An Alternate Cloud Music Player - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I am not sure where to post this question. This seemed like the best place.
I was wondering if there are any cloud music services for Android that are not Amazon Cloud Player or Google Play Music. Both of them disappoint me in some way. I use to use Amazon but since they switched to a service closer to Apple's, I am just turned off of using it. I do not like being limited to only uploading 250 songs to my player. I do not need the matching service at all. My mp3 files are fine as is and I feel that automatic uploads are overrated. I do not mind waiting a few minutes to upload my own files and really Amazon is not letting me do this anymore, as far as I know.
Google Play Music has never really clicked with me. I love how the playlist sync but I do not like how it mixes the pool of online and offline songs. It also seems to be too combersome for me to specifically tell it, I want my entire library on my device and get it to automatically download all of my music. Using Play Music is a lot like using an iOS device, so simple that I feel like I have lost some functionality. I could just be using it wrong but it just is not clicking even as I have been forced back into using it.
I want a cloud music service that allows me to set up playlist that I can accesses on both of my computer, android tablet, and android phone. I also want it to allow me to automatically download new music that I put up there on my computer onto my tablet and phone. Making it clear what is on the cloud and on my device is handy also. Besides these two programs, are there any others that do this or am I just not seeing Amazon or Google to their fullest potential.
Thanks.

Related

How happy are you with Google Music?

What features would you like to see added/removed, and are you happy with it compared to the stock music app, or how do you feel it stacks up against another music app.
*This is a general topic, and I'm just curious to see the community's response.*
I don't use it. It doesn't have features I need.
Namely, ability to keep the screen from sleeping, and the ability to limit where it looks for music at.
i like gmusic. I dont use it daily (I use slacker daily) but gmusic works great when I do need it. Its far more reliable than when it first came out, so they're definitely making progress.
My only complaint is when I flash a new rom, it registers my phone as a new device so it adds it to gmusic (which is great) but google limits it to 8 devices. So occasionally I need to go into gmusic website and delete my old devices, which is all the same phone. Its not really a complaint for google but i wish there was a way for it to detect that its the same device/IMEI
I personally love google music I use it daily. I have a computer for school and don't want to cramp it up with music so I can stream everything. Also I use my phone in my truck for music and it is nice to have access to all my music when I need it.
Absolutely love it. I have my entire collection stored. My main problem lies when I'm doing file management and the media scanner starts while I'm playing music. Google Music stops streaming completely and I have to manually restart it. I turned caching off, so that the song being played is solely dependent on the connection, but it still does it. I suppose it stops to look for new songs that might have been added. I'd like it to at least resume playback when scanning stops.
The other thing is with optimization I guess. In my last billing cycle, I got throttled and streaming was impossible (as expected). However, Pandora was still able to stream entire songs, for long sessions without stutter (it just took longer between songs). I'm curious if it'd be possible for them to improve performance on slow networks, so that it's on par with Pandora.
Alucardis666 said:
*This is a general topic, and I'm just curious to see the community's response.*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
General is something related directly to the phone or an app that comes stock with the phone. GoogleMusic does not fit that description since it has to be installed by the user and not everyone uses it. This should have been in Themes and Apps. Just sayin'.
I wish it would sync with a folder on my phone with all my music, so that when it tries to play a song, it checks that folder on my phone first before downloading the song with a weird name in another random folder. That way, whenever I add a song on my computer to the Google Music Folder, it adds to my phone as well when I try to play it, keeping my music in sync.
yahoowizard said:
I wish it would sync with a folder on my phone with all my music, so that when it tries to play a song, it checks that folder on my phone first before downloading the song with a weird name in another random folder. That way, whenever I add a song on my computer to the Google Music Folder, it adds to my phone as well when I try to play it, keeping my music in sync.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That'd be boss. Maybe in a future update?
I love google music.
