hey everyone. first let me explain. when cyanogen dropped support for wma on moving from cm6 to cm7 i was crushed. because im one of the odd people that have 2 computers. one is a windows media library which is a mix of wmas and mp3s and the other is an itunes library. which has apples formatting back from when i used an ipod. now i want all. ALL of my music on my phone. i have always been to lazy to cram all my music through a converter because that would take forever. well google music beta users. i have a solution for you. im sure many of you have already figured this out. but for anyone who doesn't have music beta yet or don't care. this may change your mind.
when music is uploaded to google music it it is converted automatically. but unlike doing it with some other program, the albums stay together and it all gets done at once!. 2 birds 1 stone. then go on your android device. phone tablet. get the music app. and wait for it to prompt you to sign in to google music. then hit menu and make available offline. check off all of your music that you want. and let it download! anything you uploaded in wma will play on your phone now because google did the converting dirty work for you
I have not tired this with itunes yet. but being music beta supports it im assuming this works with many more unsupported formats other then wma.
i hope this helps some people. i know it would help me
Excellent news, thanks for the heads up. I am gonna side load the apk now.
I live in the UK and we have to side load at the moment.
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I don't think there is a lot of discussion about this, so I thought i would start one. Good evening, my name is Gregg and I am a recovering Ioser. It started out with just an ipod...you know it was convenient, it was shiny. It worked well. Buying music was a simple process. You clicked and could listen immediatly. At first it was just occasionally, but I got into the podcast scene and itseemed to fit me perfectly. Podcasts would let me listen to things while I was doing chores around the house. Eventually though podcasts on my ipod weren't enough for me. I also had to carry around a phone on the side, so I decided that maybe it would be OK to try a little iphone. The first click was awesome...phone and tunes...podcasts done well. I was hooked.
For two years I was doing a lot of Ios, but eventually the shiny IOS had me hooked. There were bills for apps that did nothing but make funny noises, their was music that I paid for but never listened to. I was hooked. I probably hit rock-bottom last year. My iosing was out of control and I thought I would go cold turkey. So I got my G2x.
Sorry for the goofy intro, but I though this would set me up a bit. Here's what I have itunes on the windows side. So getting music and podcasts from itunes to the g2X involves multiple layers.
1. Moving music to the machine.
2. Moving and managing podcasts
3. Playing and managing music (which includes playing, rating music and searchng through my music)
So I will start with the first question. From what I understand there are really two ways that I know of to move music and podcasts from itunes to your phone. One is doubletwist, the other is isyncr. There might be others, but these are the two that I worked with. of the two I went with iSyncr and here's why. Doubletwist has a lot going for it. Really a nice interface, and a nice music player on the android side. Its trying very hard to give me, an ex-ioser a bit of what I am missing. The sync app looks like itunes and allows me to sync my playlists. The app looks a lot like itunes. It plays music fine. The player struggled with my phone, though. Somehow it didn't cooperate with the cm7 ROM I am using. It wouldn't play well on the lock screen and seemed buggy. The syncing was buggy too. Genius podcasts wouldn't refresh when they changed on my itunes. There were workaround(relaunch itunes and doubletwist).
Isyncr is a 2.99 purchase. Its simple. You install the app on the android(you pretty much install and forget it) and it syncs when you launch the windows EXE on the memory card when the phone is docked to the computer. It works well. It syncs podcasts, and ratings. To me, that was important because I have this theory that I will rate my music into organization in itunes.Its flawless. I haven't tried the wifi setup, but I might in the future. It doesn't play your music, so its just a solution for syncing.
As for podcasts, I tried very hardto find a solution on the android side that will satisfy my needs right on the android. I bought the full version of pocketcasts. There are a lot of good things going for it, but there are bugs. One that was kind of a deal breaker was that if you try to advance the podcast in the player while its playing you lock up the app. Restart is the only solution. So, it was a good, pretty solution, but it had to go. I tried a couple other apps, but I wasn't sold.
So, ultimately, isyncr is my solution for podcasts too. It woks well, but it will require a daily sync. The advantage ultimatley of syncing from the desktop is also that I am able to make Mp3 CDs of podcasts as well as sync my podcasts from the same source. Simple, efficient and workable.
Which brings me to playing. I love google music(I have two more invites if anyone wants one), and it allows me to access my music when I am around wifi seamlessly. It allows me to make instant mixes based on a song. That's a killer feature. Combined with wireless access to all my music via the cloud its excellent. Advancing and moving within tracks and podcasts works well. Its not a full-feature app, but it works.
Almost there, there is one last aspect. I would like to rate music from my library while its playing. Isyncr has a nice widget that allows you to rate and see your playing apps and see the album art. Its part of the package. The ratings and playcounts go right back to itunes.
My preferences represent my unique quirks in terms of music and listening: I am a podcaster and a music listener and I prefer to rate my music. Because of this I am happy with: Isyncr and google music.
Long set-up, but ultimately I am asking you what your music listening setup is. Thoughts?
