I've long since turned in my Tilt for a Motorola Q9H but had to share with you guys. For some time now I've been on a quest to find a mobile music streaming application that would give me a nice interface and access to my home music collection. Social.FM desktop and mobile client is not quite there but head and shoulders above anything else I've found. The mobile client is a one time $20 but if you're interested I can help you get access to a promo copy. The desktop client is free. There's a station list on the mobile with access to a hundred or so genres and sub-genres.
Once you install the desktop client and point it to your local music collection it shows up on the mobile. Too easy.
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
wizzzard said:
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
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Ummmm...
ORB is nowhere close. I tried it. The web interface is kludgy. And why would you want to have to switch to a different application to change to a different album or artist. The interface of the Social.FM client is iPod like. One of the things about Orb that was frustrating was that the streaming format was not supported in all players, or at least the one I wanted to use. It's been a while since I totally dismissed it so I can't remember the details. I tried them all. The best streamer was 40th Floor iPlay with the server option running on my desktop. But the interface on that is made for a stylus. I have no need to use a stylus, ever.
Incidentally, that's why I gave up the Tilt for the Q9H. And I need to be able to type with one hand which is not possible with the Tilt. As soon as the I-Mate 8502 comes out I'll switch to that.
Don't get me wrong. The Social.FM player is not quite there. You can't pause and there is no AVRCP support. I imagine that pausing is coming soon. I just had a full workout at the gym while streaming from my desktop at work and had zero skips. I found an interview with the CEO of Social.FM (http://www.onuiq.com/) and he said that they're using Ogg Vorbis encoding. Says they can get full quality over EDGE.
You really should give it a try.
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
Sounds pretty cool in spite of its short-comings. It will be great when this concept is fully dialed-in.
surur said:
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
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Well, they must have seen the light cuz right now I'm streaming from, not only mine, but my buddy's desktop for free.
Side note:
If I had my way I'd be streaming Slacker.com to my phone. They have, hands down, the best content available. The stations (genres/sub-genres) are put together by "music experts". And I can vouch for them. I even wrote an application to sniff their ID3 tags and automatically download full quality MP3's (theirs is 128kbit) and then sync that to my iPod automatically with ml_iPod. They have aspirations to release their own hardware player but not only hasn't that happened but I think it's misguided. I would [so] pay to stream their content to my phone.
http://techmaderelevant.blogspot.com/2011/05/htc-evo-3d-and-view-4g-preorders-are-go.html
Still uploading all my songs lol, but so far I'm loving it! Who got their invite?
Can you just post your review here instead of linking to your blog for hits?
Here ya go:
Google's cloud-based music service was announced at this year's I/O conference to much fanfare and no surprise. While rumors of a music store had been rampant for quite some time, that wasn't quite what we got. Yet. But enough talk about what is not present, here's a quick sneak peak into Google Music Beta!
Before I get into this review, I'd like to make 2 disclaimers. The first and most important is that this entire service is Beta. There are imperfections that will no doubt be addressed. The second is that this is really 2 sneak peaks: One for the webapp and uploader, one for the Android app. Now, the good stuff.
First up is the meat and potatoes: The web interface and uploader. The uploading is incredibly easy. After a quick download and install, the Music Manager will scan your computer for the music. To avoid getting the random sound effects on your computer, you can have it scan through iTunes, Windows Media Player, or specific folders. Everything is done in the background, so you don't need to pay attention to it at all. You can also have it automatically run upon start up, keeping this truly out of sight and out of mind. The average library has a lot of music, mine being about 19.5Gb of tunes. At the time of this writing, I'm at 387 track uploaded after a few hours in, so completing this task will take a long time. The good news is Google promises each user 20,000 songs. My 19.5Gb accounts for roughly 4,000 tracks. The one issue I have is that I use iTunes, which means I don't really keep track of what the files are actually named. Since many tracks have numbers in front, and as far as I can tell the Music Manager uploads in alphabetical order, some albums can't be listened to in full.
The web app will look very familiar if you've used the web version of the Android Market. Everything is very tab-centric, making it incredibly easy to use. On the left side, you have the traditional ways of sorting through your library (Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres). Under that you get to the mixes and playlists. The auto-playlists sort out the songs you've Thumbs Up'd, your recently added stuff, and the free music Google is giving out. There's not a lot of it, and it's mostly a song or two per artist, but it's nice to get free stuff.