Especially after switching from iTunes and my iPhone 4. I really hated iTunes haha
i like it on my zoom and Google TV. But I wish it would sync playlist too. A good playlist takes time and it wouldn't be nice to listen to them on phone, tablet and TV. The main thing that make be go back to the Samsung music player is that while connected to my Bluetooth stereo it shows track info on the stereo but the Google music doesn't. Not a big thing, but enough to keep me using the samsung player. If those two were fixed it would be a perfect player.
K Rich said:
I love google music.
Especially after switching from iTunes and my iPhone 4. I really hated iTunes haha
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too converted, and couldn't be happier.
Absolutely love Google music. No complaints here, it works great. I'm really happy that Google came out with this app, I show everyone with an Android phone.
im using PowerAmp i think its better than gMusic
Not bad... Steaming better but still slower than other streaming apps.
My biggest complaint is music purchased can only be played in gmusic and can't be downloaded to phone or computer. Frustrating when I paid for something. if they keep prices at $4.99 album $.49 song I might get over it... Doubtful that will last.
Saw app in market that claims to make music portable though.
SHOstock
DD12/21 exp
Onepointsixingit
mjgspr95 said:
Not bad... Steaming better but still slower than other streaming apps.
My biggest complaint is music purchased can only be played in gmusic and can't be downloaded to phone or computer. Frustrating when I paid for something. if they keep prices at $4.99 album $.49 song I might get over it... Doubtful that will last.
Saw app in market that claims to make music portable though.
SHOstock
DD12/21 exp
Onepointsixingit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just click on the song you purchased and click download. It will let you download it at 320k and no drm. Also the google music manager has an option to auto download any purchased songs to your pc automatically.
---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:59 AM ----------
I would really like to be able to download my music that was uploaded to google music. I had everything in itunes also, and one day after it was all uploaded itunes moved everything without me knowing it and that file got deleted on accident. Of course i didn't care at the time because nothing should have been there. Thanks itunes.
benk016 said:
Also the google music manager has an option to auto download any purchased songs to your pc automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Automagically? I missed that. Cool.
Sent from my Galaxy SII
My only complaint is the shuffle feature isnt very good at all, I only have a library of about 400 songs yet some songs I never hear when I use shuffle all n some songs I will hear twice in a 10 song span. I use gmusic daily n love it other than that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
Love it!!!
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
I wish there was a way to manage the songs on the server from the phone. I sent all my music to the server and now run across songs (when in shuffle) that I no longer want. Would like to delete the song off the server from my phone.
mjgspr95 said:
Not bad... Steaming better but still slower than other streaming apps.
My biggest complaint is music purchased can only be played in gmusic and can't be downloaded to phone or computer. Frustrating when I paid for something. if they keep prices at $4.99 album $.49 song I might get over it... Doubtful that will last.
Saw app in market that claims to make music portable though.
SHOstock
DD12/21 exp
Onepointsixingit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uhh, yes it can...

Music Syncing

I need to know what/how people are syncing their music with their phones. I purchased MediaMonkey for me and my gf (we both have I777) and was able to sync my playlist in MediaMonkey to the phone. However, I messed up the playlist. I added a file to the root of the external SD card called '.isaudioplayer' and that caused the m3u file to have incorrect paths. When I viewed the m3u file in a text editor on the phone, It said F:/Music/yadda. Obviously, F: is wrong. How are your playlists listed? Thanks for the assistance!
have you thought about using google music? No need to sync your music at all. Just stream from the app.
+1 on google music, I use it every day and love it
I have Google Music. I don't like it. The Android app sucks. I tell it to only play local music, and it plays online music anyway. The app won't reload it's list of music (after an upload to the SD card). I have to reboot the phone to get the app to see the new music. I have uploaded my library to Google Music, but I wasn't finished tagging the library correctly. So basically, I need to finish tagging the library correctly, erase everything on Google Music, and then re-upload. Then create playlists. Not to mention the fact, that I have MythTV at home to play music in my living room, and Subsonic to stream music to the phone/work desktop. I hate having to create playlists. That's the worst thing in the world. If Google actually created/released APIs for Google music, then MediaMonkey/MythTV could integrate (not to mention the really cool CM9 inspired new Music app out there).
