Wi-Fi Hard Drive for Music Playing

[gkendall43]

My iPhone and Android tablet both don't have much storage. I'm looking for a way to store my MP3 collection on an external device, so that I can have access to my whole collection anytime I bring this device. I don't want to store it in the cloud because I want access to it everywhere, such as on flights. I don't want something big that plugs in because I'm afraid it would get bumped and broken off. I don't want to copy MP3s back and forth between an external storage device and my phone/tablet, I want to be able to play or stream them directly from the external device. This has lead me to consider something like a Wi-Fi hard drive.

From what I understand, each Wi-Fi hard drive has it's own iOS or Android app that you have to use to access the files on it. Is that true? It seems like you can only click on a single MP3 and have it stream one song from the pictures I've seen. I would like to be able to run a music player program and tell it to play a full album, to randomly play tracks from an artist, or randomly play tracks from my entire collection. It would be perfect if a player I already use such as PowerAmp or the Apple Music App would work with these Wi-Fi drives.

So does anyone know if what I'm after is possible? Is there a decent app that can play/stream music from a wi-fi hard drive to both iOS & Android devices?

Thanks.