There are two kinds of playlists. You have your traditional playlists that you custom make by drag-and-dropping songs. The Music Manager also pulls your playlists from iTunes, which is very cool. You can also create Instant Mixes (a la Genius Mixes from iTunes) from individual songs or albums, adding in similar jams. Along the bottom is the Now Playing bar with the familiar Play/Pause, track navigation, Shuffle, Repeat, and Volume controls. I think the Now Playing bar could be a bit thinner. The width of it and the banners at the top make the song and album lists seem a little cramped. While the overall look isn't as visually impressive as the Zune player, it looks a lot better than iTunes but still has the information that iTunes has. Overall it's a very easy to use service while still looking very nice.
Now the dessert. The Android app is very basic, almost to a fault. First thing's first, it works pretty well. It decided to scare me by force closing the first time I tried to play a song, but every time after it worked well. Songs take very little time to load up on WiFi, though it does take a little bit longer on 3G. Swiping left and right switches through album, artist, etc. views. When on the now playing screen, you see the album cover, Play/Pause, song and artist name. One cool thing is being able to make custom playlists in the Now Playing screen, though it would make more sense to be able to make Instant Mixes from this screen. Maybe we'll get that later. You can also download songs or albums from the Library view and Now Playing screen.
The main problem with the app is a visual one. It's just boring. Like really boring. You're given a blurry, boring background picture. There's no animation between screens, nothing. It's just blah. It would have made a lot more sense to keep the color scheme and overall feel of the web app, while tweaking it a bit for smaller screens. The other small problem is that the name of the app is Music. So is the stock music app for Android. While the icons are different, this can be a bit confusing. They should made it Google Music for differentiation.
The biggest problem facing Google Music is the complete lack of a store. Google Music, as it is now, is just cloud storage and streaming. What's weird is that in both the web and Android app, you can "shop for artist", but it just does a Google Shopping search for that artist where you can buy the songs from somewhere else. This may work for now, but it isn't a longterm solution when Amazon is offering very similar services. Google is trying to get the labels to get on board in some fashion, but how long it will take and in what form we'll get the music remains to be seen. I'm hoping for a subscription service, and knowing how Google does things (and a fair amount of rumors supporting this theory), it's very likely that that is what we'll get.
Overall, Google Music is the best solution to having too much music to fit on your phone. While I'm also a big fan of subscription services like Rdio, they just don't have everything I listen to. Amazon's cloud storage is good, but it lacks a well done web player and uploading your stuff is obnoxious. Google nailed the upload and web version for sure. Once they lock in the record deals and make the Android app visually appealing, Google Music may just be the best music solution yet.
Everybody outside of the USA should have a look at 4shared music in the android market.
The most underrated and probably best international cloud service around
Has anyone tried to play it through a different player like PowerAmp. I don't want to listen to music on a lesser player, not since I've heard the difference. Also, are the playlists recognized by other players like PowerAmp?
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got my beta invite today...yippe
got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????
vampir4997 said:
got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????
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You have to set up the app on your PC. There is a link from the music.google.com page near the top right for the android app.
For me, I think the biggest opportunity for the android app will be mire management features. Currently you cannot thumbs up it down a track from mobile, and you cannot delete one either. Also it does not appear to be updating the play count when tracks are played via the mobile app. Overall , the app feels more alpha tech demo than it does an actual beta.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using Tapatalk.
I would love to try this out but unfortunately my library is larger than 20,000 songs :/
i'm trying to figure out the best balance of bitrate and battery. my V0 mp3s eat battery. i think pandora streams at q.2 48kbps AAC. i'm trying out flac-->q.25 63kbps AAC right now.
i think slacker, pandora, and lastfm are all around 48kbps. this might be an agreement with mobile providers--they all stream higher bitrate to the desktop than mobile.
or maybe i should just use it as a locker, and download from it? can't imagine when i would need that. don't really see a good use for this yet. the only reason i would stream is for discovery or lazy mix, and those services don't sound great. if they were higher bitrate, they would eat battery.
All my music is either uploaded to amazon mp3 or on amazon's cloudshare storage. I wish there was a way to get the music over to google without downloading and then re-uploading.
q.25 aac (63kbps) sounds like doodoo. i guess i would only use google music when on a ac or car charger, so that i can afford to play higher bitrates
i don't know, maybe it's my phone's audio chip. the m4a files sound better on my pc than my phone. htc thunderbolt
Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?
sfreemanoh said:
Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?
