Mathias Panzenböck, a student at the technical university in Vienna, Austria, has been working an entirely Javascript-based Magnatune audio player. Mathias is already notorious for his "Browser Ponies" javascript hack (MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED!), which draws way-too-cute animated ponies all over your web browser.
I've been talking to Mathias for some weeks now, and I think his project is solid enough for me to show it to you, and for you to give it a try. It's pretty impressive, and very useful as an alternative way of finding and playing Magnatune's music.
You can try his Magnatune player at this URL:
http://greattuneplayer.jit.su//
There is a "take a tour" link which shows you the various features, including a nicely done drag-and-drop playlist feature. I do recommend it.
If you're a member, be sure to click the "[ ] Member" box toward the top and give the player your name and password. You can then listen advertising-free.
There is a collapsing genre-browser on the left side of the page, which shows you artist info (and their albums) when you click on an artist, and then more info about the album when you click on an album. You can play albums directly, or add them to a playing queue.
Here are some screen pictures from Mathias' player:
Mathias' project is open source, based on SQLite, and is an impressive example of what you can do with Javascript these days. Note that some web browsers (such as the iPhone/iPad, and IE) still have some visual glitches). We're also unsure whether his server is up to the task of lots of Magnatune fans using his site at the same time, so this is a good beta test!
-john