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Starting a song/playlist from main Alfred popup


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I'm new to Alfred (coming from Launchbar), and wanted to do something pretty simple.

 

I usually listen to one of 3 or 4 stations through iTunes. In Launchbar I just typed the name of the station (trance) and hit enter to start it playing. I realize that Alfred has an iTunes mini-player keyed to command-control-enter, but that's not part of my muscle memory and it seems like overkill since I only have 3 or 4 stations I listen to.  

 

Is there any way to create a workflow so that I can use the normal alfred window to start my itunes station based on it's name?  I looked at the iTunes items in the workflow list, and none of them seem to look up a song or playlist. Any ideas?

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I'm new to Alfred (coming from Launchbar), and wanted to do something pretty simple.

 

I usually listen to one of 3 or 4 stations through iTunes. In Launchbar I just typed the name of the station (trance) and hit enter to start it playing. I realize that Alfred has an iTunes mini-player keyed to command-control-enter, but that's not part of my muscle memory and it seems like overkill since I only have 3 or 4 stations I listen to.  

 

Is there any way to create a workflow so that I can use the normal alfred window to start my itunes station based on it's name?  I looked at the iTunes items in the workflow list, and none of them seem to look up a song or playlist. Any ideas?

 

Are these stations something opened in iTunes Radio or are they a link to a radio station? I believe there are several options for this, we just need to figure out which is the best fit for you. If it's a link, you could create a custom search item for the stations. 

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Thanks for responding!

 

They are links to a radio station that have been imported into iTunes. I tried having Alfred open the link, but then the link opens in Safari, which isn't quite right.  Opening the link in iTunes gives me more control over the volume and works with the play/pause button on my mac.

 

The custom search item sounds promising, how would I do that, or where could I read up on how to do that?

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Thanks for responding!

 

They are links to a radio station that have been imported into iTunes. I tried having Alfred open the link, but then the link opens in Safari, which isn't quite right.  Opening the link in iTunes gives me more control over the volume and works with the play/pause button on my mac.

 

The custom search item sounds promising, how would I do that, or where could I read up on how to do that?

 

After looking again for a minute, the web streams, since they are a url will by default (when using the custom search) will open in a browser. Another possible fix for this though is to simply create a workflow and then add a keyword for each of your stations that you listen to.

 

So, for instance, I found a random url to a web radio stream (http://icecast.media.berkeley.edu:8000/kalx-128.mp3.m3u). You could create a workflow, add a keyword, and then add a Run Script (this would be per station). You could set a common keyword for all so you could type one keyword and then have a list of which to play. In the Run Script item, leave the language set to bash and use the following command

open -a /Applications/iTunes.app/ "http://icecast.media.berkeley.edu:8000/kalx-128.mp3.m3u"

Where the url in the example would be replaced with the url to the web radio station that you wish to play.

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