Mobile Music: How Do You Do It?

[HJustin]

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.

I haven't given much consideration to the S6 because I carried an S4 for more than a year as a work phone, with an iPhone 5 for personal use. I didn't care much for the S4 but didn't spend much time (since it was a secondary phone) trying to learn or optimize it. I'm really interested in the upcoming LG G4.

 

[Anubis]

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

basically this

the one thing you really need to do is make sure you music is tagged correctly first

 

[bearxor]

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

To an extent you can.

If you go in to Settings > iCloud and you should see that you are logged in with your Apple ID. But if you go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, you can click the Apple ID you're currently signed in with, sign out, then sign back in under a different Apple ID and access all of the purchases available under the different account.

So my phone is signed in with my Apple ID in both places but my wife's phone is signed in with her Apple ID in iCloud and mine in iTunes & App Store. So we can both access the same purchases and we can also both access the same iTunes Match music.

There are some downsides to this though, especially if you do podcasts and books. You place will sync to your Apple ID so if you're both reading a book, it will want to sync to the spot of whomever had it open last. But maybe that will help you out in the short-term.

 

[Artdeco]

I use Spotify premium, and an iPhone. I've tried flagship Android phones, but haven't had a good experience with the quality, even when storing locally on my phone(s), Spotify allows you to store 3K songs locally with the premium sub, I always get skips and static with Android phones.

 

[blairharrington]

I use Spotify premium, and an iPhone. I've tried flagship Android phones, but haven't had a good experience with the quality, even when storing locally on my phone(s), Spotify allows you to store 3K songs locally with the premium sub, I always get skips and static with Android phones.

Wait. Spotify has a 3K song limit for storing offline? That's pretty weak. And that's with paid subscription? Does that mean you can't pin music at all without a paid subscription?

 

[cronos]

Wait. Spotify has a 3K song limit for storing offline? That's pretty weak. And that's with paid subscription? Does that mean you can't pin music at all without a paid subscription?

Not sure what you mean by 'pin', but with Spotify there's no offline listening without a paid subscription. If you're online though, everything is available (with some feature restriction on phones).

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Subsonic.org
Server with all your music at your house. Can set up several accounts and point as many user's to it as you want. One-time $25 (or something like that)

 

[Homerboy]

Google Music and/or Plex (they just really upped their music support in the last patch).

 

[VashHT]

I have google play all access+all of the stuff I've uploaded from my PC at home. I actually buy CDs still since they're the same price or cheaper than digital usually and I can rip them to FLAC to store at home and upload to google music. I normally just play music at home through my PC, but occasionally I've used chromecast to play it through my receiver.

 

[MrSquished]

Wait. Spotify has a 3K song limit for storing offline? That's pretty weak. And that's with paid subscription? Does that mean you can't pin music at all without a paid subscription?

pin=pick music to download and stay on your phone so you can listen to it without a data connection or without using data even if you do.

also google play music is amazing. this is for the subscription version.

 

[cronos]

pin=pick music to download and stay on your phone so you can listen to it without a data connection or without using data even if you do.

also google play music is amazing. this is for the subscription version.

I think you meant to reply to me. I was correct then by responding by assuming he simply just meant 'offline listening'.

I don't know why I couldn't figure Play Music out and be comfortable with it, but at this point I just accepted that it's not for me.

 

[Artdeco]

Wait. Spotify has a 3K song limit for storing offline? That's pretty weak. And that's with paid subscription? Does that mean you can't pin music at all without a paid subscription?

As others have said, 3k songs for offline playing while you have an active subscription. Unlimited streaming with sub, and no ads.

Am a subway rider, so the offline storage is nice...

 

[Dulanic]

I use Google Music almost exclusively. The only exception is sometimes when I want a radio station, I prefer Slacker.

 

[blairharrington]

Not sure what you mean by 'pin', but with Spotify there's no offline listening without a paid subscription. If you're online though, everything is available (with some feature restriction on phones).

By pin I mean save for offline use. You can only pin up to 3k songs? That sucks. I have 5k songs pinned on my iPhone using Google Music from my own collection.

 

[zerogear]

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.

Aye, but without a MicroSD Card, it's a non-starter (for me.) Which is why I am actually keeping my HTC One M8 for one more year (which is a first for me.)

 

[cronos]

By pin I mean save for offline use. You can only pin up to 3k songs? That sucks. I have 5k songs pinned on my iPhone using Google Music from my own collection.

If you read my post above, I don't 'pin', and because I just couldn't figure out Play Music, I am content that it's not for me.

The other thing that's important is that Spotify isn't meant to listen to music you already have, but instead it serves you all other music that you *don't* own. That's a very important distinction. The two focus on different things. I don't think with Play Music you can listen to the whole Play Music library (music you don't own) without paying for subscription, right? Well, with Spotify, you can, because that's how it works.

