getmusicbee.com
MusicBee & Add-Ons => Customizations => Plugins => Topic started by: Steven on September 18, 2014, 06:52:18 PM
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This plugin adds support for Xbox Music to MusicBee. Its mostly focused on the perspective of someone with a local collection who wants to use tools to help discover new music.
Its not intended as a replacement for the Xbox Music Web Player, although i can see reasons why you may want to use MusicBee to play tracks directly from your Xbox Account and I may yet do this. The main reasons for not doing this so far is the API and the rules around using the API dont enable me to implement this in a way thats consistent with the rest of the MusicBee UI. I would pretty much be limited to replicating the same UI as the Xbox Music Web Player.
The main features to date are:
- playback of tracks from the Xbox Music catalog - full stream (AAC 160k quality) with an Xbox Music pass, otherwise 30 second preview of tracks (MP3, 128k)
- Music Explorer which provides searching and filtering to explore artists and tracks, including integration with last.fm and also echonest for track filtering
- Radio Streaming which offers tag based radio streams. Create the station in the Radio node from the Station Directory panel
- enhanced Auto DJ so you can include tracks from a tag based radio stream or a similar artist stream into the play mix
- export playlists (static or auto-playlists) to your Xbox Music account eg. create an auto-playlist based on local files and export the resulting playlist (right click on the playlist in the left navigator/ Send to Xbox Music). MusicBee attempts to lookup the track in the Xbox Music catalog but may not always be able to find a match
X-Box Music has been closed by Microsoft
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- enhanced Auto DJ so you can include tracks from a tag based radio stream or a similar artist stream into the play mix
I've noticed the two other options that were part of the last.fm similar tracks restrictions:
- restrict selection to artists similar to the seed track only
- choose artists similar to the preceding track in the playlist (allows more drift)
are not there anymore.
Was this an oversight when re-doing the panel or is it a permanent change?
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its a permanent change where it now effectively combines both options - trying to stick to similar artists to the seed but if/ when not able to that it then uses the most recent track(s) and gets the similar artists to that track
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fair enough then
sounds like the best of both options :)
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Actually this plugin turned out to be great for previewing albums before deciding whether to download or not. I may even get an xbox music subscription at some point to take full advantage of the rest of its features.
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I have been waiting for this plugin for a while - thanks so much for including it!!!!
I have noticed that a maximum of 25 tracks are displayed for any album. For some albums (classical, Lord of the Rings, etc.) with multiple discs and many tracks - I can't access them (beyond track 25) from the list in the Music Explorer.
Is there a way to see more (all tracks) - or is this an Xbox rule?
Thanks!
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glad someone cares about it!
this should address the issue - unzip and replace the existing MusicBeeXBox.dll file in the musicbee application folder
http://www.mediafire.com/download/r5ztv7nvh64i4nj/MusicBeeXBox.zip
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Works well! Thanks so much! :)
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Good Afternoon.
Is there any way you can implement the hability to listen to songs already downloaded from xbox music? Not even WMP can do this... D:
Thanks in advance!
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its not allowed in the API terms and conditions
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I started using this plugin shortly after it was posted, and it worked great; but I have since updated to the latest beta, and XBox Music no longer appears in the left navigation panel. The plugin is enabled in settings, and I have logged in to my XBox Music Pass. I do not see any other options in settings (i.e, left side bar settings in Layout (1)) to make it appear. Do I need to do a clean install or is there some other option to bring it back?
Thank you!!
Eric
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i was using it the other day so and should be working fine. Ensure you have the "Services" node enabled in the Layout(1) preferences and if thats not it, post a screenshot
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Hi Steven!
Thank you for the quick response! The Services node is enabled but XBox Music is not displayed. I have included links to screenshots of the main player window and the preferences showing that the XBox Music plugin is enabled. Sorry, I don't know how to insert the images inline.
Thank you!
Eric
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4luybhvw6j7qy8/Main%20Player.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvcnba9r4gkh5u4/Preferences.jpg?dl=0
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its "Music Explorer"
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I'm sorry, Steven! I was apparently having a brain freeze. I thought it actually showed XBox Music in the side panel. Thank you for setting me straight. Also, thank you for creating and supporting such a powerful music manager. There is nothing else close in my opinion.
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Hi Steven, thanks for providing this plugin to MusicBee.
It just works perfect, but I have a question about the streaming quality. I've signed up for 1 month free subscription to Xbox Music and you write, that the quality is 160 kbps AAC. Is this determined by the API or do you transcode this in any form. I thought, that Xbox Music as a Microsoft company was streaming in WMA, not that AAC is bad at all, on the contrary. I just wonder :)
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its streamed as supplied by the xbox service with no transcoding by musicbee - they use AAC for subscribing customers
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Thanks for your answer Steven.
