Gapless playback of music from Google Play

**mzanette** · 11-06-2012, 08:11 AM

Not sure if this is the right forum to put this, but I couldn't continue to muck up the Nexus 4 thread with my music application specific questions.

So I've uploaded a bunch of my mp3s to Google Play so that I can stream them to my Nexus devices. Problem is, when I stream an album that has no gaps between songs (think Pink Floyd or any live album), there's a gap whenever the built in Play Music app goes from one track to the next. I had THOUGHT gapless playback was introduced in Jelly Bean, and that the application would buffer the next song to play before the first one ends, thereby playing it with no gap between tracks. This doesn't seem to be the case as it doesn't work.

Are there any music apps that:

a) can stream from Google Play
b) stream music gaplessly

I've tried Cloud Player, PowerAmp, Winamp a few others, none seem to have the option to connect to your Google Play account. Anyone with a solution for this?

**DanPLC** · 11-06-2012, 09:28 AM

Google has not made the Play music APIs are not public. There are some unofficial APIs floating around, but they could break at any time. I'm developing a music app called Music Player (Remix) and one of the more common requests I get from people are whether I'll add Google Play streaming support. Without an official API, I wouldn't want to add it to my app because it could break at any time.

In regards to gapless playback, I've added the capability to my app (via the Jellybean API). I haven't tested it yet (since I don't have a Jellybean device), but plan to do so during beta testing. But again, this would be for locally-stored music files, not streaming.

**mzanette** · 11-06-2012, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by DanPLC

Google has not made the Play music APIs are not public. There are some unofficial APIs floating around, but they could break at any time. I'm developing a music app called Music Player (Remix) and one of the more common requests I get from people are whether I'll add Google Play streaming support. Without an official API, I wouldn't want to add it to my app because it could break at any time.

In regards to gapless playback, I've added the capability to my app (via the Jellybean API). I haven't tested it yet (since I don't have a Jellybean device), but plan to do so during beta testing. But again, this would be for locally-stored music files, not streaming.

So if and when Google releases the API, do you think it would be possible to add gapless playback from the streaming music?

**DanPLC** · 11-07-2012, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by mzanette

So if and when Google releases the API, do you think it would be possible to add gapless playback from the streaming music?

Theoretically it should. To play music (whether locally or streaming), you "prepare" the media player which gets it ready to play the music. I've only worked with local files (since my music app only plays local files), but presumably the "prepare" function would buffer the file being streamed. So I would think if you're playing one song, and you prepare the next one, when the current song finishes it should immediately start playing the next song without any delay (using the new Jellybean API).

But then again, I've read reports on the web that suggest that not all music plays perfectly gapless using the new Jellybean API. Again, I haven't tested it myself so it may not be absolutely perfect.

Of course this discussion is based on the assumption that Google will ever open up their Play Music streaming API. I can see advantages and disadvantages of doing so. One advantage would be drawing in more users into using their Play Music service which could lead to more music sales. The possible disadvantage would be driving people to using 3rd party apps which probably wouldn't have direct access to their music store, like their own app does.

Personally, I think it would be beneficial for them to open up the API. I think the number of users using their service would dramatically increase if people had more options in how to access their online music.

**mzanette** · 11-07-2012, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by danplc#ac

Theoretically it should. To play music (whether locally or streaming), you "prepare" the media player which gets it ready to play the music. I've only worked with local files (since my music app only plays local files), but presumably the "prepare" function would buffer the file being streamed. So I would think if you're playing one song, and you prepare the next one, when the current song finishes it should immediately start playing the next song without any delay (using the new Jellybean API).

But then again, I've read reports on the web that suggest that not all music plays perfectly gapless using the new Jellybean API. Again, I haven't tested it myself so it may not be absolutely perfect.

Of course this discussion is based on the assumption that Google will ever open up their Play Music streaming API. I can see advantages and disadvantages of doing so. One advantage would be drawing in more users into using their Play Music service which could lead to more music sales. The possible disadvantage would be driving people to using 3rd party apps which probably wouldn't have direct access to their music store, like their own app does.

Personally, I think it would be beneficial for them to open up the API. I think the number of users using their service would dramatically increase if people had more options in how to access their online music.

Thanks for all your help! Was very educational. Even if they never open up the APIs, I hope they at least fix their own app so it can handle gapless playback from the cloud. Seems to be something they should have included all along.

**mzanette** · 11-12-2012, 06:54 PM

Quick update if anyone is interested, google updated their "play music" app today, said it adds "gapless playback" but it must only be for locally stored files. I tried to stream from the cloud and it's ALMOST gapless now, they really cut down the time between tracks but you still hear the pause. Almost there google, almost there...

**regression** · 11-12-2012, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by mzanette

Quick update if anyone is interested, google updated their "play music" app today, said it adds "gapless playback" but it must only be for locally stored files. I tried to stream from the cloud and it's ALMOST gapless now, they really cut down the time between tracks but you still hear the pause. Almost there google, almost there...

In just tried listening to some offline files and I still have a very small gap. I guess Google should call it "less gaps" rather than "gap less".

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

**mzanette** · 11-13-2012, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by djs71a

In just tried listening to some offline files and I still have a very small gap. I guess Google should call it "less gaps" rather than "gap less".

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Well, at least they're getting closer LOL. The first time I tried before this update there was a huge gap, now it's a slight gap.

**mzanette** · 11-29-2012, 09:25 AM

IT NOW WORKS!!!!!

After updating to 4.2.1 and playing Tool's "Parabol" song to "Parabola" there is NO GAP while streaming from Google Music using the Google Play app! It finally works!!!!

Listening to Radiohead's "OK Computer", perfect gapless transition from song 1 to 2. Thank you Googly.