💾 Archived View for auragem.letz.dev › devlog › 20230914.gmi captured on 2023-09-28 at 16:01:26. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I am announcing the relaunch of AuraGem Music. AuraGem Music was a project I originally announced on 2022-07-15 that allowed people to upload their private collections of music with Titan and stream their private collection with Gemini. Unfortunately, the service was slow at that time, for various reasons, but this situation has been improved; although, it's still not perfect since the AuraGem server is still on a home network, but for 320 kbps mp3 files, it should still be fine.
Streaming on AuraGem Music should support any Gemini browsers that allow for streaming (by not timing out on long streams). Uploading music will require a client that supports Titan. Lagrange is an example of a client that supports both Titan and Gemini.
I have made some improvements in streaming speed and added the ability to stream a whole album in one continuous stream! I have also added the option to remove a song from your private music library. Finally, since the max bitrate of mp3 files is 320 kbps, all streaming is throttled to just above 320 kbps. I will continue to make updates to the service. One update that I am considering is adding more ways to upload music than just titan.
I will provide most of the text of the original announcement below, since it introduces what the service is:
2022-07-15 Introducing AuraGem Music
AuraGem Music is a free music hosting service that will let you upload mp3's via Titan to your own *private* library so that you can play them from the capsule using your identity certificate. Because of [somewhat] limited storage, there is a quota system, which you can find more information about on the capsule.
Currently only mp3s are supported... Files that are identical, excluding audio header and footers [ID3 tags]... will be deduplicated to save on space. This ensures that users have full advantage of as much space as is possible. The quota system will take deduplication into account by splitting the quota of identical songs between all users who have uploaded that song. It is assumed that uploaded music has been purchased, unless other evidence can be shown, within a DMCA request, to prove otherwise.
Music uploads remain private to the user that uploaded them and is not distributed to others on the capsule. Legally, users may only upload music that they have purchased. However, AuraGem Music will *not* be proactive in taking down pirated music, unless a DMCA request has been received that significantly proves the media was pirated. In that case only will DMCA requests be complied with. Users are solely responsible for uploading pirated music.
AuraGem Music will not break DRM, in compliance with US and UK law. Uploads must be DRM-free at the time of uploading. Users are solely responsible for breaking DRM prior to uploading to the service. DMCA requests will be complied with only if it was significantly proven that the user broke DRM prior to uploading to the service. Again, AuraGem will not be proactive in taking down music with DRM that was broken prior to uploading to the service, unless a DMCA request has been received with significant proof.
Information on the contents of users' private libraries will remain private and will not be given out on request unless a sufficient warrant has been obtained by the requesters.
Lastly, AuraGem Music will always remain free to use. However, because this service is run solely by one individual, it cannot be guaranteed that the service will not shut down in the future due to financial issues, server issues, etc. I do not ever intend to sell this service to any companies unless they are FOSS-Oriented and non-profit.