Having said that, if I did want to 'pin' thousands of music on my phone from my personal collection, all I needed to do is connect my phone to my computer and copy and paste. I don't need to upload them to the cloud and then download them back. In fact, that sounds pretty silly to me that you have to do that. I do understand that you're bound by the limitations of your device, so I guess you do what you have to do

 

[blairharrington]

Having said that, if I did want to 'pin' thousands of music on my phone from my personal collection, all I needed to do is connect my phone to my computer and copy and paste. I don't need to upload them to the cloud and then download them back. In fact, that sounds pretty silly to me that you have to do that. I do understand that you're bound by the limitations of your device, so I guess you do what you have to do

It sounds pretty silly to me that you would connect your phone to your computer instead of using the cloud. My entire music collection is in the cloud. My playlists have all the music I'd want pinned onto my phone. If I restore my phone or get a new one, I simply log into Google Music via the app and pin all the music back to my phone. No need to ever connect to a computer. Those days are over unless you want to go that route for a specific reason.

Regarding Spotify versus Google Music, you are right. I just wasn't aware that Spotify puts limits on how many songs you can pin to your device. That alone would stop me from using their service. Also Spotify doesn't allow you to play specific songs on mobile unless you have premium. So in that regard it's just like Play Music.

 

[cronos]

Regarding Spotify versus Google Music, you are right. I just wasn't aware that Spotify puts limits on how many songs you can pin to your device. That alone would stop me from using their service. Also Spotify doesn't allow you to play specific songs on mobile unless you have premium. So in that regard it's just like Play Music.

First of all, I think we both agree that Spotify is clearly not for you, there's really no argument against that.

Now that that's out of the way, you kept repeating that you're surprised about the Spotify limits on 'pinned' music, but you seemed to miss the obvious and important difference about the two services, that what you are 'pinning' on Play Music without a subscription are your own personal music collection, while when people are talking about Spotify without a subscription, not only they don't allow 'pinning' at all, what they would have pinned (if such thing is allowed) wouldn't be their own personal collection, but instead Spotify's vast library of millions.

My point is, while Spotify and Play Music overall seem to be offering a similar service (and in many aspects, they are), in the particular way you are needing the service, these two are completely different services that are not even comparable.

An example of other alternatives are Rdio and Pandora, and heck, even iTunes Radio. For what you need from a music service, Spotify is more like them than Play Music. These are all good services, but I wouldn't suggest any of them to you, because they're clearly not what you need.

 

[cronos]

It sounds pretty silly to me that you would connect your phone to your computer instead of using the cloud. My entire music collection is in the cloud. My playlists have all the music I'd want pinned onto my phone. If I restore my phone or get a new one, I simply log into Google Music via the app and pin all the music back to my phone. No need to ever connect to a computer. Those days are over unless you want to go that route for a specific reason.

I see your point, and you're right, it's much more practical that way, especially since you are highly depending on your own personal music library. Like I said above though, for several years now I don't care about owning my own music anymore, as 99% of my personal collection (again, going back 25 years or so) are out there on a lot of different free services out there. I don't have the need to upload my own music to the cloud (and 'pinned' it back), because they're already out there. Add this to the fact that I'm always in front of my computer (or on a tablet with wifi available) when I want to listen to music, Spotify becomes an obvious choice for me.

Just to be clear, I don't think I mentioned this, but the personal music library I do have *is* already uploaded in Play Music. I sent them out there a long time ago, the first time Google started the service. So I could use the service exactly as you do if I wanted to, and the fact that I currently don't use the service is not for lack of trying. I did, and it didn't work for me.

 

[blairharrington]

I see your point, and you're right, it's much more practical that way, especially since you are highly depending on your own personal music library. Like I said above though, for several years now I don't care about owning my own music anymore, as 99% of my personal collection (again, going back 25 years or so) are out there on a lot of different free services out there. I don't have the need to upload my own music to the cloud (and 'pinned' it back), because they're already out there. Add this to the fact that I'm always in front of my computer (or on a tablet with wifi available) when I want to listen to music, Spotify becomes an obvious choice for me.

Just to be clear, I don't think I mentioned this, but the personal music library I do have *is* already uploaded in Play Music. I sent them out there a long time ago, the first time Google started the service. So I could use the service exactly as you do if I wanted to, and the fact that I currently don't use the service is not for lack of trying. I did, and it didn't work for me.

Regarding your previous post, I never implied Spotify was good for what I wanted. I simply was stating that the limit they put on what you can pin from their collection would be a dealbreaker for me. I'm curious if All Access also puts a limit on how many songs you can pin from their collection.

Personally I am not always in a wi-fi area hence why I need to have access to my music offline.

I'm curious why Google Music didn't work for you after you uploaded your collection.