I use the standard music app since it has DTS for the g2x. Google music as well for some streaming music. Google Listen app for podcasts. I also like BeyondPod.
I drag and drop music. It's not fancy but I don't mind.
Power Amp with some EQ modifications and Voodoo Sound is how I enjoy my music. I used to use Doubletwist for syncing my music to my phone, but each update made more and more bloated, along with random freezes, so I just uninstalled it. Sony's Media Go software good is good for adding music, but I prefer to drag and drop into organized folders.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2x using XDA Premium App
If you're using a stock ROM, I'd recommend sticking to the stock player because of it's DTS feature. It greatly improves sound quality if you have it selected.
What is the best to store music. I have double twist, but it is a pain to sync my checked songs in Itunes. I am coming from a iphone, had one since 08. I also uploaded most of my music I listen to to Google Music. Is that the easiest? I am afraid with double twist it will sync all of my music. Also will stock music app play songs that I have on Google Music?
Thank
I have DoubleTwist, but I only use it for AirPlay, not for syncing, so I can't speak on that part.
The Play Music (Google Music) player is the only player that will stream your Google Music from the cloud. However, within Play Music, you can download songs to your device. At that point you need a third-party app to convert the downloaded Google Music songs to regular mp3's for use with other apps like the stock app or DoubleTwist.
Sorry, I can't recall what any of these third-party apps are called, but if you google around, you should be able to find them.
If you want to keep music on your phone (which is of course handy for when you don't have a data connection), I use Syncr, which seems to have an easier interface, and less buggy than DoubleTwist. I just dump the music I want into playlists, and sync the playlists to my phone using Syncr.
Haven't used Doubletwist in a while. But when I did, it seemed that more times than not, it would try to synch all my music to my phone, regardless of the fact that I indicated to only sync certain playlists. Since I have something like 40+ GB of music, it lock up my computer, and fail to sync successfully anyway (since there is obviously not enough storage on the phone). Then I would have to start over synching, and on subsequent attempts, it would finally do what I wanted.
I find the solution I use to be quite useful and actually pretty awesome.
I've uploaded my entire music collection to Google Music. Yeah, it takes a while, but just leave your computer on for a couple of nights and it will finish.
Next, I made sure everything was well-organized. I only keep complete albums (like buying a CD), so sometimes there will be a song or two that need to be manually grouped into the album. Do this!
And finally, go into the Google Music app for your phone, select a few albums, and make them 'Available Offline'. It takes a minute or so to get an entire album transferred onto the device. Make sure you do this while on WiFi.
Since my phone can't hold all of my music, I select about 10 albums or so- more than I can realistically listen to while I'm out, and swap in/out albums when I get new ones or want to listen to something else.
It's also pretty useful if you stumble into anywhere with WiFi and want to listen to your entire music collection- something a lot of us cannot do even with 32GB phone storage. You can also make some more music 'Available Offline' when you find WiFi out in the wild.
This has worked wonders for me so far.
So does Google music not let others tie into their service? Big disappointment IMO, I am coming from windows phone and iPhone that have these app silos. Android has a file system and I thought this could be avoided.
I want to use the new HTC Music Hub and at first thought that it was going to tie-in from Google music and bring down all of my music as well as tie-in with local music I have on the phone. Which I am realizing is not the case. All the HTC Music Hub is going to do it let me launch Google music... Disappointing
New question though. Can Google Music two-way sync from the phone? Let's say I download an album from the internet onto my phone. If I put it in a certain folder will it sync? or is there an option in Google Music to upload music from the phone to Google Music?
And last but not least, can the Google Music player play music stored locally on the phone?
You can only add songs to Google Music from your computer, for now.
If you make music 'Available Offline', it becomes stored locally and you can listen to it without an internet connection.
You cannot use Google Music to listen to non-Goolge Music locally stored music.
danada said:
I find the solution I use to be quite useful and actually pretty awesome.
I've uploaded my entire music collection to Google Music. Yeah, it takes a while, but just leave your computer on for a couple of nights and it will finish.
Next, I made sure everything was well-organized. I only keep complete albums (like buying a CD), so sometimes there will be a song or two that need to be manually grouped into the album. Do this!
And finally, go into the Google Music app for your phone, select a few albums, and make them 'Available Offline'. It takes a minute or so to get an entire album transferred onto the device. Make sure you do this while on WiFi.
Since my phone can't hold all of my music, I select about 10 albums or so- more than I can realistically listen to while I'm out, and swap in/out albums when I get new ones or want to listen to something else.
It's also pretty useful if you stumble into anywhere with WiFi and want to listen to your entire music collection- something a lot of us cannot do even with 32GB phone storage. You can also make some more music 'Available Offline' when you find WiFi out in the wild.
This has worked wonders for me so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I'm thinking of doing if I get the One X. Some questions...
Is is simple to swap in/out albums for offline listening? (When on wi-fi.)
