As of Jan 3,2011...
If anyone can give information / review about how different apps save downloaded art, it would be very helpful. It seems that art can be embedded in ID3 tags, or it can have put in a folder. But different programs save in different folders or into an "album art" file...which may not be compatible with different programs. Also, how does iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media handle this? (Ive used each for my music collection, and so may have different types of cover art formats in my collection)
12/28/2010 I didn't mean to start making this into a bigger post. But let me first say what I'm looking at/for:
Features I'm paying attention to:
headset control
Lock Screen and homepage widget
General UI ( and in particular, ease of getting from a "playlist" back to the "Now playing" quickly
Features which are sort of cool to me:
lyric display
Folder / File Organization
Album art (it would help me if someone could tell me about the different types and options here. ID3 mode? Files?
(and a distant fourth in importance) Video player
Equalizer (I don
't care about this but everyone else seems to be)
Features are just can't get myself to care about:
Scrobbing (whatever the hell that is)
Social stuff
Any damn fraking thing that statistically analyzes my preference in order to help me decide what I like. I don't want to robotize my music.
So this is what I have looked at so far:
Samsung Default:
Great Status bar and lock screen controls. headset controls. Has equalizer. NO Folder Select (it scans all music on the phone and so will get unintended stuff into the library). Nothing special other than this, but it a good app. HOWEVER, I'm now using Darky's ROM which does not have the Samsung Lock Screen. The Samsung player's lockscreen widget is tied to the Samsung lockscreen. Also does not have homescreen widget, but this is more than made up for by the very good notification bar integration.
Meridian:
Plays video and music. Headset controls but no lock screen. Good gesture control. Edit ID Tags
Cubed:
Video and Music. NIce Lockscreen widget. Headset controls. Art download in ID3 mode. However I still don't terribly like the interface, but it works. Has a directory filter , so can play just a folder and keep out unwanted songs (like game songs). Downloads art in ID3...method. Don't know if that's good or bad. There really is no "Now Playing" screen. It just shows it super-imposed on the song library. Which is not pretty but its actually functional. For me, Cubed is a good free app.
MixZing:
Plays music and video. Options up the yingyang, including lots of social crap. I'm not going to detail here because lockscreen version is a paid app, and I'm focusing on not paying (it does have trial period though). Good UI. Can do folder view, and has good folder management options. Can switch between folder list and now playing very quickly. Has headset controls. Has Equalizer. Auto-download album art. The free version is staying on my phone because it plays video. Lots of damn social crap.
Winamp:
Just plays Music. Interface easy, but maybe a little dull (maybe there are skinning options?). Has headset controls and lockscreen. Ability to look up info and search on the artist. Ability to syn with Winamp desktop, so a good choice if you use that. Some social crap. No Equalizer
DoubleTwist:
Looks a little like Winamp, but also plays video. Has Lockscreen wideget and headset controls. With $5 purchase can sync with Itunes. No equalizer.
UI is mostly good, if not exciting. Does not do folder view(!). Not that many options. If I wanted to use one player for both music and video, and have the lockscreen widget and handset controls, this definitly works. It also has art download, but that's not so important to me. I also use iTunes Agent to file-sync anyway.
Miui:
Bare basic player. No equalizer. No lockscreen widget. No headset controls. What this does have is a) art download , and most exciting b) lyric read-along. I intend to use this app just for my KTV practice, so it will stay on my phone
(but I recently discovered Lyrics App, which allows me to see Lyrics of everything).
PowerAmp:
This has everything. But the free version is 15 day trialware, and I don't want to go through it all here. One thing I remember about this is that it allows fine customization of its widget appearence.
TinyPlayer:
As the name implies, a small player with minimum bells and wistles. My device is an SGS which generally has an OK time with demanding applications, so this is not for me. But for those who want a simple bare-minimum player, this works.
......
Others have mentioned apps which I need to pay for to try, such as Lithium Player... apps which have a social network focus (Tunewiki), and apps that I need to flash (CW Mod). I'm sorry I cannot add these to this list now.
12/27/2010
I'm in China and sometimes the market is problematic (although I could just fix that with a VPN). When I can download again, I intend to note the features of :
btunes
Astro Player
TuneWiki
Also, I will re-download all the above (I just wiped-flash Darky's awesome ROM for my SGS) and go back over the others and note down features I missed.
Here is a pic of the homescreen widgets.