Is the Xbox stream affected by the player option "Dynamically normalise the volume of streams", because I've noticed far less clipping and better overall listening experience compared to the Xbox music app for Windows 8 or their web-player. If this is true, it's a big plus for your plugin implementation. No online streaming service has this feature, as far as I know, although Spotify has a "Set the same volume level for all tracks" option, it doesn't work as well as your implementation.
Is this feature following the EBU R128 -18LUFS target volume, or?
By the way, am I the only one, who has abrupt cuts the last seconds of each track, as it isn't finished properly?
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the dynamic normalisation is not a full replaygain analysis - it only works with the immediate section of the song and is approximate. You can google the forum for a more detailed explanation
By the way, am I the only one, who has abrupt cuts the last seconds of each track, as it isn't finished properly?
i have no problems with this. Can you explain this some more.
- do you mean it ends the song 2 seconds before the stated duration of the track
- does it happen for the last song in the playlist ie. does it only happen if another song is following
- could you post a screen shot of your player preferences panel
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About the abrupt cuts, I can hear, that the song isn't finished as it should, because it finishes hard in the middle of the last tone or so and as I can hear it, it happens for each track, although the playlist is from the same album. I don't have this behaviour, when I play local files in the normal way.
Here is a screenshot of the player settings (http://i58.tinypic.com/68hv81.jpg)
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i cant help any further unless you answer the questions asked.
Also could you give me an example artist/ album/ track name
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Steven, sorry I didn't answer your question fully.
Add the Caroline Henderson album Jazz, Love & Henderson from 2011 to your playlist. Play track 3 - Trilingual Love Song. It ends 4-5 seconds before it should be finished. This is also the case, if the track is the only one in your playlist.
I've also tried to play the album the same way in Xbox Music web player and in the Xbox Music windows 8 app, and here there is no problem.
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I set up an xbox music sub and everything was working fine. Could stream full albums through MusicBee etc. However this morning I tried to stream and it would not work. I went to the plug-in page and clicked log on but all I get is 'your subscription on xbox is not enabled. Try again later'. However if I login to xbox music via firefox the I can stream perfectly and my account has registered that there is a subscription enabled.
Edit:
Seem to have fixed it by using the 'get a music pass' button in preferences rather than the log on option. The xbox website opened to create a music pass but then I just closed the site and logged in via MusicBee and it worked.
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it really could be any number of possibilities eg. it could have been a glitch in the API service that musicbee uses which differs to the web-player or it could be the way MusicBee handles an event. If it happens again then please let me know
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Thanks and I will do Steven. It is a great edition to the player. It is one of the reasons I got the music pass in the first place as it is much better then using Microsoft 'Music' or the web based xbox player.
It would be really nice to have a right click search for a 'search on xbox'. That way would be easy to find artists already in the library on xbox.
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the Music Explorer in the Services section allows searching/ browsing of the Xbox music catalog
edit:
never mind - i realise thats not what you meant. I will add it to a future version of MB
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Thank you so much, Steven. I never expected to get such a great experience for Xbox Music/Groove when I posted the suggestion.
Today I tried the "send playlist to Xbox music" feature for the first time. I'm not sure if I understand the feature wrong or if it is broken at the moment. If I send my local playlist via MusicBee, the app is busy for a little while, says that the playlist was sent except for x songs. Nevertheless, when I go to Groove Web (https://music.microsoft.com/collection?target=web) there is no new playlist appearing.
Additionaly, it would be great if it would be possible to add songs the drag-and-drop/ctrl+click way within the music explorer in MusicBee.
You are doing a very big favour to music lovers around the globe.
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i just tried now and its working fine for me. That function doesnt send the music files to x-box music, instead it creates or synchronises a playlist on your x-box/ groove music account but only where a matching artist/title and optionally album can be matched.
Perhaps you just needed to hit the refresh button on your browser
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My Xbox Music tracks don't proceed to the next after finishing automatically. It happens while playing a Xbox music radio stream or a regular playlist with one or more Xbox music tracks. Is there some setting I should check? To be honest it did work. I don't recall any settings I changed.
I wasn't sure where to put this problem. In the Support forum or in the plugin thread itself.
I'm running version 3.0.5909 and I'm a Xbox music subscriber (or Groove Music as it is called nowadays).
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Well, this is rather embarrassing. I just installed the latest patch (3.0.6057) and the problem is solved! Sorry, for any inconvenience caused.
