Tomahawk: All-in-One Streaming Music Player
Consolidate Your Music Streaming Experience with Tomahawk
Many individuals regularly utilize numerous streaming media platforms – such as YouTube for music videos, and various sites for streaming music and live radio broadcasts. Rather than navigating through countless applications and websites, Tomahawk provides a centralized hub for all your streaming needs.
A free copy of the application can be downloaded for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Following installation, the next step involves configuring the services you wish to integrate with Tomahawk.
Configuring Your Streaming Services
Access the Settings menu and select 'Configure Tomahawk'. Within the Services section, you’ll find a comprehensive list of music and streaming sites. Simply check the boxes corresponding to the services you intend to use.
You’ll recognize many familiar platforms, including Grooveshark, Spotify, and YouTube. Activation of some services may require only a simple checkbox selection, while others necessitate an existing account – potentially a paid subscription.
Numerous streaming services don’t require account creation, and the application also allows connection to your social networking accounts. This enables sharing of currently playing tracks with your network, as well as discovering new music based on their listening habits.
While linking to platforms like Twitter, Jabber, and Google Talk isn’t mandatory, it significantly expands music discovery opportunities and is worth consideration.
Integrating Local Music Collections
Beyond online streaming, many users maintain extensive music libraries on their computers and network drives. Tomahawk is designed to unify both online and offline music access.
Navigate to the Collection tab and select the folders containing your music files. For network-stored files, mapping them to a drive letter is necessary for Tomahawk to access them.
After configuring your settings, click OK to begin listening. The application will scan and catalog your local music collection, a process visible in the My Collection section.
Searching and Playlists
Searching your local collection is straightforward; simply use the Filter box within the My Collection section. Playlists and song queues can be created by right-clicking a track and selecting 'Add to Queue'.
The experience becomes more powerful when integrating online services. Utilize the search box at the top of the program window to search both your local files and enabled online repositories.
If connected to Google Talk and Twitter, the Super Collection section allows searching the music collections of your contacts, in addition to your own.
Radio Stations and Discovery
Tomahawk also facilitates the creation of ‘radio stations’ based on specified search terms. You can tailor these stations to be highly specific or more broadly defined.
Click the ‘Create new station’ link and name your station. Then, use the dropdown menu to select criteria for station setup – genre, similar artists, track length, and more.
Further refinement is possible by clicking the '+' button to add additional criteria.
The Browse section offers further discovery options. ‘Charts’ displays current popular tracks, while ‘New Releases’ showcases the latest additions to iTunes and Rovi.
How have the increasing number of online music services impacted your listening habits? What are your preferred platforms? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.