I also received a message from AT&T telling me I was in the top 5% of users this month. I find that completely unbelievable. I only stream music for ~20 minutes a day. Be it from home via Subsonic, or Google Music. So having it local helps. Not to mention the GF is on my plan now, but we only gave her 2GBs. That will just be eaten up by Google Music.
But the biggest issue is I want the music on my phone because when I hit the fitness room in the basement of my office, I get 0 WLAN bars and 0 3G bars. So I need local music. GF also has the issue of signal strength where she goes.
Does anyone have a playlist.m3u file I could look at to see the proper format of the file? Also, is there anyone else like me out there that actually puts music on their phones now?
I tried media monkey, but ultimately it didn't work out for me. What I ended up doing was using winamp on the computer to sync my music and playlists to my phone, actually my SD card. I lose the ability to do wireless sync, but I like keeping all of my music on the external memory. Also, I didn't really like the winamp for android, so I switched to using playerpro. The playlists and everything work out very nicely, and they stay in sync.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
iSyncr or doubleTwist Airsync i'd suggest looking into. They are probably the top of the list aside from Google Music.
I've been using doubleTwist and it is everything i could need however it comes with a whole new Media Program to install (stills syncs with iTunes though).
iSyncr is nice if you only want to use iTunes because it's basically an "addon" and this way you don't need a whole new media managing program.
Google Music is very basic and simple. You might as well get it anyways as a backup but I don't personally like the app/online management of music; it is just too difficult to edit files. However if you want to go this route you can get Google Music Importer which will let you save the music you pin for offline mode from within the android app to be used in other music app's (otherwise you are forced with always using the Google Music app to play the music from online).
Tried iSync and doubletwist and settled on iSync. so I keep my music on itunes and just sync with the phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
I used iSyncr for a while, worked great, but I hated being tied down to iTunes. Bought MediaMonkey and, after some configs, I love it.
I have it set so that songs are:
/sdcard/MediaMonkey/Music/songs
And playlists:
/sdcard/MediaMonkey/Music/playlists
And I have the playlists to have relative paths, so drive letters don't matter.
PlayerPro works just fine with this setup. So does PowerAMP.
Here's my device config XML, just import in MediaMonkey if you like.
Syncing? What's that?
I just copy everything I want to listen to, to /my_music on the internal storage.
Edit: I don't use playlists either, blegh.
jhermit said:
Tried iSync and doubletwist and settled on iSync. so I keep my music on itunes and just sync with the phone.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions all. We are trying to move away from iTunes at home. The fact is that iTunes on Windows doesn't support FLAC audio. It does on OS X, but I'm not going that route. I guess I just deal with the faults of MediaMonkey. But really, if anyone can just attach their m3u file that WORKS on the Android phone, then I'd be grateful. Thanks!
I will upload a few sample m3u files when I get onto a computer.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
I linked you how to get MediaMonkey working perfectly for sync...
I use MediaMonkey. I have 40K+ songs to choose from to sync to a 32GB card, so I select a few playlists of select songs to fill it up. Auto-syncs every time I plug the MicroSD card into the computer (I hate having to shut the phone off, but I found syncing to be faster when the card is directly plugged in versus plugging the phone in).
No problems here. Syncing is fast and never have any issues.
I use iSyncr. Support for iTunes Smart playlist is a must for how I manage a series of ever changing playlists. Because it also maintains the correct smart playlist order (something that Apple messed up with iTunes 10.5/iOS5 on my iPod Touch) it syncs music better than iTunes does for my iPod.
Well I finally got this working. I found out that simply RIGHT clicking on a playlist, and telling it to sync to the mounted I777 will sync the music in that playlist, but NOT the actual playlist. Pretty crappy design in my opinion.
