Android Music Players (Discussion)

[awh11]

Wanted to re-open up a discussion regarding Android music players. (The last thread was over a year old, and per the forum suggestion I'm opening up a new thread to get some new opinions.)

Has anyone been using a specific Android music player that they really like, that supports 2-way sync with play counts? On my Google Pixel, I am able to check the box that enables 2-way sync for play counts, but I've only been using the stock Google Play Music app that came with my Pixel.  It is pretty barebones, I don't think play count sync works with that because my play counts weren't updating in MusicBee after. Considering that app really tries to get you to use Play Music, I'm surprised it even supports playback of local music files at all, let alone play counts. (Google has their own play count stat that seemed to be cloud-based and did not update or reference the file's tags).

So yeah, just looking for opinions on players people have liked on their Android phones, which again, ideally would support play counts, and I'd also like something that does a good job with Podcast playback (ie. treating it differently than just a standard song). Rating would be nice too, but that wasn't an option under 2-way sync for me so that might just not be possible.

Cheers!

[Freddy Barker]

I'm still using Media Monkey, seems to sync with MB and play counts still updated by the Android Last.fm App

Regards :-)

[awh11]

I'm still using Media Monkey, seems to sync with MB and play counts still updated by the Android Last.fm App Regards :-)

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check Media Monkey out, although ideally I'd like to use a media player that can update the play counts without the use of Last.fm. Hopefully I can achieve that with some player, but if not I suppose Last.fm will be the fallback.

[Edited by moderator to remove large font]

[psychoadept]

I'm still very happy with GMMP.  I wish they would hurry up and add multiple artist support, but all other players I've tried have more irritating down sides.

[awh11]

Thanks psychoadept!

I will try GMMP out, seems to be pretty cool player with a lot of features! Fingers crossed that the play count sync works, although from what I'm finding, it seems to be a tough nut to crack outside of the Apple/iTunes sphere. Well, here's hoping for the better.

[Freddy Barker]

Before Media Monkey I used Rocket Player on Android, and that was nice looking and fully functional, the guys responded well to questions and wishlist requests.
I only moved to MM when I started using the MM Windows meia player... The amount of effort that goes into Music Bee is phenomenal, thus should very soon include every conceivable option, if not already available!

Good luck, and please let us know what player you end up using and if satisfactory.
Regards :-)

[psychoadept]

Thanks psychoadept!

I will try GMMP out, seems to be pretty cool player with a lot of features! Fingers crossed that the play count sync works, although from what I'm finding, it seems to be a tough nut to crack outside of the Apple/iTunes sphere. Well, here's hoping for the better.

Yeah, I doubt you will be able to achieve playcount sync without using one of the scrobbling websites.  GMMP works with Simple Last.fm Scrobbler (which also supports Listenbrainz and other sites)

[awh11]

Thanks psychoadept! I will try GMMP out, seems to be pretty cool player with a lot of features! Fingers crossed that the play count sync works, although from what I'm finding, it seems to be a tough nut to crack outside of the Apple/iTunes sphere. Well, here's hoping for the better.

Yeah, I doubt you will be able to achieve playcount sync without using one of the scrobbling websites. GMMP works with Simple Last.fm Scrobbler (which also supports Listenbrainz and other sites)

Well, I must say I have come to the same conclusion myself haha. I bothered to drum up the strength to fetch up my old last.fm account (which I had used a bit from 2009-2012, but not much thankfully) and clear out all of the scrobbles from it, and created a clean slate. After doing this, I've actually underestimated how much I like having a cloud-based service handle the play counts and being able to sync that info back to MusicBee. So, Im sold! I'm doing that. I'm using Simple Last.fm Scrobbler on mobile.

On the Android player side of things, I actually tried GMMP as you suggested psychoadept and really like it, although it will take a bit of getting used to UI changes from Google. Ironically, with the decision to go with last.fm for handling play counts, in theory it's possible I could get by just deciding to use Google Play Music again, but honestly I think I'll wind up sticking with GMMP. I'm not 100% sold that the last.fm scrobbling would work with Google playing LOCAL files (again, I'm convinced Google Play's focus is strictly its cloud based music service), and to be honest GMMP seems like a spiritual sister to MusicBee in the sense that it is very customizable. I just wish that there was a separate tab for Podcasts (something Google admittedly does very well). Not a big deal though.

If anything GMMP wins from the fact that although I purchase my music from Google, whenever I use the mobile app it's so darn easy to accidentally toggle between local music only, and my full cloud library to stream (which I don't want). Plus....dark UI's for the win.

Thank you both again for the recommendations and information!

[patial]

I'm using  Media Monkey as well and I think it's not a bad choice

[Panjim117]

Hi, i use and recommand Black Player Free since months. But i'll check gmmp later

[Shaman Studios]

I too am looking for my preferred Android music player. I just bought the Note8 last weekend and have not been happy with the interface in GMMP. I googled reviews and read that it is considered to be one of the poorest default players in many respects. I installed Poweramp last night and will report back after using it for awhile.

[NickIst]

I too am looking for my preferred Android music player. I just bought the Note8 last weekend and have not been happy with the interface in GMMP. I googled reviews and read that it is considered to be one of the poorest default players in many respects. I installed Poweramp last night and will report back after using it for awhile.

Poweramp is one of the best audio players. I'm using it for 4 years. There are few players that have higher audio quality (Neutron Music Player: it decodes with floating point) or the same (Gone Mad and PlayerPro), according to russian site audiophilesoft. In plus talking about performance/power cosumption it's considered to have the best ratio.

[HonHarv96]

I've been using Poweramp for years. It's really the best I've come across, both in terms of sound and interface (its interface is really superb and the latest paid version also supports albums by album artists). Neutron is another top player that even supports DSD files, can drive external DACs through USB, and can import and play network files/libraries, but its interface is a bit fiddly. Here I must say that I've tried a few of them Android players out and I use the paid versions of both Poweramp and Neutron but I prefer Poweramp due to its interface - still its sound is excellent. A new version of Poweramp is on the way although a bit delayed, still the current version is really top.

[so_la_la]

When I still could use PowerAmp I clearly thought this was the best. However it's impossible to purchase without a google account so that's nothing for me.
@awh11: There are a lot of other sync services around but what makes you turn down last.fm? Privacy concerns?

[Perfume of a Nerd's Burning Flesh]

Poweramp, due to a bug that made all other players unable to read my file titles. It's also a pretty sweet app with the only weakness being the lack of regular updates and limited sorting options.