Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Best replacement for iTunes playlists

[robertmarkbram]

Hi All,

What I like with iOS and iTunes:

1. I have all my music stored locally, on my HD.
2. Playlists recognise on genre, artist, types (podcasts vs music etc).
3. The simplest playlist for music just selects XGB of random music I haven't played in the last 8 weeks and refreshes every time I sync.

Is there a solution that gives me these for Android?

So far I have played a bit with Kies, but it doesn't seem to have playlists and doesn't seem to know about podcasts at all.

Google Music seems nothing much more than "let me copy 20,000 of your iTunes songs into the cloud!"

1. I have more than 20,000 songs. It's great that I can copy so much to the cloud, but it also means I have to re-download them again to play them... which means knowing what I want to play in advance when I am on WiFi.
2. I don't want to copy them back from the cloud to my PC.. duplicating the collection.
3. There seems to be no playlists.
4. I can't select from my PC what music to add to my device.
5. From my device, I have to go through by genre, artist, album etc.. when I want something that gives me a variety within the parameters I set.

So.. any good iTunes replacement here yet?

Rob

 

[sux2bu]

Hi All,

What I like with iOS and iTunes:

1. I have all my music stored locally, on my HD.
2. Playlists recognise on genre, artist, types (podcasts vs music etc).
3. The simplest playlist for music just selects XGB of random music I haven't played in the last 8 weeks and refreshes every time I sync.

Is there a solution that gives me these for Android?

So far I have played a bit with Kies, but it doesn't seem to have playlists and doesn't seem to know about podcasts at all.

Google Music seems nothing much more than "let me copy 20,000 of your iTunes songs into the cloud!"

1. I have more than 20,000 songs. It's great that I can copy so much to the cloud, but it also means I have to re-download them again to play them... which means knowing what I want to play in advance when I am on WiFi.
2. I don't want to copy them back from the cloud to my PC.. duplicating the collection.
3. There seems to be no playlists.
4. I can't select from my PC what music to add to my device.
5. From my device, I have to go through by genre, artist, album etc.. when I want something that gives me a variety within the parameters I set.

So.. any good iTunes replacement here yet?

Rob

I don't think you understand how Google play music works. Mine syncs all of my iTunes music and playlists. Any time I add a song or playlist (or even edita playlist) to iTunes it automatically syncs it to Google Play Music. Also, you don't have to download your songs to listen to them. You stream them. The only time you download them is if you know you are going to be listening to your music with no data connection or wifi. I love Google Play Music.

 

[robertmarkbram]

I don't think you understand how Google play music works. Mine syncs all of my iTunes music and playlists. Any time I add a song or playlist (or even edita playlist) to iTunes it automatically syncs it to Google Play Music. Also, you don't have to download your songs to listen to them. You stream them. The only time you download them is if you know you are going to be listening to your music with no data connection or wifi. I love Google Play Music.

I believe I have understood pretty well actually.

I only have WiFi at home; I listen to music on my device at work, where I have no WiFi and a relatively limited data plan. Streaming is not useful to me in this situation, which is why I care more about syncing content from my PC to my phone via playlists so that I can listen to them offline as desired.

 

[sux2bu]

I believe I have understood pretty well actually.

I only have WiFi at home; I listen to music on my device at work, where I have no WiFi and a relatively limited data plan. Streaming is not useful to me in this situation, which is why I care more about syncing content from my PC to my phone via playlists so that I can listen to them offline as desired.

You can download just certain playlists by "pinning" them while at home on your wifi. Isn't that what you are trying to accomplish?

 

[robertmarkbram]

You can download just certain playlists by "pinning" them while at home on your wifi. Isn't that what you are trying to accomplish?

OK, closer. I have use the pinning function before to download songs to my device (and set it to only download via WiFi). I can see in https://forums.androidcentral.com/e.../https://play.google.com/music&token=2GyDLpER how to create a playlist, and then you have to drag music into it manually.

But that's all very manual. Is there is no way to get a random selection that refreshes when I want to "sync" etc (which is a function I like very much in iTunes)?

Thank you very much for your responses - I appreciate this and am learning.

 

[pcsperson]

OK, closer. I have use the pinning function before to download songs to my device (and set it to only download via WiFi). I can see in https://forums.androidcentral.com/e.../https://play.google.com/music&token=3kdrlwki how to create a playlist, and then you have to drag music into it manually.

But that's all very manual. Is there is no way to get a random selection that refreshes when I want to "sync" etc (which is a function I like very much in iTunes)?

Thank you very much for your responses - I appreciate this and am learning.

Are you referring to the shuffle feature, in iTunes?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

 

[robertmarkbram]

Are you referring to the shuffle feature, in iTunes?

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

No, what I am looking for is something approaching the smart playlists feature in iTunes, like this one:


This playlist is defined by a set a of rules:

1. 1.5 GB of music chosen at random that matches all of these rules:
   1. Media type: Music (vs podcast, audio books etc)
   2. AND Genre is Rap or R&B
   3. AND the song hasn't been played in the last 8 weeks
   4. AND is not rated with 1 or 2 stars (so any unrated or 3-5 star songs are ok)
2. and every time I sync, refresh the playlist (with another random selection)

It's a pretty cool feature!

Rob

 

[pcsperson]

No, what I am looking for is something approaching the smart playlists feature in iTunes, like this one:
View attachment 93840

This playlist is defined by a set a of rules:

1. 1.5 GB of music chosen at random that matches all of these rules:
   1. Media type: Music (vs podcast, audio books etc)
   2. AND Genre is Rap or R&B
   3. AND the song hasn't been played in the last 8 weeks
   4. AND is not rated with 1 or 2 stars (so any unrated or 3-5 star songs are ok)
2. and every time I sync, refresh the playlist (with another random selection)

It's a pretty cool feature!