I figured it out last night. In Media Monkey, go to your device you want to sync. In the AUTO-SYNC tab, click on the playlists in the left pane of the device window. Then choose the playlists you want to auto-sync. Then go to the OPTIONS tab in that same device window, and tell it to "Create Playlists for:" and choose "Synced Playlists" (I'm not in front of MM now, but it's something like that option). Then tell it to use relative paths, and to swap the "\" for the "/". Done and done. PITA.
CNLiberal said:
Well I finally got this working. I found out that simply RIGHT clicking on a playlist, and telling it to sync to the mounted I777 will sync the music in that playlist, but NOT the actual playlist. Pretty crappy design in my opinion.
I figured it out last night. In Media Monkey, go to your device you want to sync. In the AUTO-SYNC tab, click on the playlists in the left pane of the device window. Then choose the playlists you want to auto-sync. Then go to the OPTIONS tab in that same device window, and tell it to "Create Playlists for:" and choose "Synced Playlists" (I'm not in front of MM now, but it's something like that option). Then tell it to use relative paths, and to swap the "\" for the "/". Done and done. PITA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why you chose to ignore my post with the MediaMonkey configuration that had all of that work done...
MaxRabbit said:
I don't know why you chose to ignore my post with the MediaMonkey configuration that had all of that work done...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I left work early, and didn't see it. Sorry. I really appreciate you posting it though!
CNLiberal said:
I left work early, and didn't see it. Sorry. I really appreciate you posting it though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. Welcome!
CNLiberal said:
I also received a message from AT&T telling me I was in the top 5% of users this month. I find that completely unbelievable. I only stream music for ~20 minutes a day. Be it from home via Subsonic, or Google Music. So having it local helps. Not to mention the GF is on my plan now, but we only gave her 2GBs. That will just be eaten up by Google Music.
But the biggest issue is I want the music on my phone because when I hit the fitness room in the basement of my office, I get 0 WLAN bars and 0 3G bars. So I need local music. GF also has the issue of signal strength where she goes.
Does anyone have a playlist.m3u file I could look at to see the proper format of the file? Also, is there anyone else like me out there that actually puts music on their phones now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Music's online streaming uses A LOT of data. Even for 20 minutes worth. GM single handedly made me go over my data. They need to fix that. The only way around it is making songs available offline.
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Music streaming from google music is the same as everything else. A song is roughly 6mb, 20 minutes would be around 30mb downloaded. It does take an extreme about of data usage and other then uploading lower quality songs not much will change it. Make sure you don't have "download high quality"option in settings checked.
You can also pin songs to keep them usable offline.
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iTunes music

Hi, just recently switch from IOS to android and loving it. The note is so wonderful. One question, how can I transfer all my music, playlist, play count from iTunes to my note. I have about 7 gigs of music on iTunes and have no clue how to transfer the file over. Please help!
killeen1980 said:
Hi, just recently switch from IOS to android and loving it. The note is so wonderful. One question, how can I transfer all my music, playlist, play count from iTunes to my note. I have about 7 gigs of music on iTunes and have no clue how to transfer the file over. Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try double twist or isync on market. U ain't saving them play counts though
Easier way:
Go to itunes and consolidate files (search Google on howto)
Then go to that file directory on your computer (perhaps C: >iTunes>media>music)
COPY AND PASTE THE MUSIC TO THE MEDIA FOLDER OF YOUR ANDROID PHONE
Or if you have an external sd card (which I highly suggest you get) just copy and paste with no orginization
That's IT.
When you buy new music from itunes (which in practice it only makes sence to buy it from Google now) repeat this process!
NOTE: CONSOLIDATING YOUR MUSIC WILL ADD MEMORY TO YOUR COMPUTER. NOT A BIG DEAL WHATSOEVER BUT I THOUGHT ID TELL YOU.
