| Mindawn music player now bundled with Mandriva 2006 |
Feb. 24, 2006
The Kompany announced Thursday that its Linux-friendly Mindawn online music player is now bundled in Mandriva Linux 2006. This marks the first time a digital media download client has been bundled with any Linux distro, The Kompany president Shawn Gordon told DesktopLinux.com.
Using the player, Mandriva users get direct access to the Mindawn website and can preview songs available for sale and download. The Mindawn player allows customers to preview a song up to three times in full length, without having to pay for it. When users are ready to buy, the player will provide several download and file format options.
Mindawn's download pricing starts at $0.99 per 10 minutes of Ogg Vorbis format audio, the company said.
Mindawn's player is a full-featured audio client with a robust library capability and integrated Internet radio, the company said. Mindawn plays files in the open source Ogg Vorbis and FLAC formats but will not play mp3 or iTunes formats, due to licensing issues, Gordon said.
The Mindawn online music service includes freely downloadable audio-ripping software, Mindawn Audio Ripping System (MARS). Mindawn services are open to all artists as well as all consumers, so the many amateur, home, and professional musicians using Rosegarden, Ardour, or any of the other music sequencing and recording systems available for Linux have a ready-made channel to distribute their music, Gordon said.
"Online music is a popular Internet service, but Linux users had been left out until now," said Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon. "With Mindawn's player integrated into Mandriva 2006, we're correcting this exclusion. Our users can now take advantage of an online music and video service that rocks!"
The Kompany offers free downloads of its Mindawn media player and MARS audio-ripping software for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. The Windows and Mac OS versions are here. A link from that page points to the Linux downloads, which are here. Binary versions currently appear to be available in rpms for Mandriva, Debian, and Kubuntu, and in a generic rpm and a generic tar-file, and the source is also available for download. However, users who have attempted to install the generic versions report that there are dependency problems that need to be resolved.
"Mandriva has been seen as the premier Linux operating system for consumers for years now and we are very pleased to be able to work with them on bringing a music service to their customers," said Gordon.
Mandriva Linux is available in three editions: Discovery/Lx (for the Linux beginner), PowerPack (for the advanced computer user) and PowerPack+ (for SOHO users). The distro can be obtained through the Mandriva online store or downloaded here.
Mindawn's music download service is available here.
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