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no - uploading your files to the cloud and streaming to your device is not "sharing" copyrighted material. no matter how dubious your music sources may or may not be, there is nothing inherently illegal about accessing through the cloud. in fact, it is only the act of sharing/uploading/seeding copyrighted material that is illegal.
i think its prety sweet so far. abiltly to deleted tracks from phone and some better 3g speeds would make it that much better. Anyone have this on multiple phones?? downloaded the player from the market to put it on my wifes phone but it is not in the settings to add an account. downloaded mine from the market and it has a different options menu.
I'm enjoying it so far. I was previously using AudioGalaxy to stream my collection from my home pc to other devices, but I definitely prefer the cloud storage method.
Took roughly 40 hours to upload 5k songs, not too bad. Had to convert some files to aac, but not many. Ran into 1 glitch where the uploader claims that a few song files don't contain anything, which they clearly do.. still not quite sure how to fix that problem, but it's only on 4 songs that I never listen to, so not that big of a deal.
At the end of the day, big thumbs up from me.
Im in beta but no streaming
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!
c_urbanek said:
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!
Click to expand...
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Check out "Settings" and there should be an option to link it to your Google Account. I linked it and it still wasn't streaming though. I rebooted my phone, but that didn't seem to work either. Then randomly, a day or two later, it spontaneously started showing my music to stream. YMMV...
Offline music question ...
Here is a question for the Google Music Beta experts ...
One thing I love about Google Music on my phone is the ability to pin music. This allows us to play the 'pinned' music even when there is no 3G or WIFI service. The way I manage my offline music is through a playlist I made called "My Favorites". I have this playlist pinned, so anytime I add new music to it, it will automatically download when I am connected to WIFI. The question I have is ... what happens if I removed songs from the pinned playlist? Will they be removed from my phone? Or do they stay on my phone? I am hoping they are removed. I would hate for my SD card to get filled up with songs that I don't care to be available when I am offline.
Thanks
I have 30k+ songs in my itunes library, how do I pick and choose which songs to add/delete?
I think I have found something quite interesting I just got spotify and was wondering how to convert the music to my ipod mp3 format. I don't believe they use drm.
Expiriment:
I played one song only.
I recorded the cached files size after the song was played.
Output:
I got 4 files that were each 1.3 mb each. I also download a ogg version of the song I wanted in 160 kb/s (correct me if I'm wrong I don't know the right unit)
the size is 4x1.3 = 5.2 mb and the ogg version I downloaded from the internet was 5.2 mb.
I believe spotify splits up the files and then puts them back together somehow.
Im no programmer just a redneck with alot of time on my hands when its raining. So is this possible?
Well the easiest way must be to record the play-back from the Spotify program/client with Audacity(GNU/freeware). In Audacity choosing the Windows Stereo Mixer as source.
Then export the Audacity files in any format of your own liking.
For further tagging and then transfer to your MP3-player.
Though. having a Spotify Premium account and a Smatphone (Desire HD) as a music player.
Gives me several playlists with some 1000 songs to play streamed over Wifi or 3G, and some 200 song off-line.
As a bonus I can use the same account on my PC (Not at the same time but with the same playlists) for playing Spotify thru the Home stereo amplifier and floor standing speakers.
PS. the DHD/Spotify is my music player at home and away, have hardly touched my CD collection since I got Spotify, still seldom over 4GB/month.
but the problem is I have over 1000 songs already (US User). and no windows computers. If you have the premium account and have offline mode could you go to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Spotify\Storage and get me the biggest file in there so i can test some more
I'm away from home, my summer vacation.
I believe cracking Spotify's music crypting will not be easier than cracking my Internet bank account.
The music companies would never allow their music on Spotify if it was easy to crack.
Here's my Spotify files on my Android DHD at least.
Phone/sdcard/spotify2/Users/Storage. The Storage folder hold some 900MB of data
Phone/sdcard/spotify2/username, Hold just a couple of MB
I didn't want to mess around in there but some hundreds sub-folders(00, 11 e1, fe etc)
If you got 1000 song to convert/pirate for your Ipod, you better get started.