P.s.: don't use doubletwist its a pain in the ass unless you want 2 programs doing the same thing
Playlists function the same way except you must copy the music first onto your phone. once that's complete you have to export the playlist from itunes
(Right click playlist>export>search>choose file directory [wherever your music/media is])
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
killeen1980 said:
Hi, just recently switch from IOS to android and loving it. The note is so wonderful. One question, how can I transfer all my music, playlist, play count from iTunes to my note. I have about 7 gigs of music on iTunes and have no clue how to transfer the file over. Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to music.Google.com.
You can open a Google music account for free and download " music manager". (It will give you this option when you register). It will automatically add your entire iTunes library to Google server and you can then listen to your music anywhere on the stream with Google play music app. Might take a while to upload everything depending on the size of your library. And you can set it to automatically upload any files you add to your iTunes library from this point forward. It works flawlessly.
A gamechanger.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
I use iSyncr. I let it automatically sync to iTunes every night at 12. It also syncs playlists too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
You can go onto Samsung Kies, Then connect your device Scroll down and then there's an option for back ups find your itunes iPhone back up and Convert it
Sorry That I can't go indepth my Phone is rooted / new rom So I can't connect. x)
There are many options(almost too many), but your best bet is google music. My wife has an iPod and every time she gets a new song it automatically uploads with music manager. You can't go wrong with this option because you never have to worry about it again. If you have no need for your iTunes account anymore then you can start buying all your content from google from here on out. Another plus is no space is taken up on your sd.
Sent from Galaxy Note
OK, but...
Please correct me if I am wrong, but one big downside I see to Google Music is that you are streaming (and not syncing) all your music, correct?
I don't mind putting another copy of my library in Google Music, but it would be much more useful to me if it had some sort of iCloud/iTunes Match functionality where the local library on the phone was automatically updated when on WiFi, etc.
I have "unlimited" data, so I really don't care, but I never liked the notion of streaming my music. I would prefer to have it local.
If there is an option to sync within Google Music and not a 3rd-party app, I would really like to hear more.
Thanks!
-Rob
It is absolutely that. A cloud service that stores all your media online. There is a way to make songs available offline on your phone, but I've never used it. I absolutely love it. Just download music manager to your PC or Mac and it will do the rest. Download the google music app to your phone(not a third party app) and all your iTunes songs will be there waiting for you.
Sent from Galaxy Note
froidroid said:
It is absolutely that. A cloud service that stores all your media online. There is a way to make songs available offline on your phone, but I've never used it. I absolutely love it. Just download music manager to your PC or Mac and it will do the rest. Download the google music app to your phone(not a third party app) and all your iTunes songs will be there waiting for you.
Sent from Galaxy Note
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To add to your good post, u select what songs u want available offline, and it caches em to your sd card. in case u have no or slow data somewhere
esincho said:
To add to your good post, u select what songs u want available offline, and it caches em to your sd card. in case u have no or slow data somewhere
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice to know. I assumed it did just that, but never tried. Thanks
Sent from Galaxy Note
Is there a setting that just automatically downloads all songs locally to the SD card though? I have tried manually making select songs available, but that isn't the point (for me). I want more automatic, iTunes-like syncing. If you have ever used iCloud or Match you would know what I am talking about.
I don't mind using iTunes to manage my media, I just want a way to sync all my devices (iOS and Android) and keep them in automatic sync. I don't mind downloading the song once, but I am not interested in streaming. I put 32 or 64GB SD cards in my devices because I want the content local at all times.
If anyone has a more automated workflow for that, I am very interested.
Thanks again!
-Rob
I use notpod on my PC. Its easy to sync any android device and u just drag music to ur gnote from iTunes.
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I use tunesync because I buy my music from Amazon, but still use itunes to manage my old jokes and ipad.
I also have a central sound system connected to my netbook, so the iOS remote app comes in handy.
Tunesync lets you automatically upload songs purchased from your phone to iTunes, and maintains play counts in itunes as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using XDA

Amazon mp3 or google music?