Widgets (from top to bottom):
Meridian
Cubed
MixZing
Winamp
Doubletwist
I'll never understand why people say they don't understand "cubed" interface. What's confusing about it? It's the same thing as scrolling through albums with a little animation. The new update gives you control over the directory files, so it's not like it's different then any other player. Do people really get that shocked when they see something that looks different but operates the exact same?
Just scroll up or down, man. You'll see the albums or artist (depending on how you choose) in ABC order. You want to skip to a different letter, scroll side to side. That's literally the entire learning curve. Don't like the cube? Change the view mode to Morph Flow. Don't like looking at albums? Change the view mode to boring, it just gives you a list.
The only thing I can possibly imagine people being slow to realize is that to change the place of a song, you click on the dotted light thing at the bottom. To change from artist to album to song you drag the dotted bar in the bottom-middle to the right or left.
This all took me less then 2 minutes to figure out.
poweramp = iTunes . I'm off it. same **** different skin. Cubed can scan all the bands in your library and tell you A) when their upcoming release is and B) the next time their playing a show within 50 miles of you (you can adjust the distance). Now THAT'S practical application.
I appreciate you putting this list together. It is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
Hands down the best player is TINY PLAYER. It actually does REAL folder play like you're using windows explorer on your home computer.
Another great feature is the live font size option which lets me read long file names. Even Poweramp doesn't have that crucial feature. What good is it if I can't read what song it is. Especially true for Classical music with long file names.
PS - It is the ugliest ui ever tho lol. But I really don't care.
PS2 - Poweramp doesn't have everything. It lacks sleep timer and font size changing to read long file names. And no true folder play. Both of which are available in tiny player. and it is tiny at 64kb
I figured I would throw a few notes in the discussion about music players since music is a big part of my Android experience. I use two apps, one for playing music located on my phone, and another app for streaming from my home PC.
1) Mixing:
the main reason I bought this app was because of the lock screen abilities. Not only does it give you gesture commands from the lock screen, but it also has a setting that will make the lock screen come active for a few seconds each time a new song starts, showing the album art and song information. I like this a lot since it allows me to see what has just started playing, and mainly because it gives me a few seconds to skip the song if I do not like it ... instead of having to hit the power button first to activate the screen, like all the other music apps do ... it's one less step to distract you when driving. It is a small, nitch feature, but it is worth the money of the full version app for me. I have yet to find another music app that does this.
2) Audiogalaxy:
Hands down, this is the best app to use if you want to stream music from your home computer. This is great for people like me that have huge music libraries that will not fit on an SD card. All you have to do is download the app for your phone, install a small program on your PC, and sign up on their website. It is free, and it simply works with no hastles. I have tried many other apps that I could not get to work ... they all required me to **** around with ports and IP addresses, and I could not get any of them to work. Audiogalaxy was so easy my mom could do it. No screwing around with ports or IP's, just install, setup which folders you want to scan, and then wait for it to build your library. Great app!!
Hopefully Mixzing adds streaming ability into its code so I can just use one music app. Until then I will continue to use these two apps together. Together they make for an awesome music experience on the Android phone.
hi, nice list for reference.
just a quick note from me, i'm using miui and the lockscreen and heatset controls works on cm6 which has those tweaks modded on.
irish22022 said:
I'll never understand why people say they don't understand "cubed" interface. What's confusing about it? ...
Just scroll up or down, man. You'll see the albums or artist (depending on how you choose) in ABC order. ...
...Cubed can scan all the bands in your library and tell you A) when their upcoming release is and B) the next time their playing a show within 50 miles of you (you can adjust the distance). Now THAT'S practical application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I should say I like "folder view". Or just Song List. I have a lot of songs from independents, songs un-attributed in the tags, songs from Chinese artists, etc. So I don't want to go to an Album or Artist, but rather to a folder. I'm sorry...I did not know the correct terminology.
As for internet-related content, you may have seen I call that stuff "social crap". I have no idea what scrobbing is. The artists don't come to China. And even if I was in the US, I really could not care to share my music tastes with others... let everyone find their own muse.
nghj said:
hi, nice list for reference.
just a quick note from me, i'm using miui and the lockscreen and heatset controls works on cm6 which has those tweaks modded on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh. Sounds cool. I don't want to have to flash something just to get that function though. But having lyrics is fun.
AlexNC75 said:
I figured I would throw a few notes in the discussion about music players since music is a big part of my Android experience. I use two apps, one for playing music located on my phone, and another app for streaming from my home PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just focusing on Apps that I can use outside. But thanks for those comments. Does AudioGalaxy allow non-streaming, regular functionality? FYI some of the other players above (I think Meridian) also have streaming, but I didn't review this because its not something I look for. I need to update for this feature I guess.