Rob

Yes it is! I never new about that feature. Since double twist application is the closest android equivalent I would try there, but no guarantees.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

 

[goelz83]

Maybe iSyncr? https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...?id=com.jrtstudio.iSyncr&hl=en&token=UzORX95q

I don't use iTunes and I haven't tried the app but I've only heard good things about it. It even says that you can "Create smart playlists on your phone using the Live Lists feature." It's $3.99 but it might be worth $4 to test it out. You always have 15 minutes to refund the app with Google Play if you don't like it.

 

[robertmarkbram]

Thank you pcsperson, I will Doubletwist a go first because it says it can also sync to iTunes, and if that doesn't work, I will give goelz83's idea of iSyncr a go. So good to have options.

 

[robertmarkbram]

Yes it is! I never new about that feature. Since double twist application is the closest android equivalent I would try there, but no guarantees.

Cool, DoubleTwist appears to be a very good solution - I have it syncing playlists from iTunes, so I can continue using iTunes to manage my repository of podcasts/music with its advanced playlists! Thank you!

Rob


EDIT (Monday 05 May 2014, 03:34:07 PM) - I changed my mind completely about this opinion - see post 16.

 

[tech_fan]

One thing that I have noticed is that Apple makes it very difficult to convert to Android or Google. For me, I finally got my playlists put together (well sort of) and now I am working on my pictures that I have in iPhoto. That seems to be equally complex. Like you, I have over 20K photos that need to be converted. I feel your pain.. But, I know once this is done. I will not have to go through it again.

 

[robertmarkbram]

One thing that I have noticed is that Apple makes it very difficult to convert to Android or Google. For me, I finally got my playlists put together (well sort of) and now I am working on my pictures that I have in iPhoto. That seems to be equally complex. Like you, I have over 20K photos that need to be converted. I feel your pain.. But, I know once this is done. I will not have to go through it again.

I have my feet firmly planned in both camps. I love and use daily my Android and iOS devices and for music/podcasts, I greatly prefer interoperability. There is so much data that duplication or streaming is not practical - and for all its many flaws I have found no better app than iTunes for advanced playlists, as described above. So, for my situation, Double Twist seems pretty good.

Regarding photos, I gave up on that a long time ago. With six years of photos from my Nokia, iOS and now Android devices (one day I may even have a dedicated camera on that list), I am truly not interested in keeping all photos on one device. I keep them on my hard drive, backed up to other hard drives, backed up in the cloud and managed by Picasa and Google+. I have since found that accessibility in the cloud is far more important than having photos on one device.

Either way, I think it is an important discussion to keep having, so that I am always aware of my options.

Rob


Posted via Android Central App

 

[boudicca00]

Yeah, Apple certainly doesn't want anyone to go anywhere from their domain. :/

 

[adismith13]

Use double twist. ... or for syncing music from iTunes try the easy phone sync app

Posted via Android Central App on Note 3

 

[robertmarkbram]

So, for my situation, Double Twist seems pretty good.

I take this back - Double Twist is unusable if you want to share podcasts from iTunes. - they have stated that their product will not sync podcasts from iTunes at all. To quote from their response to my review on the play store: 'We do not "sync" podcasts with iTunes because we would be mixing apples and oranges.'

So it's ok for music, but not podcasts. Unfortunately this means DoubleTwist ignores half my content.. I feel rather bitter about that actually.

 

[damac3]

I have used Double Twist and iSyncr and Much prefer iSyncr. I found it easier to use. I was able to sync all my playlists from iTunes easily. You can initiate a wireless sync from your phone when on Wifi with the computer running iTunes and iSyncr. ISyncr also uploads songs that you've added to playlists on your phone back to iTunes. I'm pretty sure it keeps track of play count and star rating if you use Rocketplayer with it. I'm a big fan of iSyncr. I prefer iTunes for music purchases and organization, and I have Apple computers and an iPad Air. iSyncr really helps me keep my music coordinated between my Android phone and these devices.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[robertmarkbram]

I have used Double Twist and iSyncr and Much prefer iSyncr. I found it easier to use. I was able to sync all my playlists from iTunes easily. You can initiate a wireless sync from your phone when on Wifi with the computer running iTunes and iSyncr. ISyncr also uploads songs that you've added to playlists on your phone back to iTunes. I'm pretty sure it keeps track of play count and star rating if you use Rocketplayer with it. I'm a big fan of iSyncr. I prefer iTunes for music purchases and organization, and I have Apple computers and an iPad Air. iSyncr really helps me keep my music coordinated between my Android phone and these devices.

Posted via Android Central App

Does iSyncr also sync podcasts? Can you confirm that all podcasts in an iTunes playlist get synced to your Android device?

 

[chrgnthru]

I've noticed isyncer is no longer syncing my iTunes Playlist. Not sure if it's due to the Kit Kat update possibly breaking it or not. Is anyone else having this issue?

 

[robertmarkbram]

I've noticed isyncer is no longer syncing my iTunes Playlist. Not sure if it's due to the Kit Kat update possibly breaking it or not. Is anyone else having this issue?

Just paid for iSyncr and am testing it out now..

- Edit: Monday 05 May 2014, 03:11:43 PM
Well, the first thing is that it seamlessly synched my selected playlists - music AND podcasts. I don't need a special player I can access my content using the Google's Play Music app or the Samsung Music app - and they both let me see the content in the playlists.

So right now, iSyncr wins hands down over DoubleTwist. I regret all the time I spent on DoubleTwist - if I knew in advance that it would sync podcasts I wouldn't have wasted all that time.