Advice for playing music files off my Android phone.

[winkywanky]

I wonder if any of you clever chaps could help here?

I've just bought a new Android phone, it's the poshest phone I've ever had and it'd be a shame not to use it to its fullest capability. Something I've never done before is to store and play music off a phone.

I currently have an iPod which lives in the car (hardwire link to the radio, and steering wheel controls are functional) synced with iTunes on my PC at home which contains my music collection. At some point in the future I'll have a car with a radio capable of Bluetooth linkage to my phone (say, Android Auto?) and when I go on holiday it'd be nice to have a quality little Bluetooth speaker with me so I could simply play music off my phone onto it. Or of course on occasion, even just play music on the phone speaker itself sometimes.

So what I want to do is to transfer all my music collection from my PC, into my phone. And for all those music files to appear in a nice, easily-viewable format like iTunes does on my PC at home, where I can view Songs in alphabetical order, Artists, Albums etc, or just use a Random Play feature where if I'm not in the mood for that song at that time, I can simply skip to the next one. Also, perhaps keep personalised playlists which I have created over the years.

I'm currently just waiting for a ludicrously large memory card which will arrive in the post tomorrow (1TB  ) and then I'll insert it into the phone and be ready to rock (quite liderally as Smashey and Nicey might say).

I guess what would be ideal is to have a similar-looking user interface to the one I currently have with iTunes on my PC. But another player will do of course. The player which actually came with the phone is Youtube Music. Will that do the trick? I should say here that I have no interest in paying any monthly fees, and I don't particularly want to download any music. Effectively, I just want to play the music I already own and possess (it basically comprises my entire CD collection which I ripped into iTunes on my PC many years ago). I just want to use it as a jukebox for my existing music really.

[winkywanky]

PS my music files are MP3, 256kbps.

[WelshMichael]

YouTube music will be fine if the files are on your phone storage/memory card. You can also upload them to YouTube music, though playback options are limited unless you pay a monthly subscription (you can't download your playlists for example).

[winkywanky]

YouTube music will be fine if the files are on your phone storage/memory card. You can also upload them to YouTube music, though playback options are limited unless you pay a monthly subscription (you can't download your playlists for example).

Thanks Michael  .

So if I don't pay a subscription, do you think I'll I still be able to be able to access/play my music in the categories: Song titles, Albums, Artist etc?

And will I be able to 'reconstruct' my personal playlists within Youtube Music and then access them for free?

Also, will I be able to sync Youtube Music directly with the iTunes on my computer, now and in the future? In other words, would YTM 'speak' to iTunes?

Sorry for all the questions 

[WelshMichael]

YouTube music doesn't "talk" to iTunes but you can easily upload your music from your pc to YouTube music if you like. Your have to then upload any new music you add to your collection. You can create playlists in YouTube music and play albums etc as long as the content is stored directly on your phone, which you seem to be doing. If your music is stored only in YouTube music in the cloud you have to pay a subscription to download any playlists though you can download and play albums as I recall.

[mazda40]

After google play music(GPM) went tits up, I downloaded Simple Mobile Tools Music Player from the Play store.
 Works and looks almost exactly like GPM, no fee or adverts.
Can search by, artist, album or track and make playlists.
Would recommend.

[winkywanky]

I'll have a look. Thanks mazda.

[greekgary]

You can use the MusicPlayer app from google play to play all sorts of music files. On your SD card you can create loads of folders n copy from the pc into those folders (so that u can randomly play from a folder). XPlayer is good for playing vids n music.

Things work best if all yr files are ,mp3 s - so convert them on yr pc (lots of free things to convert) before putting on yr androidd phone.

[molecork]

There seem to be a few free MP3 players on Android, I use BlackPlayer and have found it very good

[Gordon Bennett]

I thought YouTube Music easily hoovered up all your music files from your PC? It's predecessor Google Play Music did anyway.

Another way forward is to just subscribe to YouTube Premium..... You get to watch YouTube with no ads whatsoever AND it comes with YouTube Music too. YouTube Music is like Deezer, Spotify, Tidal etc. Whilst subscribed, you can download stuff to listen to offline but reality is I never bother - I'm content to just stream it.

I can't be arsed anymore ripping and storing and owning MP3 files. 40+ years ago I was probably spending a tenner a month on vinyl so today spending roughly that a month to have access to millions of tracks seems pretty darn fantastic to me and no ads on YouTube is surprisingly agreeable too. It's a mindset thing.... First I let go of the vinyl for CDs then I let go of the CDs for MP3 downloads and then I moved to just streaming.