I still have not made any music purchases and I was wondering wich one do you guys use the most. Also if I buy music through my phone can I transfer that file to my pc?
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I've only used amazon mp3 but I'm very happy with it. I'm sure you'd be able to dig the mp3 out of your phone if you actually load it on the phone (as opposed to streaming) but it's easy to go to the amazon mp3 website and grab it.
I mostly use Google music but if they don't have something I'll get it from Amazon.
Same here use Google Music since my OG, and I haven't looked back. You can upload up to 22,000 of your own songs, download purchased and free music to your computer, and Google tends to have lots of free music available if you use your computer browser.
The only downside to me is that Google Music isn't a physical music program on your computer, just the Music Manager program that uploads and downloads songs. Besides this though, I love how simple it is after you first try it.
Just my two cents.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I use Amazon, I like the fact that I choose when and how to put them in the cloud...
Thanks guys
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
I have been trying everything to see what I like best. My Epic just killed the battery using any music apps, so I never used it for that.
My Google music uploads got "stuck" after about 3500 songs and I have never been able to get it past that, so I've been trying Pandora and Tunein radio.
Amazon seems to have a lot of free mp3 credits you can get if you follow them on twitter and facebook. They also have the $5 album deals all the time. So, for purchasing music I think it's better. However, if you already have a large existing library, Amazon only gives you 5gb free, but Google gives you a ton of free space with 20,000 songs. If there was a simple way to quickly push your Amazon mp3 purchases to Google music, that would be a great option.
I use Google Music on my phone. I prefer the interface to Amazon MP3 (though I haven't tried it for a while). As far as purchasing music goes, I normally buy from Amazon (where I do most of my shopping) unless Google has a deal. I usually buy on my computer, download to my computer, upload to iTunes (I don't like iTunes but Windows Media Player didn't sync with Google Music correctly when file formats weren't perfect), and then Google Music Manager syncs my music to the cloud. I do often get free music off of Google Music and it automatically gets added to Google Music and I can download it to my PC if I want. It's not perfect, but it's smoother than it sounds (and it wouldn't be so bad if I'd just buy my music from Google and didn't care about storing locally). I'm not sure about the Amazon MP3 app, but Google Music lets users store music locally. I plan on storing all of my music directly on my phone when I get the new Evo and have 64GB+ of space.
I prefer Amazon as my buying choice because the pc program "Amazon Downloader" when run detects all of your latest purchases, automatically downloads to your preferred music folder AND add to your Itunes library.
Plus unlimited space once you buy an album, don't know how long that will last but I have over 100gb up on the cloud. Love it.
As noted... Amazon does give out free mp3 codes fairly often, so I tend to use them more.
megabiteg said:
I use Amazon, I like the fact that I choose when and how to put them in the cloud...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Google makes downloading your own music a royal pain, especially for individual songs. Amazon is much better at this. And generally, amazon is cheaper too

[Q] Best music player to work with Google Music?

Hey guys,
I've been using GMusic for a while now, but I always found it very limited and not exactly to my taste.
Does anybody know a better music player that can load songs from GMusic?
danielfiller said:
Hey guys,
I've been using GMusic for a while now, but I always found it very limited and not exactly to my taste.
Does anybody know a better music player that can load songs from GMusic?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if google put the music you buy onto your device or its streaming the music but you might want to take a look at cyangenmods apollo.
Trozzul said:
not sure if google put the music you buy onto your device or its streaming the music but you might want to take a look at cyangenmods apollo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It streams all your library, and that's what special about it.
Apollo doesn't support Google Music streaming.
Any other suggestions?
danielfiller said:
It streams all your library, and that's what special about it.
Apollo doesn't support Google Music streaming.
Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think there is a way to get it onto your device thought, i got one of their free albums and it was on my device even though data and wifi was turned off. dig around in the files maybe?
