Amazon downloading works...

Indeed, you are correct. I hadn't noticed this.

For example, a search URL like the following (the kind of search URL Synergy would use to query for "Sting Sacred Love") as of this moment successfully returns a list of results:

http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml2?t=synerformacos-20& dev-t=D31GYSP62C9C55&type=lite& mode=music&page=1&f=xml& KeywordSearch=Sting%20Sacred%20Love 

Previously, when Amazon was blocking Synergy, instead of returning a result it would redirect to the Amazon front page.

Now, Amazon hasn't contacted me at all about removing the block, so I have no official word on why this is working again. My suspicion is it may be because most users have upgraded to one of the later versions of Synergy which doesn't hammer the Amazon servers. And there are no guarantees that it will continue to work in this way, either: I have had a small handful of reports over the last few months telling me that cover downloads were suddenly working again, but on attempting to verify this I saw that the block was either still in place, or had been re-instated. This could happen again.

Synergy version 1.0a3 (released 2 February 2004) was the last version which even attempted to query the Amazon servers. You could go back to using that or an older version in theory, but be warned that since then there have been lots of bugfixes, enhancements and additions (see the full version history for details). Use of these older versions isn't officially supported, and I can no longer supply them to you so please don't ask.

Given that I haven't heard back from Amazon there are no guarantees that this will continue to work. If everybody started using 1.0a3 again I think we can rest assured that Amazon would very quickly pull the plug again in response to the traffic going back up to its former level.

I am going to continue working on making modifications to the code so as to minimize traffic to the Amazon servers and thus deliver what will hopefully be a lasting and secure solution to this episode. The long term goal remains to firstly, reduce the number of queries made to Amazon's servers (through caching up to the limits permitted by their terms of service, and through implementing a more frugal, less aggressive search policy); and secondly, find ways to increase sales related to the queries. In addition, as many of you know, I am developing a separate product called Synergy Advance which won't be tied to Amazon and therefore won't have a single point of failure if a particular online database decides to refuse access.

When they originally blocked access, Amazon was seeing more than a query per second generated by Synergy users all over the world, yet almost nobody was ever selecting the "Buy from Amazon" menu item in the Synergy Global Item. Amazon is of course perfectly within its rights to withhold access if it believes it's not reaping enough profits in exchange for generously opening up its servers. Amazon is a business, after all, and not a charity. They certainly are not obliged to provide any of us with free album cover downloads; I for one am very thankful for the period of time in which they have done so.

Basically, I write the above to encourage you to use the "Buy from Amazon" menu item if you do want to use an older version of Synergy and download some covers. In doing so you can make a contribution and make it less likely that the service will be revoked again in the future.

Update: today I am seeding a private beta to the beta testers list which re-enables cover downloading. Here's a summary of the builds, from oldest to newest:

Last version with cover downloading code active: 1.0a3 First version with cover downloading code deactivated: 1.0a4 Updates (all without cover downloading): 1.0a5, 1.0a6 Currently released version: 1.0a7 Next public release version: 1.0a8 Private beta testing version: 1.0b

So the build sequence is 1.0a3, 1.0a4, 1.0a5, 1.0a6, 1.0a7, 1.0a8, 1.0b.

1.0b is considered very "beta" because it merges all of the under hood changes I have been making to the album covers system since Amazon pulled the plug. It is a major overhaul, and so there may be new bugs.

Please do not email me asking to be added to the beta testers list; there are already enough testers.

Once I get the green light from the testers, I will release a beta to the public. From an end-user perspective, users of the beta will note that some trade offs have been made:

1. Synergy queries Amazon less aggressively, which means you may have to wait longer for your album covers to appear.

2. Synergy caches the results more aggressively, so you may see some increased memory usage by Synergy.

3. Synergy won't attempt to retry at all in any given session. For example, even if you leave Synergy running for 20 days straight, it will only try to download a given album cover once. (Previously it would retry after an interval). The only way to get Synergy to retry is to stop it and start it.

I am hoping that these changes will bring a suitable compromise which will allow users to get their album covers, while minimizing the impact on the Amazon servers and thus allowing them to keep them open.

Just remember, try to use the "Buy from Amazon" link in the Global Menu so as keep Amazon happy about the sales rate...

Keep your eye on the site, or this forum, for a release announcement of the public beta in the future.

First time that someone's suggested this, as far as I know...

You could hack the Synergy binary with a hex editor and it might work. There is no GUI for it.

I am developing an architecture for Synergy Advance that will allow it to support multiple download sources. The code in Synergy, however, is very much hardwired to Amazon (xml.amazon.com to be precise), and it's very difficult to change it...

No problems reported so far by those on the private beta tester list, so for those of you who wish to try the beta, here is a beta download link.

Please note that this is NOT an officially supported release. You use it at your own risk. The official release continues to be available for download from the Synergy website front page (link).

The beta build is really only for the curious. I still recommend that users stick with the latest official release, which will be the most solid and stable version available.

In my own testing here, I haven't found any serious problems, but performance is weak compared to the latest released version of Synergy (1.0a7, and soon, 1.0a8). I'll be working on this. Hopefully after some further development and testing performance and stability will be back up where it should be and I can do an official public release.

Please remember that there are no guarantees from Amazon that they'll continue to allow access to their servers, and please use that "Buy from Amazon" menu item whenever you want to make purchases so as to increase the likelihood of Amazon allowing ongoing Synergy access.

