WITHO: Music Applications

[kizanski]

So, here's my situation:

I teach yoga several times a week and I have ~50 one hour song lists assembled for classes.
Also I have several song lists for my workouts, runs, etc.
Along with that is the 10,000 or so songs in my iTunes/Apple Music inventory.

Lots of this was assembled back when I had an iPhone (for work) and, of course working in concert with the Mac computer was seamless.

Fast Forward to present day.

I no longer have an iPhone (as I no longer have a job) and as we all know, Apple does not like to play nice with others, specifically Android phones.
Sure, you can use Apple Music on your Android phone with a monthly subscription, but I'll be damned if I pay Apple every month to listen to music that I already own.

So this is what I need:

I need an application that will allow me to import all of my music, create playlists, and load those playlists to be loaded/imported onto my Android phone.

Important points:

• App must be free. Free to download and not subscription based.
• App must work with Android (obviously)
• App can be Mac or Windows based

Let's hear it, HFC Experts!

 

[specialk]

2 hours ago, kizanski said:

I'll be damned if I pay Apple every month to listen to music that I already own.

You might check the TOS on ownership of those songs… 

[alantig]

Did you rip the songs from CDs or did you "buy" them from the iTunes store?  Because "buying" digital music, as @specialk points out, might not be what you think it is.

If you ripped them, the question becomes what format did you use.  If it's MP3, it should be pretty straightforward to port them to another app, although storage space on your phone may be an issue.  If you used something else, you may need to convert the files first.

[kizanski]

Songs were either ripped from CDs or purchased via Amazon, Band Camp, etc.
Either way, they're mine now.

[scottcald]

Haven't used these, but could be worth checking out:

https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/support/droidtransfer/sync-itunes-to-android.php

https://www.coolmuster.com/phone-transfer/transfer-music-from-itunes-to-android.html

The first one says it doesn't copy playlists because there isn't a standard playlist format in the music players on Android. Unclear about the second one. 

 

[kizanski]

Thanks, @scottcald  

I'll check them out.  

[kizanski]

So I've spent the last few hours diving into these links, the programs featured, and the "How To" points listed.

They are all either...

1. Not accurate, due to older versions of iTunes depicted, particularly since it hasn't been called "iTunes" for years
2. Not applicable - the How To points refer to the subscription level of Apple Music. The options are limited for those refusing to pay a subscription.
3. Not necessary. One app helps you transfer files from your computer to your phone, which is easily accomplished with just a USB cable. No app is needed for that. 
   The other app is free to download, but $115 to actually use it. Yeah, no.

So, I'm still no closer to where I want to be.

It's hard to argue with the Apple hate when you run into shit like this. 

[scottcald]

Sorry, didn't realize it was going to be one of those kinds of things.  Most of the stuff I saw was just to move between streaming services. 

If you're spending time looking for something and trying it out, I'd just drag them to the phone as you said via USB and recreate the playlists.  Only because by the time you find the software that does that specific thing, you could just do it manually.  I suspect to do exactly what you're looking for would probably be some kind of scripted thing rather than a piece of software.  

Or, if they run in the same sequence each time, you could use an app like Audacity, play or drag the files of your playlist into it, export the file as the playlist name.  

As far as the Apple stuff, Google and Microsoft do similar things. They all want you to use only their stuff.  

[kizanski]

16 hours ago, scottcald said:

Sorry, didn't realize it was going to be one of those kinds of things.

No need to apologize. I appreciate the attempt to help out.

16 hours ago, scottcald said:

If you're spending time looking for something and trying it out, I'd just drag them to the phone as you said via USB and recreate the playlists.

Yeah, except there are over 50 playlists with at least a dozen songs in each.
I would have to manually pick over 600 songs one-at-a-time to recreate each playlist. Should I quit my job?? 
Never mind.  I don't have a job.

I'm a patient man, but not that patient.

So, I have decided to bite the bullet and sign up for Apple Music.
It's $10.99/month (which makes me wanna vomit), but the first 2 months are free.

I'll try it out for free and see how it works.
If it works for me the way I need it to, I'll keep it and write it off of my taxes, since it is a necessity for me to teach.

The only other option is to switch to an iPhone, which isn't the end of the world, but it's also not free...

[scottcald]

Depending on carrier, a number of them offer free not the latest iPhone, worth a check. 

[Saul Goodman]

Linux is the way to go.

[gorch]

Why don‘t you just ask Claude to create your own? 

[veatch]

I ended up with swinsian, but that was to run on a mac mini. For android, you can try foobar2000, but if i recall, the interface is a bit, er, "challenging".  Poweramp might be an option, but i haven't tried it. 

And honestly, I haven't used android for music, so I'm no expert. 

There are FiiO dedicated music players, which are android based, but now you're talking money again. Those ain't cheap. And really not the point. You want to use your phone...

Edited May 9 by veatch