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if you are using windows 10 then there is an issue with the aac decoder that comes with windows 10. I suggest you search this forum for instructions on how to download bass_aac.dll as that decoder works properly
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Steven, I am really enjoying this plugin to access streaming music with my own collection. Thanks!!!
Is it possible to have the ability to edit the metadata for tracks from Groove (XBox) Music (have them save in the MB database)? At least the ability to use custom tags that save in the database anyway. It would help tremendously in sorting the streamed items in the music collection. (ie. adding genre information that Microsoft doesn't supply properly!)
Also in theatre mode, no album covers are displayed from XBox/Groove streams. They are available in all other views. Is this easy to implement?
Thanks again for your continued work on this amazing software!!
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microsoft are shutting down one of the Azure services that is needed by this plugin in March. I need to find out if there will be another way for the plugin to work. Until i know more i wont invest time in the plugin
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For the record, microsoft have provided a way to hook into the new groove api with no loss of capability, so i will continue to support this plugin.
The updated plugin will be included in the next v3.1 patch update, and i will do a full release of v3.0 before the March shutdown date.
@ProfessorMarvel, one of the terms of the API contract is the client applications cannot permanently save metadata.
However i will at some point look at the theater mode support
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That's good news. Thanks so much Steven!
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theater mode support is done for v3.1 and is available on the usual download link
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So this plugin is amazing, but I have two requests/comments:
First, is there any way to search the Groove catalog for any arbitrary artist through the Music Explorer?
From what I can tell, the only way to "find" an artist is to:
1) Have a similar artist in your library already
2) In music explorer, click on the artist
3) Go to Similar Artists tab, click "More Similar Artists"
4) Find the artist you are looking for
Would it be possible to add an option in the search bar to search the Groove catalog for an artist?
Second, the volume of tracks from Groove is much quieter than local tracks. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm on v3.0.6132.
Edit:
Adding two more questions :)
Is there any way to import playlists from Groove? I see "Send to Xbox music" and that works fine, but I'd like to also import playlists that I might have created elsewhere (example my phone's Groove app).
I noticed you can add the Groove tracks to your inbox/library playlists and they behave the same as local files (from what I can tell). Does the current plugin API support this? If so, how is this done? I'd really like to know how to create an entry in the library that is actually a link to a streaming service.
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Steven,
Thanks for working on this so quickly. I downloaded/updated my MusicBee, but still am only seeing a black "No Cover Art" for Xbox/Groove songs for any of the Theatre Mode views. Is there something I need to do to get this working? (The music plays fine and MusicBee is logged on to Groove)
Thanks!
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what version does Help/ About say? and what theater mode skin are you using?
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First, is there any way to search the Groove catalog for any arbitrary artist through the Music Explorer?
you can type an artist name in the text search box but it will only filter for artists in your library. I guess i can look at some way to search for artists outside your library.
However, with the current version, if you open the Recommendations node from the left navigator, the search box will search for any artist in the xbox music catalog
Second, the volume of tracks from Groove is much quieter than local tracks. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm on v3.0.6132.
perhaps you have replaygain enabled for local tracks and there is no replaygain tags for the xbox tracks
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I had disabled the recommendations node a long time ago and forgot about it. This is basically exactly what I was looking for!
Also, I had checked the setting Preferences->Player-> Dynamically normalise volume of streams, which was affecting the volume of the streams. Unchecking this made all the tracks about the same volume. Thanks!
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:-[ I realized I only installed the 3.0 patch. I can't find the 3.1 links - can someone please help! Thanks!!!
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Ok, found and downloaded the patch.
Steven, the theatre mode works fine - except for the "Album Flow" and "Album Wall" which show the album covers coming up in the playlist. Not sure if this is something those creators need to work out or if you can do it on your end.
Again, I really appreciate the work you continue to put into this amazing music player and your quick responses!!
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the theatre mode works fine - except for the "Album Flow" and "Album Wall" which show the album covers coming up in the playlist. Not sure if this is something those creators need to work out or if you can do it on your end.
thats tricky because of the way its implemented it would potentially lock up the GUI while its downloading all the pictures, so i wont promise i will address that
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Hi Steven, I'm wondering if you'd be able to answer a question from my earlier post. I'll ask again in case you missed it.
I noticed you can add the Groove tracks to your inbox/library playlists and they behave the same as local files (from what I can tell). Does the current plugin API support this? If so, how is this done? I'd really like to know how to create an entry in the library that is actually a link to a streaming service.
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I just received an email that the Groove Music service will be discontinued and transitioned to Spotify by the end of the year. Is there a plan to move the Music Explorer and streaming functionalities in Music Bee to another service or will they be deprecated?