhore.org.

I'm planning a "Beyond Hawai`i" week, in which I'll review the new Jack Johnson album and the new ... Trail of Dead EP. (The latter was recorded in Hawai`i, while ... TOD has two members who grew up in Hawai`i.)

I figure Jennifer could round out the theme, flimsy though it may be.

Troubleshooting, now ...

I clicked the play icons for the "Baby Can I Hold You" clips, and my RealPlayer (version 8, thank you very much; RealOne sucks ass) is still trying to connect after two minutes. It hasn't even timed out to give me an error message.

Am I the only who gets this kind of response?

Fascinating. I'm getting a RealOne error message.

I've found Real software to be increasingly unstable. Not just with our media library, but elsewhere. (Rebooting usually fixes the problem... for a while.) I wonder if it's them, though, or XP?

Well. Something funny is going on. The files and the playlists work flawlessly on Jen's computer, which has been running for days now. I rebooted, but even going straight to the media library, clicking on a file launches but then crashes the Real player. And we're both running RealOne (which, yes, sucks) on nearly identical XP systems.

Working fine at work, RealOne on Windows 2000. Hmm.

Crashing seems to be a common occurance. Although my RealPlayer 8 doesn't time out nor connect, it does crash when I close the application. I'm running Windows 2000.

I'm not entirely convinced it's RealPlayer's fault, wildly unstable though it may be. Perhaps Andromeda has some configuration quirk?

Try a playlist, versus just a single file. I know the former reliably works for me; the latter causes Real to freeze sometimes. In either case, it could very well be Andromeda. I'm going to tour the support forums the next chance I get.

Post a Comment