Finally, dunno if my car is weird but Android Auto needs a wired USB connection between car/phone to work. I can play music via a Bluetooth connection to the car's infotainment system though, don't need Android Auto for that. To be honest, only point of Android Auto I can see is getting Google Maps navigation and mapping onto car's screen/speakers.

[LLPunting]

As mentioned there are many musicplayers, free and pay for pro, on Android, each with its quirks and strengths so worth investigating.
I've used many over the years but currently have Blackplayer, Pulsar and VLC (videoplayer).  Haven't looked at latest offerings in GooglePlay for a year or so but tech sites still keep mentioning the first 2 as maintained, dedicated players.

Transfering iTunes to Android has been made "easy" compared to the lock out in the early days when I left iTunes behind, this link (amongst many) details various options External Link/Members Only

One of the problems used to be that iTunes had it's own way of storing the metadata about your tracks that was only partly compatible with the "standard" used on Windows and Android ("standard" is also handled quirkily by some players on those platforms) so that things like genre, album artist, feature artist, etc might be imported into a different field.  There are various apps (including players) on Windows to manage mp3 data e.g. MusicBee, mp3tag.

[Slowjoe]

If your android phone has a free trial of youtube premium (includes music), try it - you will likely be impressed. I did and then forgot all about moving my ripped library on itunes. The cost for a year is only about one punt!

[yandex]

Finally, dunno if my car is weird but Android Auto needs a wired USB connection between car/phone to work. I can play music via a Bluetooth connection to the car's infotainment system though, don't need Android Auto for that. To be honest, only point of Android Auto I can see is getting Google Maps navigation and mapping onto car's screen/speakers.

Mine is the same, Android Auto is rubbish. I've loaded my music onto a small USB memory stick and have that plugged into the USB port on the car. I can then navigate the albums via the car touch screen instead of having to get my phone out. The only trouble is it does a weird thing with the tracks and only plays them alphabetically.

[Jimmy83]

My time to shine:

1. First of all, since you've said you don't want to download any music, I don't see why you need a 1TB SD card? Even if you were downloading music, to use up all of that 1TB, you'd need to download over 100,000 songs since most songs are under 5MB (10,000MB = 1TB)

2. Slowjoe mentioned trying YouTube premium but I myself refuse to pay for any kind of software. Fortunately, since you're an Android User, you can get Youtube Vanced. Here's the link:

External Link/Members Only

Youtube Vanced is Youtube (And Youtube Music) but all the premium features have been unlocked and are free. That means no ads, unlimited music, and playing music while your phone is locked.

Every song that is available on YouTube will now be available on your phone. For free.

3. I know your car doesn't have bluetooth and my first car had the same issue and I got tired of burning CDs. What you can do is get a FM Bluetooth transmitter. Just search for the bold three words on Amazon and it should be there. I've attached an image of what it looks like.
Hidden Image/Members Only
You plug it into your car where your charger normally goes.

You then select a radio frequency on the transmitter by twisting the dial. The default of 108.00 should be okay though.

You then select the same frequency on your car's actual radio.

You connect to the transmitter using bluetooth on your phone (You don't need a cable but you can charge your phone as well if you want). Now, whenever you play music on your phone, it will play through the radio. Plus, you don't have to go through the above process again. Your phone will automatically connect to the transmitter as soon as you turn it on.

Final: If you have any issues let me know. I use Vanced myself and had an FM transmitter as well so can help you out with any problems.

[winkywanky]

Thanks for all the replies so far chaps  .

Jimmy83, yes of course I don't need 1TB for music, but I do want it for all my photos and (newly) 4K video, so that's why I got one that big.

However I have a current delay with any of this, because I made the mistake of getting a cheapo Huawei (allegedly) 1TB Micro SD card off eBay and it doesn't work properly  . When I record video the file becomes corrupted and doesn't play properly  . So a slight delay while I get my money back and purchase something reliable like a Sandisk or Samsung.

Watch this space.

[LLPunting]

...

External Link/Members Only

...

Interesting as Vanced is where's the data leaked by it going?

WW is playing his own collection of mp3s and playlists so there's no need to import it into YT so he's beholden to it and its platform.

