The Amarok Team is proud to present the first official alpha release, codename Malina, of the upcoming Amarok 2 series. Features available in this release outline the feature set of Amarok 2.0 while making a starting point in the Amarok 2 journey.

The wolf is growing ;-)

Some of the highlights of the new alpha include:

New fascinating look: With the use of vector graphics, artwork looks crispier than ever, while color scheme independence guarantees it'll look gorgeous no matter what.

Innovative user interface: Don't miss several UI innovations like the Plasma powered Context View, new space efficient playlist, and amazing PopUp Dropper! The new Context View allows you to show all the context information you care about. We expect a lot of Plasmoids to be provided by the community in the first months after the release of Amarok 2. PopUp Dropper lets you do different things with your files by simply dragging them to the context view and dropping them on the appropriate area. Append songs to the playlist, copy songs to your local collection, transfer them to your mobile device and edit their tags are just some of the operations PopUp Dropper offers.

Almighty Internet service framework: Seamlessly integrate online music repositories and web services into your musical experience. With online sources like Magnatune, Last.fm, Jamendo, Ampache and MP3tunes you'll be supplied with music 24/7.

Powerful scripting: The new scripting interface is fully based on Qt technology. The APIs are being redesigned, so script authors are asked to wait at least for the first beta release before porting their scripts.

Dynamic and new Biased playlists: Let Amarok choose the music for you. In this alpha you will see the foundations of the new Biased playlists which in the future will let you specify dynamic playlist for any occasion.

Mobile devices support: We are working hard to make sure you'll easily and efficiently access music on your media devices within Amarok, and integrate it with your music collection.

Cross platform: This Alpha release lays the groundwork for a release on all major platforms. Future releases will feature Linux, Windows and MacOS versions.

Don't wait any longer! Grab your copy of Amarok Alpha 1 and help us polish it into a best release so far! Any kind of help is highly appreciated: from patches and bugfixes, through testing and bugreports, to documentation writing, translating and promotion. Oh, and we like artists too! Check out our Jobs page, or drop by in #amarok on Freenode.

Please be aware that this is alpha stage software. Bugs and unfinished features are to be expected. All of the features mentioned above still need work.

The Amarok 2 FAQ addresses some of the questions you might have about Amarok 2.