Mobile Music: How Do You Do It?

[HJustin]

I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this question, but I'll start here because it does involve me and my wife's aging iPhone 5 smartphones and our iPads. We have an Apple TV as well that is part of the mix.

I should add that even though I have a lot of Apple stuff in the house but I'm am not married to them in any way.

I have iTunes on my gaming PC where I keep a single 16GB music library attached to my Apple ID. I subscribe to iTunes Match. The Apple TV is logged in with my account which permits us to play our music on the Denon/Paradigm setup in our living room. We use that a lot.

Initially this worked pretty well but over time I'm having more and more issues with songs, albums, and artwork disappearing and in some cases, a given song will appear two or more times. Periodically I have issues where the Apple TV throws a connection error and has to be rebooted (it's a Gen 3). 99% of our library consists of our massive CD collection which I ripped over a period of months. We haven't spent more than $100 at the iTunes store in the years we've used it. Since the library is attached to my Apple ID, my wife cannot access our library from her phone with her own Apple ID, witch the exception of the stuff I've purchased from the iTunes store.

At this point, I'm considering starting from scratch. We're due for new phones and my iPad 2 has become painful to use at it's age with IOS8. I'm in search of a relatively painless and simple solution (if such a thing exists) that will permit us to access our shared music library on our mobile devices and in our living room. I wonder how the community here manages their music collections or if anyone has any helpful suggestions.

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

 

[dainthomas]

Google Music. Just point it to your music folder and you can listen to it anywhere.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Google Music. Just point it to your music folder and you can listen to it anywhere.

Yeah that works really well with a Chromecast.

I also have a premium Spotify account, but it doesn't want to place nice with any of my equipment outside of my phone.

 

[HJustin]

Google Music and Chromecast...that sure seems a lot easier to deal with. Beauty of it is it's very inexpensive to TRY. Just the price of a Chromecast and we can try the apps on our existing iPhones. I'm strongly leaning towards going back to Android when I buy my next phone but that's another subject for another time. Thank you!

 

[blairharrington]

Can't speak for the living room. I think the best answer is Google Music for mobile. Plus unlike iTunes Match it's free.

If you and the wife want to access the same collection, you'll have to use one of your Gmail accounts, assuming you use Gmail. Or you could create a Gmail account strictly for uploading your music collection. I *think* that would enable both of you to use the apps on your respective phones at the same time.

 

[HJustin]

Can't speak for the living room. I think the best answer is Google Music for mobile. Plus unlike iTunes Match it's free.

If you and the wife want to access the same collection, you'll have to use one of your Gmail accounts, assuming you use Gmail. Or you could create a Gmail account strictly for uploading your music collection. I *think* that would enable both of you to use the apps on your respective phones at the same time.

If I drop our music collection on a NAS or shared folder, can we both point our Google Play or Gmail (we both use Gmail) accounts at it?

 

[sweenish]

I don't see why not.

 

[blairharrington]

If I drop our music collection on a NAS or shared folder, can we both point our Google Play or Gmail (we both use Gmail) accounts at it?

I uploaded my collection off my computer. No idea if it works from a NAS. I'm guessing it will.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I use Plex for music (as I already have it set up for video) and can stream anywhere. Probably not the 'ideal' solution for everyone, but I'm not much interested in relying on google for everything.

 

[lxskllr]

I put music on my sd card, and hit [Play] on my player.

 

[JAG87]

Google music all access + airplay. Done.

 

[MongGrel]

I put music on my sd card, and hit [Play] on my player.

+1

 

[HJustin]

I put music on my sd card, and hit [Play] on my player.

And this one reason among many that I'm likely going Android when I get a new phone. I want something with expandable storage.

 

[zerogear]

128GB SD Card with 30GB for Music for offline play. Combination of Spotify Free, Rhapsody (Unradio), XBox Music Pass, Pandora for online play. And Songza for curated

 

[Zodiark1593]

I simply throw whatever I feel like on my phone, wait for bed time, grab the best headphones I have (which aren't great) and listen.

 

[ImpulsE69]

And this one reason among many that I'm likely going Android when I get a new phone. I want something with expandable storage.

Better get one soon then, most of the new phones are going the no card route next gen. (many this gen).

