Windows Phone 10 music player - Microsoft cornered MP3 playing in WP and then dished up ^%%&^!

[Muse]

So, having failed to be able to update to Windows Phone 10 many times, I was using 8.1 until yesterday on my Lumia 620 LTE. A Windows Central message made me think I should try again and I spent 1/2 the afternoon "upgrading."

Is it worth it? The upgrading process asserted so, saying "it will be worth the wait." I'm not so sure.

My favorite app is the music player. Near as I could tell, they called that Xbox Music in 8.0 and 8.1. In 10 there's a _new_ app called Groove Music. Evidently, Xbox Music isn't available for Windows 10. I searched in the Store and it wasn't there. Groove Music has a new look but apparently (I spent maybe 20 minutes looking it over) has very similar functionality. The basic stuff is there. My problem with it is the FF and REW functionality when I play my MP3s. More often than not I play 3 hour long MP3s. If I'm using Xbox Music, and I'm, say, at 1:49 and I put my finger on and hold the > icon, it started to FF at a very modest rate but as long as I keep my finger on the icon the rate gradually increases. I LOVE that functionality. It does the same thing with the < REW function. In Groove Music I'm stuck with the one slow rate. That sucks. It's way harder to move to where I want to go in my 3 hour MP3s. I searched for other music players in the Store but the two I tried were laughably awful, same thing when I was running Windows Phone 8.x (I had some issues with Xbox Music and hoped there was a better MP3 player but couldn't find anything worth a damn from my point of view).

One of my Sansa M250 players (the version 2 firmware version -- there are two distinct hardware/firmware sets) supports accelerating FF/REW, but the algorithm sucks, it accelerates way too fast. Xbox Music, though, got that right, it's perfect. Last night I posted feedback to MS about Windows 10 on the issue (had to choose Feature or Problem, could have said either, I chose Feature). Who knows if they will do anything about it.

I'm actually thinking I may use my old Nokia Lumia 520 running Windows Phone 8.1 for MP3 music, using Xbox Music. Sucks because I won't have data on it unless I pay for a 2nd plan.

I DID backup the 640 LTE just prior to the Windows 10 install. Maybe I can restore that backup and effectively return to Windows Phone 8.1 and its apparently (to me) superior music player. Why not?

 

[quikah]

Groove has accelerating FF/REW, though it is a bit quirky. Hold down, it will accelerate. The quirky thing is that the REW only seems to work when you are listening to a playlist.

I am on insider Release preview ring (build 14393.105), so maybe it is specific to the Groove version, I am on 3.6.2398.0

 

[Muse]

Groove has accelerating FF/REW, though it is a bit quirky. Hold down, it will accelerate. The quirky thing is that the REW only seems to work when you are listening to a playlist.

I am on insider Release preview ring (build 14393.105), so maybe it is specific to the Groove version, I am on 3.6.2398.0

How can I get a more advanced Groove version? I am positive the version I got with the Windows 10 1511 upgrade I got from my Windows 8.1 install on my Lumia 640 LTE yesterday does not support accelerated FF or REW.

Quirky? What's with those people? Don't they test those apps before they sign off on them? Sheesh.

I don't know how to determine which Groove version the phone is running. Is there a way?

Edit: Says 3.6.1331.0

Edit2: Store has Groove Music, says it's installed, I hit the Update button and it's pending, pending, pending...

Edit3: It installed and now I also have 3.6.3398. Am about to test.

 

[Muse]

Now running 3.6.2398. So stupid. No accelerated FF or REW. Unbelievable fact is that when doing REW a box appears with "Previous" in the middle of it and that box is right on top the number of minutes:seconds figure that's changing, so you have no idea where you are in the track. Unbelievably stupid, goddamn unbelievable. I have to seriously consider seeing if I can restore my backup of 8.1 from yesterday.

 

[Muse]

Doing some research yesterday I discovered that there may be some 3rd party music apps that I can use. Flac Player SD seems possible. It actually supports MP3, but in a round about way. Search on it and you will find a very interesting page that explains that Microsoft intentionally cornered the music player market in Windows Phone. The OS forbids any app from accessing *.mp3 files. Your folders with MP3 files in them will appear to be empty. The workaround is to rename the files, say *.mpeg3. Of course, that makes them unusable in most situations and you'd need to rename them to *.mp3. The author explains an easy means of renaming a folder's MP3s in batch mode in both directions. Dang Microsoft. DAMN MICROSOFT for their shenanigans in monopolizing the music playing functionality of Windows Phone. It wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't roll out such buggy misconceived versions of their music player. It's disgusting. I can live with it, workaround the aggravation, but I am disgruntled.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

The only problem is, there is no folder play AND there is no genre. They removed filtering by genre, go figure. So no this workaround is not available. I was recently making a playlist for my bachelors party, and there was no way for me to make a playlist with just the songs I transfered to my phone just for that.