Quote: When I download the beta it comes in as a php file. What am I suppossed to do with the file? Is there an installer available?

Another Internet Explorer user? You won't have any problems if you download using Safari.

Quote: When I download the beta it comes in as a php file. What am I suppossed to do with the file? Is there an installer available?

Every time I release an update to Synergy (or any other piece of software), I get about five emails from users of Internet Explorer asking for help downloading. I fear that there may be others who use Internet Explorer, have problems, but don't ask for help.

So, I believe I've implemented a solution that should keep everyone happy. From now on, users who try to download using IE will see a page like this:

People using Safari will continue to have no problems, and I suspect the same is true for users of Mozilla and other browsers as well.

Quote: Actually, I never understood why it was necessary to redownload an album cover automatically, no matter how often I restart the application. Once I have it, I have it - unless it's the wrong cover or something else goes wrong. If that's the case, then I should just have a button to push to redownload the cover (or let me delete the current cover so that it will be redownloaded). It's not as if album covers change.

At least, I really feel that this should be an option in the preferences.

It doesn't re-download. But it does keep a cached copy in the Application Support folder. It does this because in the old days Synergy supported album cover art before iTunes ever did, and so it had to manage its own cache of it.

For Synergy Advance, I'm designed a different caching mechanism which will eliminate that kind of redundancy.

I don't use FileVault so I can't test this. Synergy needs write access, of course, to put downloaded covers on the disc. I presume it asks for the password only once per run. Is that correct?

Quote: I have been using iTunes Publisher through the Konfabulator to bring up album covers. Is there any way I can instruct Synergy to pull the pictures from where they are stored on my hard drive. Also, is there a way I can just copy them in to Synergy or iTunes so Synergy can pull them up. I would prefer to quit using iTunes Publisher and just use Synergy. If you have any suggestions let me know at crhoton@talawanda.org

Thanks

The easiest way to share art between iTunes, Synergy and your other app(s) is probably just to drag it into iTunes (Synergy will automatically pull it from iTunes). You can do this for whole albums at a time quite easily by selecting all the tracks and dragging the image over into the cover art "well" in iTunes.

I've got some automation of this kind of thing as well as some other options planned for Synergy Advance.

Quote: So if I use Synergy on my Powerbook and my desktop mac (which I do), can I copy this folder from one mac to another, so that they both have the latest album covers?

My desktop mac is always online, but sometimes I use the Powerbook away from online access, and it would be great to benefit from a day's worth of album art auto-downloading.

You should be able to just duplicate your ~/Library/Application Support/Synergy/ folder, and providing your music files have the same ID3 tags, the art will work. No need to redownload.

Quote: Having noticed that Synergy 1.0 restores album downloading, and having read some things in the past that indicated that certain covers may be made to "expire" and be redownloaded in the future, I just wanted to make sure that nothing currently in my Synergy album covers folder will be redownloaded from Amazon.

Synergy won't redownload or overwrite anything in the album covers folder. Quote: I'd also like to know more about how this will work in the future. Personally, I like having the covers (one per album) in their own folder rather than embedded in each MP3 file, which would add several gigabytes to the size of my library. I can copy this entire folder to other computers and even use aliases to put the folder with my MP3's instead of the Application Support folder.

I'm working on a more flexible/capable system for Synergy Advance that can make use of cover art from a variety of sources, at the same time as providing the user with much finer control over how (or if) said art is to be stored or cached by Synergy. No matter how it ends up turning out, backwards compatibility with existing methods is one of the requirements I want to fulfil.

Quote: Have just upgraded to Synergy 1.0, but do not see them start contacting Amazon again. In preferences floater and picture are activated. What's up?

Three possible causes:

1. No art could be found matching the info in your ID3 tags. If you keep playing through your library you should hopefully see art found for other albums.

2. You may not have removed the old version when you installed 1.0; perhaps the old version is still running. To be sure, run the Synergy installer and click "Uninstall" to see a list of all installed files.

3. Amazon may have blocked access again or gone down; but to my knowledge neither of these things has happened.

Note that the downloading occurs in the background so you don't see any evidence of it occurring in the UI until the cover appears in the floater (I know, this isn't ideal. I plan to avoid this problem in Synergy Advance). If it takes a while to find and download the cover then you may not see it until the next time you play the song (because the floater may have already faded out by the time the album cover arrives).

Quote: I'm not getting new cover art now, either (with 1.0)

While on the coverart topic, thanks for working with the maker of Quicksilver for a coverart standard!

I'd suggest most likely the same reasons as I did above... what's an example track that it can't find the cover art for (artist, album, title)?

My guess would be that words like "Disc 3", "Disc 4" etc that may appear in your ID3 tags are fooling the Amazon search and so no results are getting returned.

Synergy does do some basic stripping of words like that which can foil a search. Synergy Advance will introduce much more configurable, sophisticated filtering options.

Quote: I assume that downloading is still blocked in v1.2 (upgrade installed yesterday)? Is there a way to force Synergy to get cover art from iTunes or elsewhere?

TIA, Steve

To my knowledge, downloading is not blocked nor has it been for some time (7 September 2004). No guarantees about the future though, as the service is entirely at Amazon's discretion.

As for getting cover art from iTunes, Synergy already does this and has done so since shortly after iTunes 4 came out a long time ago.

Perhaps it can't find artwork for that album.