[Jomoore]

............ I don't see why you need a 1TB SD card? Even if you were downloading music, to use up all of that 1TB, you'd need to download over 100,000 songs since most songs are under 5MB (10,000MB = 1TB)

Isn't it 1,000GB = 1TB?

[LLPunting]

Isn't it 1,000GB = 1TB?

Indeed.
I'm finding mp3 @320k bitrate is around 2.5Mb per minute so 1TB will probably be good for around 500,000 minutes for WW, so about a year's worth of tunes without repeating and about an hour of silent sleep per night!

[Jimmy83]

Interesting as Vanced is where's the data leaked by it going?

WW is playing his own collection of mp3s and playlists so there's no need to import it into YT so he's beholden to it and its platform.

What data leak? The only place it's going is ro Google's servers for the authentication.

Itunes doesn't really work well with any non-apple device. If WW has the actual MP3 files, he can just use a USB cable to transfer them all to his phone but it won't be organised like it is in Itunes. He could setup a Plex server using his home computer and that will allow it to be automatically organised but that's overkill and for any new music he'd have to manually find an MP3 and put it on himself.

What he could do is use a website like the below to convert an Itunes playlist into a YouTube music one:

External Link/Members Only

I haven't actually used it myself since I don't own any Apple devices but it should do the trick.

[RogerBoner]

  I recall music and play the memory, it's like partially hearing music well. 

[RogerBoner]

It can't be just me that can hear music at will. 
Please

[winkywanky]

After google play music(GPM) went tits up, I downloaded Simple Mobile Tools Music Player from the Play store.
 Works and looks almost exactly like GPM, no fee or adverts.
Can search by, artist, album or track and make playlists.
Would recommend.

I have just downloaded this.

Haven't really played around with it yet but initial impressions are that it gives me all I want with no fee, no ads, and as soon as I downloaded it and gave the pop-up permission to access my files, it immediately started filling up with all my music  . Easy-peasy.

I can view by artist, album or track, I can make my own playlists, play with shuffle, etc.

Perfect for my needs, many thanks.

[LLPunting]

It can't be just me that can hear music at will. 
Please

I tend to hum, whistle and la-la-la, it tends to get me all the space I need on PT, Philistines!

[Ali Katt]

I use VLC media player, arguably the best around. Easiest way is to be save the files to a flash card.

[winkywanky]

I tend to hum, whistle and la-la-la, it tends to get me all the space I need on PT, Philistines!

Is that down to your musical preference do you think, or are you just humming out of tune?   

[RogerBoner]

I tend to hum, whistle and la-la-la, it tends to get me all the space I need on PT, Philistines!

That type of thing but I can fade or really grasp and have it. I did edit film and was moved over to sound. The ones that shifted me were helping find my speciality as I didn't know that others don't get free  MiTunes.   

[PepeMAGA]

I just use Spotify or amazon music. Amazon music you can access all the albums you've bought through amazon. Spotify I run through my cart, but that is via Bluetooth

[mazda40]

After google play music(GPM) went tits up, I downloaded Simple Mobile Tools Music Player from the Play store.
 Works and looks almost exactly like GPM, no fee or adverts.
Can search by, artist, album or track and make playlists.
Would recommend.

I have just downloaded this.

Haven't really played around with it yet but initial impressions are that it gives me all I want with no fee, no ads, and as soon as I downloaded it and gave the pop-up permission to access my files, it immediately started filling up with all my music  . Easy-peasy.

I can view by artist, album or track, I can make my own playlists, play with shuffle, etc.

Perfect for my needs, many thanks.

Bit of an update on this player. I recently upgraded my phone, transfered everything over only to find that a large percentage of my music would not play.
Turns out, alot of my music was ripped from cd to a windows pc and saved as Windows Media Files. The new phone did not recognise them.

I spent a fair bit of time converting these files to mp3, when perhaps I should have went with a player that could handle WMF.
To cap it all, the Simple Mobile Tools player has corrupted the file names and plays the wrong song or displays the wrong title.
However, the player that came on the phone (TCL) works pretty well other than the ability to have multiple play lists.

[RogerBoner]

I managed to give a random postcode overseas when I signed up and only pay around £2/month for Spotify. I pay by debit from an account in that country. The downside is that their catalogue is incomplete, for example they have only just added Fleetwood Mac and there's no Springsteen. So it's a bit random. I just tried it as a crafty experiment but it's worked well for several years.