Other than that, player is good, better and more fast than before. Probably the only thing on W10M that works better.

 

[lxskllr]

Does it have a progress bar you can poke to get close, then use the ff/rw to get it right?

Maybe see if vlc has a winphone client

 

[Deeko]

With each version of WP, music playing has gotten worse. When they launched WP 7.5 (Mango) and it was still called Zune, it was awesome. SmartDJ with a Zune Pass worked amazing. Then they changed it to Xbox Music in WP8 and it got a little worse. Then they replaced it with a new version in WP 8.1 that was a LOT worse. Groove, I guess, it a sideways step...but still, not getting better.

 

[quikah]

With each version of WP, music playing has gotten worse. When they launched WP 7.5 (Mango) and it was still called Zune, it was awesome. SmartDJ with a Zune Pass worked amazing. Then they changed it to Xbox Music in WP8 and it got a little worse. Then they replaced it with a new version in WP 8.1 that was a LOT worse. Groove, I guess, it a sideways step...but still, not getting better.

Nah, Groove is much better than Xbox music was in WP8 (it WAS terrible at release though). They are improving it steadily. The complaints Muse has for it is a bit niche to me, but certainly legitimate.

VLC is available. Doesn't have FF/REW as far as I can tell, though I don't use it much.

 

[IamDavid]

Groove is by far the best music\streaming app on any ecosystem I've tried. Unfortunately not all the specific details have been incorporated yet.
To confirm though, you can drag the player to any point in the MP3 and you can hold down > or < to accelerate thru the MP3. Accelerating a play rate is not an option yet.

 

[Muse]

Does it have a progress bar you can poke to get close, then use the ff/rw to get it right?

Maybe see if vlc has a winphone client

Yes, there's a progress bar, but I play typically 3 hour MP3s. If I'm at, say, 10:00 and I want to back up to ~5:00, I can't poke at that with any kind of accuracy using my finger. I can press and hold REW, and what happens is it starts backing up (hopefully, sometimes nothing happens, or worse it goes to the previous selection (NO!!!!!!!!!!). So, assuming the best case and it starts backing up. A box appears with the word "Previous" inside of it and that box is positioned directly over the left hand counter (which might be showing 8:25 but I can't see it!!!). Is that dumb? You bet. Plus, the REW is not accelerating, which it used to do (AND VERY WELL) with the Windows Phone 8.x versions of the music player.

 

[Muse]

Groove is by far the best music\streaming app on any ecosystem I've tried. Unfortunately not all the specific details have been incorporated yet.
To confirm though, you can drag the player to any point in the MP3 and you can hold down > or < to accelerate thru the MP3. Accelerating a play rate is not an option yet.

Are you talking about Groove Music in Windows 10 or in Windows Phone 10?

On my Windows Phone with newly installed WP10, Groove Music (either the included version or the new version I downloaded the other day) does not accelerate FF/REW, it's one rate. Or if there's something going on it's pretty subtle, I can't tell. In WP8.x the acceleration was perfect as far as I was concerned.

Groove Music's [Previous] box covering (obliterating completely) the wx:yz number showing how far you are into the track as you hold the REW button is just ridiculous.

Another step backward is the fact that the wx:yz number on the right no longer shows the time remaining. Now it just shows the length of the track... i.e. just sits there stagnant. The stupidest change, just brain dead.

There would no doubt be better MP3 music playing apps for Windows Phone 10 but Microsoft in their arrogance and chutzpah have made that impossible by hiding all MP3s from all 3rd party apps. The bastards!

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Surprisingly, now that I am finally leaving the platform, some long overdue background changes have come, like artist/album art and metadata for my region (croatia). Go figure. Now that the rats are leaving the ship.

But I suppose it will also benefit ios/android groove subscribers, if it's a server side addition.

 

[Muse]

I detailed my dissatisfaction with Windows Phone 10's music playing app in this thread already. I think I should add that there are improvements. What comes to mind is the fact that if I add some files today, they come to the top of the list of music available to play when I open the app. This is to me a huge improvement. The old player didn't do that, and worse, if you searched for your just-added music files they would not be found for some reason. You had to search a second time, after either closing the app or sending it in new directions. All of this was worse than cumbersome.

I do agree now, that Groove Music does have accelerating FF/REW. However, it doesn't work as well as that of Windows Phone 8's Xbox Music.

The app could use some improvements, as I said, but it's usable. It's too bad that Microsoft has elbowed all 3rd party developers from competing for a music app in Windows Phone. As I pointed out, their apps are incapable of seeing MP3 files on the phones by virtue of the OS hiding them from developers' apps!!!

 

[quikah]

I believe the mp3 restrictions are removed in WIn10, VLC can see mp3 in folders, though I don't really use it myself since Groove works fine for me.