I will now download tinyplayer and add this to the review. I also hope to download (from somewhere) the stock Android player.
Right now probably Doubletwist will be my main player, only because its a music and video player that has lockscreen widget and headset controls. OR I will try to reinstall the Galaxy SGS player (which is uninstalled after flashing Darky's ROM). Funny thing is Doubletwist's main sell-point is iPhone integration, and I don't care enough about that to purchase it.
If I was going to spend money (which I may just do), then Mixing is the best of what I have reviewed so far. I don't know if its worth $5 for now.
I personally use 2 music players
1 standard CyanogenMod player
2 Lithium player
I normally do this because I will have music on lithium, and podcast download through methods other than my podcast player in t he CM music player.
since nobody mentioned lithium and it's a pay app I would mention a few things..
Pro: Looks great, UI is great and has nice things like volume built in, multi-colors/customizations and the #1 reason I bought it is it grabs album art for with a few clicks!
Cons: The ui for FF/RW skips to big of a segment in a 2 hour, or 2 hour podcast (not a big deal, it's a music player not a podcast player) and one semi-major issue for me is the program NEVER shows up in tasks (holding home), or previously used programs (etc). For some reason android doesn't recognize it as a program and the CM lockscreen music controls don't work for it.
To me the pro's outweigh the cons so I purchased it even if just for the album grabber.
I still really like bTunes.
I know it's abandonware, but it's only $1.49.
Looks like the iPod player (may be a good thing or a bad thing), it's very simple to use, it has a nice widget and even though it hasn't been updated in some time, it works great on froyo and never crashes on my phone. I don't think it has an equalizer.
TuneWiki is my fave, actually one of my fave Android apps.
Music Player Pro is still the best for me, I wish PowerAmp gets some of MPP features to use only one.
Thanks for the comments about the apps you tested
Tinyplayer for me on the Inc. Half the players can't find the built in memory. Most of the others can't restrict themselves to a folder so a bunch of sound files that aren't music and belong to games.
dvdivx said:
Tinyplayer for me on the Inc. Half the players can't find the built in memory. Most of the others can't restrict themselves to a folder so a bunch of sound files that aren't music and belong to games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at Mort Player now and it also does folder selection but has a lot more options, (headset control for one)
I'm still using the basic player ...
I've tried some of the more robust apps, but damn if they don't chew up a bunch of runtime memory, causing lag. I'd like an equalizer, but I don't want all the extra garbage that comes with an app, when I don't need it.
Have gone through various music players but Power Amp is the best it's worth paying for in the market.
Rockbox is absolutely the best choice. Equalizer, actual playlist support, themes, lockscreen controls, and plays every codec at the highest quality you throw at it. Just missing widgets, but it's a little buggy at the moment and it's still early in development.
i think u forgot TTPOD
A nice feature is if it is compatible with Last.FM scrobble apps
Nice summary atm i use Winamp becausr it has a esay ui and i love the shoutcast Radio Feature but maybe i switch to Double Twist because of the wifi sync i dont know yet...
Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Rockbox is absolutely the best choice. Equalizer, actual playlist support, themes, lockscreen controls, and plays every codec at the highest quality you throw at it. Just missing widgets, but it's a little buggy at the moment and it's still early in development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will check it out. Widgets is a must-have for me, unless it also has a status bar control option (which is even better than widgets.
jonny68 said:
Have gone through various music players but Power Amp is the best it's worth paying for in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree, but I'm not sure how much money I want to spend on my phone. Part of me wants to get an iPhone and never have to fudge around with settings and roms again. Part of me hates the iPhone because I can't do with it what I want. So I'm trying not to invest more money in my phone unless I get something really really must-have. As the default player with the SGS is good (and now can use it with Darky's ROM), I'm good.
phoezies said:
i think u forgot TTPOD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will check it out and update.
Zalastax said:
A nice feature is if it is compatible with Last.FM scrobble apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in China and so have missed the social network craze. I think if I was in USA, I still would have missed it.
Poapfel said:
Nice summary atm i use Winamp becausr it has a esay ui and i love the shoutcast Radio Feature but maybe i switch to Double Twist because of the wifi sync i dont know yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Winamp's UI is easy, but Double Twist is very similar UI IMO.
Well would you look at that!? Looks like Meridian (my favorite player) already has the feature I'm looking for in their pro version!
I'm a big fan of Android but I just can't find a music player that is worth a damn. The one feature I would like to have the most doesn't work properly on every single player I've ever tried. That feature is: song rating support.