The music that's cached is on your device, but digging through the files won't do anything unfortunately, each one deeply encrypted, believe I've tried
If you're responding to me, make sure to quote me so I get an immediate email
Trozzul said:
i think there is a way to get it onto your device thought, i got one of their free albums and it was on my device even though data and wifi was turned off. dig around in the files maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a way to do that, but then I lose the whole point of streaming - not having the files taking up space on my device.
The files you found in Apollo were probably some temp cache files leftovers.
So no suggestions?
Maybe someone else knows about an app like the one I'm looking for?
Maybe even some plugin that enables players to stream from Google?
been trying to find something for a while with no luck... I think its a great service, and the app isn't even that bad, but sometimes I just need that music to stream through another music program for a certain feature or option... or just because I say so! lol
(Most of my music I uploaded to the cloud was flac, so it is played back as 320kbps... In some areas I get only 1 bar of 3g, and at worst music playback may pause for 5-10 seconds... but even this is a rare occurrence... Others have complained about the quality, but I think it's great considering I have the options set for high quality playback only and still don't have issues)
what I don't quite understand, is the talk of 'lack of an api' for Google Music streaming.....
However, Android app's for DLNA or other wireless streaming, such as Bubble UPnP, and this app which streams to 'Sonos'? wireless speakers: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.youtec.android.macronos&hl=en
They DO support streaming from google music - the actual CLOUD (sorry it bothers me that someone names an app Cloud Music Sniper and flaunts allowing access to google music, then turns out its for the OFFLINE available apps that you pin for offline access? Oh and shockingly there is an app called Offline Music Importer that works the same - except it doesn't piss me off by implying it can access anything associated with my music on the cloud!) /end rant
So why are these streaming apps like Bubble UPnP able to access my Google Play Music collection on the cloud so I can play it back through my home receiver - yet I can't get it to work with a 3rd party music player at all? Hell, all I honestly want is a stupid visualizer, preferably that I can set as a live wallpaper... but they only seem to work with 1 out of every 5 songs that plays.... regardless of offline or streaming... and that REALLY confuses me =/
purplekush said:
been trying to find something for a while with no luck... I think its a great service, and the app isn't even that bad, but sometimes I just need that music to stream through another music program for a certain feature or option... or just because I say so! lol
(Most of my music I uploaded to the cloud was flac, so it is played back as 320kbps... In some areas I get only 1 bar of 3g, and at worst music playback may pause for 5-10 seconds... but even this is a rare occurrence... Others have complained about the quality, but I think it's great considering I have the options set for high quality playback only and still don't have issues)
what I don't quite understand, is the talk of 'lack of an api' for Google Music streaming.....
However, Android app's for DLNA or other wireless streaming, such as Bubble UPnP, and this app which streams to 'Sonos'? wireless speakers: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.youtec.android.macronos&hl=en
They DO support streaming from google music - the actual CLOUD (sorry it bothers me that someone names an app Cloud Music Sniper and flaunts allowing access to google music, then turns out its for the OFFLINE available apps that you pin for offline access? Oh and shockingly there is an app called Offline Music Importer that works the same - except it doesn't piss me off by implying it can access anything associated with my music on the cloud!) /end rant
So why are these streaming apps like Bubble UPnP able to access my Google Play Music collection on the cloud so I can play it back through my home receiver - yet I can't get it to work with a 3rd party music player at all? Hell, all I honestly want is a stupid visualizer, preferably that I can set as a live wallpaper... but they only seem to work with 1 out of every 5 songs that plays.... regardless of offline or streaming... and that REALLY confuses me =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
found this baby:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2169761
check it out
THANKS! Know a way to pick output device for the Web based version?
danielfiller said:
found this baby:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2169761
check it out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! thank you so much for letting me know about this! :good:
I'm definitely gonna check it out and see how the streaming quality compares...
[sometimes it makes the difference between playing and buffering when using the Google Play Music app's settings for mobile streaming - the High, Normal, and Low quality setting]
Regardless, this is a good step in a good direction... I know Bubble UPnP app and even some file explorer apps could access cloud storage, including the google music account - so I'm glad someone finally incorporated that in a way that let other music players on the device see the cloud storage as if they were local!
