Good Music App For Android?

[Something Amyss]

So....

For years, I used DoubleTwist. In recent years, however, it's made loading my music library a pain and I switched to the onboard app on my G4. My G4 died, and I picked up an S7 Edge (I had to change carriers anyway). Problem is, I HATE the Galaxy line's music player, and DoubleTwist still won't load my music.

So I'm looking for a new music player. Preferably cheap or free. I don't have a lot of required features. I just want to be able to shuffle a large playlist (bit over a thousand songs) and preferably have a graphic EQ. Several of the players I've tried don't support large playlists. Obviously, it needs to be on Android.

Lock screen support would be nice, it's one thing I liked about DT. I can live with it, though.

Anything good that can be recommended?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Amazon's music player has served me well. Handles at least a 415 song play list (I imagine it goes higher, but that's what I got at the moment), and works fine with non-Amazon music. Has a simple Music Name - Back - Play/Pause - Forward lock screen interface. No equalizer as far as I know. Sorts music by all the typical metrics.

There's Prime music as well, but I'll take a swing and say you don't have Prime. Otherwise you'd already be using it.

Oh, and it has a widget that has all the lock screen stuff as well.

 

[Something Amyss]

There's Prime music as well, but I'll take a swing and say you don't have Prime. Otherwise you'd already be using it.

I have a Prime subscription, but I don't really stream. I live in a small town with spotty reception and while I now have 4G, I spend a fair amount of time out of service or more likely with limited reception.

Also, my music collection's large. Like, ridiculously large. I've spent quite literally decades on a music collection I could probably put on repeat and forget I'd listened to a song by the time it comes back up. This includes rarities, oddities, out of print stuff and stuff I had to rip from vinyl, but often just stuff Amazon doesn't sell in digital format. Hell, I have trouble sharing music sometimes because I can't even link to a YouTube video.

...I was going somewhere with this.

Oh yeah. There are several reasons I don't use Prime that often. One of them is I am old and technology scares me. >.>

Also, Amazon music doesn't seem to recognise my onboard playlists, which would take forever to rebuild.

But I did check it out, at least. >.>

 

[CellShaded]

I use BlackPlayer. Hasn't served me wrong so far.

 

[DefunctTheory]

There's Prime music as well, but I'll take a swing and say you don't have Prime. Otherwise you'd already be using it.

I have a Prime subscription, but I don't really stream. I live in a small town with spotty reception and while I now have 4G, I spend a fair amount of time out of service or more likely with limited reception.

Well, just to mention it, you can pre-load Prime songs on your home wi-fi, and then play from your phones offline library when off the grid. Or on the grid, for that matter.

Sucks it wont read your playlists. Sorry.

 

[Something Amyss]

Well, just to mention it, you can pre-load Prime songs on your home wi-fi, and then play from your phones offline library when off the grid. Or on the grid, for that matter.

Sucks it wont read your playlists. Sorry.

I know you can do that, but then i have to go cultivate Prime songs, which, given they seem to think I really want to listen to Liz Phair, may be hard.

I use BlackPlayer. Hasn't served me wrong so far.

I'll check it oot. Thanks.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Well, just to mention it, you can pre-load Prime songs on your home wi-fi, and then play from your phones offline library when off the grid. Or on the grid, for that matter.

Sucks it wont read your playlists. Sorry.

I know you can do that, but then i have to go cultivate Prime songs, which, given they seem to think I really want to listen to Liz Phair, may be hard.

I know that feeling. Amazon seems fairly insistent that I should love Rap and R&B, despite my own insistents that I'd rather listen to AC/DC, The Eagles, Journey and Meatloaf.

Then again, Pandora has tried pretty much the same thing on me, and it's known me for years. At a certain point, you start wondering if maybe the algorithms are right and I'm just being a stubborn old fart.

 

[Something Amyss]

I know that feeling. Amazon seems fairly insistent that I should love Rap and R&B, despite my own insistents that I'd rather listen to AC/DC, The Eagles, Journey and Meatloaf.

Then again, Pandora has tried pretty much the same thing on me, and it's known me for years. At a certain point, you start wondering if maybe the algorithms are right and I'm just being a stubborn old fart.

I don't know. I've bought something like 20 albums since discovering KEXP had a YouTube channel. And back when I listened to their podcasts, I'd end up picking up a couple records a month off their plays. I try an stream off Pandora and I'm always baffled by their selections. I'll start with, say, Queen, and end up with bands whose only connection to Queen is they're from the 1970s, and I'm like, "why are you playing me this?"

Part of the problem is they tend towards popular stuff because it's popular, which leads to a cascade effect. People wh like X also listen to Y, even though the only connection is Y is massively popular and has no ties. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being popular, but it does stack the deck.

"We saw you watched a gaming video. Here's 50 PewDiePie videos."

 

[lacktheknack]

I use BlackPlayer. Hasn't served me wrong so far.

This. I've never had issues either, but I've not stress-tested it.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

If you want to get fancy, VLC is secure, light weight and very functional. It'll also play videos and do other things. It also comes complete with the ability to play just about every codec there is.