 

[bearxor]

Since the library is attached to my Apple ID, my wife cannot access our library from her phone with her own Apple ID, witch the exception of the stuff I've purchased from the iTunes store.

Wait...

So your wife has her own iCloud account, presumably for backups and stuff, but she is signed in to the iTunes and App Store with your ID so that you can access the same store downloads?

That is how I do it with my wife and we can both see the same iTunes Match library.

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

Mostly, I buy music (CDs!!!!) and then store it locally on my phone. I also upload it to Google Music for playback on Chromecast and at work.

For my commute, I have a percentage of those albums loaded on a USB stick that's in my car.

 

[HJustin]

Wait...

So your wife has her own iCloud account, presumably for backups and stuff, but she is signed in to the iTunes and App Store with your ID so that you can access the same store downloads?

That is how I do it with my wife and we can both see the same iTunes Match library.

Negative. I wasn't aware you could log in to different i-apps with different Apple IDs.

 

[HJustin]

Mostly, I buy music (CDs!!!!) and then store it locally on my phone. I also upload it to Google Music for playback on Chromecast and at work.

For my commute, I have a percentage of those albums loaded on a USB stick that's in my car.

This is where I'm headed. I snagged a Chromecast after work yesterday and have it setup in the bedroom. Need to get my music library cleaned up and organized before turning the Google Music Manager loose on it. Really excited about moving back to Android. Kinda fun researching the new phones.

 

[poofyhairguy]

l Kinda fun researching the new phones.

Right now Android is kinda a mess. Be sure to ask if you hit a snag doing research.

 

[cronos]

I realized a couple of years ago that I don't really need to *own* my music anymore, plus I am very rarely not around an internet-connected computer/tablet when I want to listen to music, so Spotify became my go to music source. It's free and I get full features from a computer or tablet as long as I'm online. I tried Google Play Music several times (right from the beginning, and as recent as two months ago) but just couldn't get comfortable with it. I also have an Xbox Music subscription for a year and I feel it's a bit better than Google Play, but still not as user friendly and intuitive as Spotify.

Other than that, my existing music collection (CDs, goes back at least 25 years, although not many younger than 10) are all ripped and neatly stored on my file server at home. Some of these are copied to my mobile devices, for those rare offline-music-listening session. I switched them up manually every few months or so. Maybe 95% of them are also available on Spotify, so unless I'm completely offline I ended up listening to Spotify versions of them anyway.

 

[HJustin]

Right now Android is kinda a mess. Be sure to ask if you hit a snag doing research.

How so?

 

[HJustin]

I realized a couple of years ago that I don't really need to *own* my music anymore, plus I am very rarely not around an internet-connected computer/tablet when I want to listen to music, so Spotify became my go to music source. It's free and I get full features from a computer or tablet as long as I'm online. I tried Google Play Music several times (right from the beginning, and as recent as two months ago) but just couldn't get comfortable with it. I also have an Xbox Music subscription for a year and I feel it's a bit better than Google Play, but still not as user friendly and intuitive as Spotify.

Other than that, my existing music collection (CDs, goes back at least 25 years, although not many younger than 10) are all ripped and neatly stored on my file server at home. Some of these are copied to my mobile devices, for those rare offline-music-listening session. I switched them up manually every few months or so. Maybe 95% of them are also available on Spotify, so unless I'm completely offline I ended up listening to Spotify versions of them anyway.

I'm in my early 40s and am accustomed to buying music on real media. It took me a long time to buy an "album" on the iTunes Store and really haven't bought many. What I really like though is the ability to buy one song if the mood strikes. I also find myself searching on YouTube for an old favorite that I never bought on disc. I feel like an out-of-touch old man when it comes to things like Spotify. How would it work in my car? Do I even need my giant collection of discs anymore. I sure wouldn't mind getting rid of all these CDs...they're kind of a burden.

And by the way...I want to thank everyone who has take the time to read and/or respond to my initial question. I have almost 20 years experience as a network engineer but I find myself falling back on old habits and avoiding new and potentially easier/better alternatives. A lot of this stuff is almost overwhelming...so many options that I tend to look the other way. I'm certainly not against learning and trying new things. Sometime I just need a nudge in the right direction. Thank you!

 

[poofyhairguy]

How so?

Oh just some flagship devices are a step back from last year. It is a growing pains year for Android. The only clear top shelf choice at the high end are the S6s.