So the music is stored locally when downloaded for offline listening? For the One X would that mean the 'phone storage'? (The 9.8 available for media.)
Any idea how long it would take over wi-fi if I hypothetically chose 6 GB of music to download for offline listening?
How well organized is your music once you use the Google Music app? Any bugs? (Songs missing, artist listed twice, anything else.)
Thanks in advance for your answers.
I'm sure for most of us this is our first device with non-removable storage. Welcome to iphone-ville territory (WHY HTC?). Anyway, for those of us who enjoy music on a regular basis and prefer not to store all of our music on the phone, what app do you use to cloud-sync? I've tried google music but it seems limited and the upload is very slow. So what is your preferred method to listen to music?
Pandora and Grooveshark!
those apps are good for random playlists. But im talking about your own personal music library. I like the htc music app, but its useless if I can't store my entire music library.
Google Music upload is slow? Are you kidding me? I mean, maybe the initial upload - but after that, it's super fast and auto adds songs you add to your music collection instantly. I love it.
I like and pay for Spotify.
It integrates my itunes collection including playlists and I can sync whatever I want for offline playback.
I pay for Spotify as well and Im coming from Zune marketplace, of which I loved! Spotify is just as good imo and I don't find that it sucks my battery dry within an hour either.
Google Music and Spotify.
Off topic slightly but since some of use google music where and how does it store music for off line listening? Does it store them as actual MP3 files or something else and how do remove them when no longer wanted? Thanks in advance
Sent from my Rooted Hox
E.Cadro said:
Off topic slightly but since some of use google music where and how does it store music for off line listening? Does it store them as actual MP3 files or something else and how do remove them when no longer wanted? Thanks in advance
Sent from my Rooted Hox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure how it is stored, but basically you go to the Music app, then you hold down on an album, hit "Make availible offline" and it downloads is somewhere. Then after you want to delete it, hold down on it again, and uncheck "Make availible offline" Its really awesome, try it out if you haven't already.
oxeneers said:
Google Music upload is slow? Are you kidding me? I mean, maybe the initial upload - but after that, it's super fast and auto adds songs you add to your music collection instantly. I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah thats what im referring to when I speak of uploading. Good to know it gets faster because that was my only issue with google music.
Audiogalaxy hands down. The best sound quality out there (IF YOU HAVE A GOOD QUALITY LIBRARY) You stream your own personal library from home. You can log in from any computer anywhere and have your playlists and library. it caches wonderfully. sounds better than pandora, slacker, tune in, iheart, lastfm all of them. All my music is either lossless or itunes aac highest quality and it sounds amazing. It uses your itunes playlist also. the best thing is its FREE! 5 of my friends are logged in to my library at all times.. its in the market.. Audiogalaxy
yeah I just downloaded audiogalaxy. It uploads alot faster than google music. Liking it alot so far
Check Amazon MP3 player.
Audio galaxy is OK if your fine with being the server ... instead of Google...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
amazon got my monies ages ago with prime, and then they released their mp3 service before google. I honestly don't like how google music adds random tracks based on your "likes" I have a zune and zune pass, when I wanna explore I do it there.
I download all my music from zune and then upload the mp3s to amazon and call it a day.
I keep a solid 2gb on my phone, the rest is easily streamed with my unlimited LTE plan, and if you root and install either rogers or asia rom (I have asia) you don't even have to worry about att throttling your data
I posted this in the standard Android Apps forum, but not really getting any good replies, thought I would try our Note forum.
Here was my post...
So i have stuck it out with google music. I have close to 7000 songs uploaded.
The one thing that kills me is shuffle on a playlist. It seems i keep getting the same songs playing and it never really shuffles through them all. After many google searches i see others having the same issue. Nothing recent though. Anyone else have this issue or know of google is aware?
Is it the player or the service? I dont know of any other cloud service like this except for the upcoming xbox music.
This shuffle thing is really annoying.
Two users in my original thread recommended two other players, but I don't think there is an app out there that streams my google music library. I am waiting for PowerAmp to provide that feature soon
Howdy, I'm not having any luck getting my playlists I've run for years recognized on this phone. As far as I can tell from my research, Nougat simply does not recognize playlists not made on the phone anymore. Is there not any player that will recognize imported playlist anymore? I cannot believe that after a year of this operating system, there is simply no way to populate playlists off the phone. And I can't even get Music Manager to update online to Google for Play Music either. Is everyone spending hours remaking all their playlists? Am I doomed to use an iPod whenever I want to play my own music as I'd like? Thank-you for any input. I'm tremendously frustrated with this.
I've finally gotten Music Manager to delete the outdated library and am in the process of reuploading my library. However, I'd rather listen to music on my device rather than from the cloud if at all possible.
Update
I was able to accomplish outstanding music management and bring my playlists along to my current phone using iSyncr. It recommends music players of its own which are sufficient. However, the playlists it recreated from my laptop made my old player (PlayerPro) of many years and even Samsung Music start playing playlists again on Nougat. The syncing process was fairly quick and painless.