 

[infohippie]

I use Poweramp. It's not free but it is pretty cheap and I've found it to be really good.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Well Amyss if you want to be that stubbornly intransigent about not even reading a friendly advice post, that is of course your prerogative. Also as someone who pays some attention tech and cyber security feeds like TWiT.tv and SecurityNOW! I can tell everyone who visits this thread that VLC comes very highly recommended, it's been in that position for years, probably over a decade. As I remember it I was first made aware of it by The Screen Savers on TechTV, where everyone had nothing but good things to say about it. The mobile player is just as good as the PC version from what I've been able to tell...

And Amyss, after rereading your OP, VLC should be right up your alley, due to it's light weight it shouldn't have any issue importing even the largest library. That is assuming you choose to read this post. Also if you have any doubts, I was using my ZTE Valet for audio books. VLC loaded really fast on that phone in spite of the phone being a garbage 4.1 Jelly Bean device with 512mb of ram and a single core 1.0GHZ CPU.

 

[SnowyGamester]

I'm curious what your gripes are with the stock Samsung player. It's pretty barebones but there are a few different sorting methods, it does playlists , EQ and I haven't had trouble playing anything with it.

I haven't used it but Poweramp [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxmpz.audioplayer] comes pretty well recommended and should fulfill all your requirements assuming it doesn't have trouble with big playlists. It's not free but the trial should tell you what you need to know. There's also always the old KitKat player [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.rymate.music] though I'm not sure whether it has an EQ.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm using poweramp on my note 4. I believe it has everything you listed and it's a considerable improvement over the stock player. I'm not sure about large playlists though, i only have around 400 songs which i have no problems playing. It's not free, but there is a demo if you want to try it.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm curious what your gripes are with the stock Samsung player.

It doesn't load my larger playlists properly, for one. The reason I switched to a paid app previously is that most of the free ones had trouble with song lists greater than 500 or 1000. DoubleTwist, however, has started to suck and sometimes won't recognise any playlists (even ones I created in-app). When I got this phone, I tried loading up music in the stock app, and my largest playlist had about 230 songs out of a playlist I've trimmed to 973 songs. While there's some bloat on the list (and the fact that past Amyss put "Fly" by Sugar Ray on there makes me question her taste in music), the point remains it barely loads any of them.

I've been using Black Player this morning, and it did at the very least load my playlists. It does seem kind of bare bones, but at least I'm not stuck surfing through non-music material (I have, for example, a playlist of Doctor Who audio dramas on my phone, which is not what I queue up when I want to jam out) looking for music, or paring down to one band or so. This is kind of annoying, since the main reason I use playlists is because a good chunk (roughly half) of my big playlist is single songs that don't necessarily belong anywhere else.

It seems rather arbitrary in its selection, too. Last time, it queued up to the Bs and then nothing else. Then the time before that, it seemed to have no pattern at all.

I probably will check out Poweramp since it has a free trial.

 

[Hazy992]

Can't really go wrong with Shuttle or Phonograph. both are fairly easy to use and have Material Design. I've had some issues with artwork but that just might be my music.

Also they're both free with no ads. Shuttle has a premium version but that just adds more features.

 

[sXeth]

I know that feeling. Amazon seems fairly insistent that I should love Rap and R&B, despite my own insistents that I'd rather listen to AC/DC, The Eagles, Journey and Meatloaf.

Then again, Pandora has tried pretty much the same thing on me, and it's known me for years. At a certain point, you start wondering if maybe the algorithms are right and I'm just being a stubborn old fart.

I don't know. I've bought something like 20 albums since discovering KEXP had a YouTube channel. And back when I listened to their podcasts, I'd end up picking up a couple records a month off their plays. I try an stream off Pandora and I'm always baffled by their selections. I'll start with, say, Queen, and end up with bands whose only connection to Queen is they're from the 1970s, and I'm like, "why are you playing me this?"

Part of the problem is they tend towards popular stuff because it's popular, which leads to a cascade effect. People wh like X also listen to Y, even though the only connection is Y is massively popular and has no ties. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being popular, but it does stack the deck.

"We saw you watched a gaming video. Here's 50 PewDiePie videos."

Yeah, I've had this on Pandora, LastFM, and RateYourMusic. ITs like "I'm aware of popular albums/artists that generally infest every top hundred list released in media. Could you perhaps find something a little more obscure that I haven't heard of? Rather then telling me to check out AC/DC's 5th live bootleg album when I've only middlingly rated their regular discography."

 

[minkus_draconus]

So....

For years, I used DoubleTwist. In recent years, however, it's made loading my music library a pain and I switched to the onboard app on my G4. My G4 died, and I picked up an S7 Edge (I had to change carriers anyway). Problem is, I HATE the Galaxy line's music player, and DoubleTwist still won't load my music.

So I'm looking for a new music player. Preferably cheap or free. I don't have a lot of required features. I just want to be able to shuffle a large playlist (bit over a thousand songs) and preferably have a graphic EQ. Several of the players I've tried don't support large playlists. Obviously, it needs to be on Android.

Lock screen support would be nice, it's one thing I liked about DT. I can live with it, though.

Anything good that can be recommended?

I use Vanilla Music on my LG G5. I am happy with it so far (it obeys replay gain data in tracks).