I would be willing to offer money to someone who could write a decent audio player with song rating support that will sync with J. River Media Center or at the very least Windows Media Player. I know "decent" isn't exactly the most descriptive term in the world, but it's the best I can say for now.
To me, decent means...
It doesn't freeze and isn't buggy
It plays MP3s (I could care less about other formats)
It sounds OK (I'm not an audiophile, I just want it to beat radio quality) (I don't care about having an equalizer)
The UI must provide easy rating viewing and editing (must use the standard "5 Star" system)
Shuffle, repeat, play, pause, etc.
Album art display (must read folder.jpg)
Secondary features...
Playlist functionality (creation, reading, editing, copying, etc.)
Gesture support (tap album art to pause, maybe other stuff)
Automatic updating of other 'playing' tags like "last played", "times played", etc.
A player that meets my "decent" standards is worth at least $### to me. I'd love for it to stay updated and stuff too.
As I wrote in the title, I'm new here. I hope I haven't broken any XDA rules by posting this. I'd like to get a developer on board for this project but I obviously don't want to pay a bunch of money for something that isn't worth-while. How have [bounties] worked in the past? I'll come back to this thread to see if there are any respondents.
Hi all,
I'm the developer of Shuttle Music Player (formerly AMP).
Shuttle is a lightweight, simple & elegant music player for Android. It's based on the AOSP Music Player, with inspiration from the previous Google Play and the current Google Now.
Shuttle includes a built in equalizer, gapless playback (4.0+), queue support playlists, highly customizable widgets, sleep timer, scrobbling, dashclock support and more.
Shuttle has been on the Play Store for almost 6 months now, and is nearing 50.000 downloads!
Screenshot: imgur.com/og6Irh5
Link: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=another.music.player
Hey man, I love your app. Is the only player that works correctly on my phone :victory:.
Do you think there's a possibility to add ReplayGain support? I have some music that makes use of it and I can't enjoy them correctly because lack of that function.
I think it is Apple app when I see the shuttle
Jackos.Ch said:
Hey man, I love your app. Is the only player that works correctly on my phone :victory:.
Do you think there's a possibility to add ReplayGain support? I have some music that makes use of it and I can't enjoy them correctly because lack of that function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the compliments, glad you're enjoying it. Replay gain is beyond the scope of Shuttle for now.. Since I use the Android API's for media playback, and there is no inherent support for replay gain.. So, it's not planned at this stage, sorry.
I think it is Apple app when I see the shuttle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't quite understand..?
timusus said:
I don't quite understand..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he means Shuttle has a good design/UI.
timusus said:
(...) So, it's not planned at this stage, sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a pity... Still the best player, though.
Today installed Shuttle+. Like it very much,nice UI.Only issue I have : While playing music, the EQ doesn't open and the app force closes.
After noticing this ,in CWM recovery I wiped cache,wiped Dalvik cache and fixed permissions on my leaked 4.2.2 Samsung S3 ROM. Problem persists.Can open EQ when there's no music playing,works fine then.
Imo EQ should be editable when playing music,as in Google Play Music.
Any thoughts and/or advice on this ?
Necro-post! Hopefully the dev is still around?
I'm switching from Google Play Music to Shuttle due to the fact that I don't like the way GPM behaves in 4.4.4 when I swipe it from the Recent Tasks (it stops playback, which is mind-boggling nonsense for me).
Is there any way to Import the playlists I have on GPM into Shuttle?
It would be nice to have the apk available as an attachment on the first post or a link directly to apk, instead of playstore.
ZCochrane said:
Necro-post! Hopefully the dev is still around?
I'm switching from Google Play Music to Shuttle due to the fact that I don't like the way GPM behaves in 4.4.4 when I swipe it from the Recent Tasks (it stops playback, which is mind-boggling nonsense for me).
Is there any way to Import the playlists I have on GPM into Shuttle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why shouldn't he not? App is still in progress...last update few days ago to 1.4.8 (go to play store and there is a link to his community)
I like the player
[emoji106]
vergilbt said:
Why shouldn't he not? App is still in progress...last update few days ago to 1.4.8 (go to play store and there is a link to his community)
I like the player
[emoji106]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know about his community. I knew the app was actively developed, but when I wondered if he was still around I mostly meant I was wondering if he was around here on XDA forums. Apparently he isn't though.