Recorders for the Stereo Mixer(or what ever it's called for Linux and Mac)
you could try audacity like someone else suggested. or tunebite. it works in a similar way. basically, you record from the sound card but the soft cuts the audio files and adds tags to each of them so you get the full song in once piece. you can find a step by step description here in case you wanna give it a try. oh and does converting as well so if you need mp3 files, you're covered.
Old thread is old, and it's also a discussion about pirating music from a paid service, which is obviously a no-no.
Thread closed.
Love the new Lumia 920 WP8, but there is no Amazon cloud player app yet, also if you navigate to the cloud web player everything is fine until you hit play and it just hangs.. no sound.
Also, the only other streaming alternative that offers control and NO monthly subscription fee is Subsonic and that will no play audio from Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack!!!
twistedneck said:
Love the new Lumia 920 WP8, but there is no Amazon cloud player app yet, also if you navigate to the cloud web player everything is fine until you hit play and it just hangs.. no sound.
Also, the only other streaming alternative that offers control and NO monthly subscription fee is Subsonic and that will no play audio from Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack!!!
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Click to collapse
There's also Nokia's Mix. Which is free to all Lumia owner. I've been playing with it a little this morning and so far seems to be okay. [It might not have all the latest/greatest or some other off bands too though].
twistedneck said:
Love the new Lumia 920 WP8, but there is no Amazon cloud player app yet, also if you navigate to the cloud web player everything is fine until you hit play and it just hangs.. no sound.
Also, the only other streaming alternative that offers control and NO monthly subscription fee is Subsonic and that will no play audio from Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack!!!
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Click to collapse
It looks like Subsonic got a WP8 update on 12/3. I personally use Last.fm as my free streaming option but Nokia Music ain't half bad either (and it plays/controls music from your collection.
the fight said:
It looks like Subsonic got a WP8 update on 12/3. I personally use Last.fm as my free streaming option but Nokia Music ain't half bad either (and it plays/controls music from your collection.
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That new Subsonic update is very good.. there is an issue with low volume but i think thats intentional. crank up the music and when a notification sound comes through on bluetooth it blows your eardrums out.
the real issue is wifi shutting down when the phone goes to sleep. Trying to listen to more than 5min of audio and the phone just stops playing through subsonic. Turn off wifi and it plays great all night but eats up data.
Any ideas how to fix this one?
I prefer Slacker Radio myself.
There are a lot of great music streaming services out there. Let me know which one(s) are you using with your personal notes so that I can decide which platform I should switch to.
I am a long time Spotify Premium user, who utilized Spotify connect religiously. But as we all know Spotify doesn't really put in a lot of effort on their Android app. So recently I have been having issues with playback (crashes in the background) and as Spotify is only making their app worse with every update on Android, I thought it is time to switch to another platform/go offline. What are your thoughts and experiences with the current music streaming services?
YouTube Music is very good app.
I have YouTube premium so I use Youtube Music and Google Play Music.
I use YouTube and Spotify - the best apps for me.
spotify ofc
I use Spotify. JRE podcast is moving to Spotify so that's a plus.
YouTube
YouTube
Made good use of my .5tb SD card and a 220 gb CD/HDCD collection that's ripped to hdds as wav files.
Over 6000 songs means I don't get bored of the music just listening at times.
Poweramp does an excellent job of managing playlists and playback. It's graphic equalizer that allows unlimited saved presets to be saved by song/album/playlist plus settings/playlist backup makes it a complete and unparalleled Android player solution.
The online sources don't cover a lot of what I want and are a pain to use. Worse I can't dial the sound in and/or saved multiple EQ presets.
I use Spotify to listen to my music
i just have all of my favorite songs on a youtube playlist. saves me money.
I dont let anyone choose music for me, never. So no need for any stream online platform. My music is with me on my SD card 128GB. more than enough!
I will never depend on the internet to access music...
I am a Spotify user but can you tell what's the difference in this??????
marstonpear said:
There are a lot of great music streaming services out there. Let me know which one(s) are you using with your personal notes so that I can decide which platform I should switch to.
I am a long time Spotify Premium user, who utilized Spotify connect religiously. But as we all know Spotify doesn't really put in a lot of effort on their Android app. So recently I have been having issues with playback (crashes in the background) and as Spotify is only making their app worse with every update on Android, I thought it is time to switch to another platform/go offline. What are your thoughts and experiences with the current music streaming services?
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Same as I was 5+ years ago. YouTube and a YT to Mp3 converter.
Nothing can ever beat FLAC