As exciting as it is, I'm also cautiously optimistic... While this means that Google's All Access music service will become much more attractive and viable for multiple device use compared to it's competitors --- there will, of course, be issues regarding protecting digital rights. Already I mentioned the 'misleading' programs that allowed ON DEVICE/'pinned' music from Google Music to be played in 3rd party players, and some convert the file to a properly labeled mp3. Considering Google Play Music already allows for All Access subscription users to do the same to songs within their entire catalog (that is, 'pin' it to the device for offline play - which was really a surprise to me), this means those same programs can now convert the All Access music that is pinned to allow offline play into proper mp3 files.... Thus with some coding to make the process faster, one can essentially download any song they want from All Access and keep it as an mp3 - altho it is only meant to be a subscription service and the option to pin music from all access is just supposed to allow access to the subscription service without signal or without eating up data from a data plan.
I guess that means if Google Music wants their music streaming service to succeed, rather than taking away support for 3rd party players - they must provide an official API and a better means of protecting the songs stored for offline playback using a database and/or file level encryption for the 'pinned' songs. I'd hate to see the ability to use the service on other players be stripped and locked down even more to a single player due to these kind of concerns that Google surely already sees as an issue and is likely brainstorming solutions.
Question:
On the topic of Google Play Music, does anyone happen to know of a similar solution regarding Google Music Streaming on a DESKTOP ??
I have found gmusic (not the iOS app), but a standalone program that sits in the system tray...
http://gmusic.codeplex.com/
Some of the chrome plugins actually offer better features (last.fm integration, lyrics, etc....), but the one I found that said it allowed use of media keys didn't work for me...
This is the only one I found that allows me to A) not get my music player lost in a massive field of tabs, and B) change songs while playing a game!
The Main Player window, although, is nothing more than a customized browser window (like the ability to view webpages within winamp and other programs). It is nice that it is a separate icon not mixed in among other browsers, supports media keys, can be minimized etc ----
The one major thing I'm still unable to find a solution for, is the ability to select (non-default) audio output device!!
I have always had my pc connected to my receiver/surround sound system since I got 'my own' computer, so being able to select the audio output is crucial for me when playing music, as I direct the music through digital output to the sound system, but still want to hear other audio through the output jack.
Many times I'll have -Music through digital optical output, -Game SFX through pc speaker output, and -Google Hangouts (for voice chat with teammates) through USB headset.
However it isn't as common for a game to have audio device options as it is for a music/media player.... and always remembering to alt-tab after the games started to change the the default device is a major pain!
(Not to mention even if I'm just listening to music, I don't want to hear audio from a random ad... esp when I can't track down the source of the ad among my tabs, and it is blaring loud out the sound system along with my music)
Many people have complained/requested this to be a feature of Google Chrome - of course the Google team reading these complaints are thinking from the perspective of a simple web browser, something that usually has no need for such a feature...
However, plenty have brought up the issue of Google's Music Service being web-based, and thus such a feature is needed.
I'm not quite sure it is an issue that needs to be addressed by the Chrome browser, but it should definitely be an option within the Google Music web app itself - similar to how one can choose their input and output device in Google Hangouts, which is also a web-app run within a browser.
Of course, the best solution for me would be to find someone that has created something similar to GMusicFS that allows the music to appear as if it is local (similar to google drive's client) or if one of the better music players (Winamp, Foobar, MusicBee, etc.) had an extension somewhere that allows adding cloud music services like Google Music.
Anyways,
@danielfiller Thanks so much for pointing me to that app!
(sorry to any mods about how this post isn't -exactly- a proper topic for its location. Its just that Google Music is cross platform, not limited to mobile devices. While my question does not relate to any mobile platform, it is regarding the exact same functions the android app provides for the exact same streaming service.)

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