Hey there, I want to start off by saying I love your app - truly a marvel of development. I plan on buying Shuttle+, but before I do I have a couple of questions:
1. What exactly does it mean when it says I can edit "some" tags? I seem to have an issue where the files I have added to my phone (OnePlus 2) that are of the same album do not go together, but instead create 2 or 3 separate albums. I do not have this issue with my iPod, and believe it is a tagging issue but I can't find any differences in the files themselves. Also will I be able to add or change artwork?
2. I have this issue where I am seeing double. But when I go to settings > apps > all, there is no "media store", but rather "media storage". Are these the same thing? Again, I am using OnePlus 2.
Thanks
Hi !! Just got Shuttle+ from the play store. I was looking for a nice alternative to HTC stock player (discontinued on the HTC10) and I found your feature-packed app wonderful ! Built in EQ is a great plus. Keep up the good work, glad to contribute by getting the pro version !
One feature I really liked from another app I tried (don't remember the name) is the possibility to blur the album cover on the lockscreen. Makes for a beautiful look while listening to music !
Thanks again
So I have a very stupid question / possible coincidence. I've had this come up once or twice already. Since obviously the Google now launcher does the okay Google hot word, is it also possible for it to identify music as well as the hot word automatically? In both previous cases I was listening to music on another device but had my phone on the home screen. When I go into google play music it has recommendations at the top based on said music I was listening to despite me not listening to that music in play music for a few days. Is this just a coincidence? My odd imagination? I just find it really weird.
Thanks.
P.S. I should clarify that by other device I mean the factory no frills radio in my car.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
It's probably just using the information from your last visit to the Play store. If you think about apps's that are made for recognising music songs, doing something like this via a Google search bar it would make the app rather large? I'm sure it's a small file size?
I might be wrong, but I'm guessing it's just remembered from the last time you used Play store, it could be coincidence if you listen to popular songs.
Tapatalk (application) is an android app that allows you to connect at several forum sites. It combines data and it is used by many users because they can switch forums very easily.
Sent from my GT-P3110 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
WyvilleDog said:
It's probably just using the information from your last visit to the Play store. If you think about apps's that are made for recognising music songs, doing something like this via a Google search bar it would make the app rather large? I'm sure it's a small file size?
I might be wrong, but I'm guessing it's just remembered from the last time you used Play store, it could be coincidence if you listen to popular songs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies for the delay. Yeah, I guess it is a coincidence. I tried today to trigger it intentionally but didn't get it to happen this time. Just seemed odd though the first time around. Odd in a good way, anyways. I happen to like all the Google smarts and integration rather than fear it, personally. Not enough hours in the day these days to accomplish everything so the more assistance I can get, the better.
Thanks again for the response.
Hi, as yo can see, this will be my first post so......be gentle.
About you question, i think that the suggetions come from the info that you music player gather about the music you listen to, you can see if your music player "sees" what are you listening in senttings>apps> -your music player- >permissions.
I hope that you found this helpful. =D
How the hell do you make the most recent added tracks on Google Music appear at the top so you don't have to scroll thru your whole damn bloody playlist to get to the track you just added?
WTF
seanvree said:
How the hell do you make the most recent added tracks on Google Music appear at the top so you don't have to scroll thru your whole damn bloody playlist to get to the track you just added?
WTF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent question. Hopefully someone has the answer. My guess is that you cannot. It takes forever to just find the albums you own. The search feature does not list the albums in your library on the first page of search results if you have multiple albums by the same artist. It first finds the artist, the radio stations, and videos. You need to go into the artist, then scroll down to find the albums in your library. Such a waste of time.
The "New" play music versions have been horrible since the update after 4.1.513, when Google started really pushing their "unlimited' streaming service. Nothing is intuitive about the newer versions. I really hate the first row of "It's Monday today, play something for..." WTF is that? Try playing an album - in proper track order - with the new version... What a pain. NOT driving friendly. Sure, I can now say, "Ok Google, play xyz by abc" and sometimes the right album will play, but often in the wrong track order. More often it isn't what I wanted from my library. Seriously irritating..
My last (rooted) phone had 4.1.513 installed, and only that version. Thankfully, I had a TB backup when the crap updates started. If we can ever properly root the Qualcomm s7, I am hopeful that 4.1.513 will install OK on Marshmallow... Then again, the likelihood of rooting the US S7's seems to be dwindling each day. Very depressing.
Se, with our shiny new s7s, we are stuck with the latest crappy Play Music version. I really miss the Recently Played "flip" screen with the album covers. So intuitive. So long gone.
[/rant]
*sigh*
Lol I just downloaded Samsung music
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