What are your top MUSIC apps for Android Auto?

[ireknole]

I'm using the paid version. One of my favorite parts of it is that I can ask it to play a sing and it'll build a station based on that song. I've heard many things I probably wouldn't by saying "Play I Stay Away".

You can also ask it to play whole albums, which is nice. I no longer need to buy albums. I can just add them to my library and go (not from the car, you need to add to library from your phone or the web).

Also, I have a 6-year-old. She's all the time coming home from school singing a new song. Once I find out what it is I add it to a playlist (again, on the phone or web) and can play it anytime she wants. Since it's a subscription, I don't have to buy a song she'll forget about in a few months/years.

Since I bought my Jetta in March I think I've had the local radio on twice, the trial sirrus/xm on a handfull of times and the remaining 95% has been Google Play Music.

There's also the ability to skip to your heart's content and no ads.

Sorry for jumping in, but have you used Spotify? Most of what you mentioned I do on Spotify.

When I had paid gpm, I did like that it created mixes based on what I requested.

What I didn't like is that you couldn't just play your own music, it always played music from their servers which ate up data like crazy, even on low. There is no way to turn on "download mode" easily or safely while driving. Also, no way to shuffle your own music without "download only" enabled.

 

[antilles76]

Sorry for jumping in, but have you used Spotify? Most of what you mentioned I do on Spotify.

When I had paid gpm, I did like that it created mixes based on what I requested.

What I didn't like is that you couldn't just play your own music, it always played music from their servers which ate up data like crazy, even on low. There is no way to turn on "download mode" easily or safely while driving. Also, no way to shuffle your own music without "download only" enabled.

I tried Spotify early on, but have not since I've used GPM. I have unlimited data on t-moblie, so I'm fine with streaming. If you start your music from the phone before connecting to AA, you can hit shuffle, pause it and it'll work when you attach it.

 

[ireknole]

I tried Spotify early on, but have not since I've used GPM. I have unlimited data on t-moblie, so I'm fine with streaming. If you start your music from the phone before connecting to AA, you can hit shuffle, pause it and it'll work when you attach it.

Ah. Ya tmobile is the key there.

I have music A.D.D. so I like to bounce around from shuffling my music to listening to a particular song and back again. When I was on paid, it wouldn't let me only shuffle my music library, it always added songs not in my library they thought I would like. I found it a bit annoying.

 

[JLiRD808]

When I had paid gpm, I did like that it created mixes based on what I requested.

What I didn't like is that you couldn't just play your own music, it always played music from their servers which ate up data like crazy, even on low. There is no way to turn on "download mode" easily or safely while driving. Also, no way to shuffle your own music without "download only" enabled.

Are u saying that you can't just choose between the songs that u've uploaded to GPM? Does it constantly throw new music in your queue when you just want to hear your own library?

Sorry, just trying to clarify. Trying to decide between GPM, Spotify, Deezer, etc's PAID versions.

Do you guys notice that either has better sound quality?

THX!

 

[ireknole]

Are u saying that you can't just choose between the songs that u've uploaded to GPM? Does it constantly throw new music in your queue when you just want to hear your own library?

Sorry, just trying to clarify. Trying to decide between GPM, Spotify, Deezer, etc's PAID versions.

Do you guys notice that either has better sound quality?

THX!

Yes, it would throw music into my queue that wasn't in my library.

I much prefer Spotify for streaming music and use GPM for my local library. Spotify has user playlists and I recently found that you can put playlists in folders to organize them (desktop only though, but you can access your folders with mobile)

Not sure about sound quality, conserving data usage is my highest priority, so I use low for everything.

 

[JLiRD808]

Yes, it would throw music into my queue that wasn't in my library.

I much prefer Spotify for streaming music and use GPM for my local library. Spotify has user playlists and I recently found that you can put playlists in folders to organize them (desktop only though, but you can access your folders with mobile)

Not sure about sound quality, conserving data usage is my highest priority, so I use low for everything.

Thank you. That would annoy me too I think if I just wanted to hear my library but it kept getting interrupted.

Is it true that you have to load Spotify before plugging in your phone? I thought I read that AA wasn't recognizing Spotify unless the app was OPEN on your phone beforehand.

Thx again!

 

[ireknole]

Thank you. That would annoy me too I think if I just wanted to hear my library but it kept getting interrupted.

Is it true that you have to load Spotify before plugging in your phone? I thought I read that AA wasn't recognizing Spotify unless the app was OPEN on your phone beforehand.

Thx again!

You can set the GPM app to "download only", and it will play only your library, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having the paid membership.

I haven't had problems with Spotify loading from the Android Auto interface. It used to be an issue, but it's been fixed for a while.

 

[Fedway]

1. Google Play Music
2. Pandora
3. Tune-In Radio Pro

 

[JLiRD808]

Do GPM & Spotify paid versions let you scroll forward / backwards within a song?

 

[Stevenmc8602]

Do GPM & Spotify paid versions let you scroll forward / backwards within a song?

Yes

 

[ireknole]

Do GPM & Spotify paid versions let you scroll forward / backwards within a song?

In the apps on the phone, yes. In the Android Auto interface, no.

 

[JLiRD808]

In the apps on the phone, yes. In the Android Auto interface, no.

Woooooww.....that bums me out! Any paid streaming apps that let us scroll within songs in AA?

Thx for the heads up!

 

[ireknole]

Woooooww.....that bums me out! Any paid streaming apps that let us scroll within songs in AA?

Thx for the heads up!

You're welcome! Bums me out too, such a simple and obvious feature and noone thought to implement it.

I'm not aware of any apps that have ff or rw except for podcast apps. Even so, they just have a 30 second forward and back option, not a true seek.

 

[JLiRD808]

Not even the paid version of GPM either right? Hopefully they can implement that one of these days, being that it's Google app in a Google environment.

 

[ireknole]

Not even the paid version of GPM either right? Hopefully they can implement that one of these days, being that it's Google app in a Google environment.

Nope. It's an android auto problem, not a gpm problem. It has to be programmed into android auto and Google is just not interested I guess.

 

[fragilemn]

1. Google Play Music
2. Pandora
3. Tune-In Radio Pro

I have a question concerning TuneIn Radio Pro within AA. I use TuneIn free version and it generally works ok but one annoying thing is with stations that offer multiple streams of different quality. Tune In, regardless of using it with AA or just on your phone alone, always starts out playing the least quality stream and on your phone you have to choose a different stream manually. This is not possible when within AA and you are forced to listen to some really bad quality audio if you want that station. I was hoping the Pro version would provide some solution for this. Does it work any differently?

 

[Pedrore]

With the free version there are settings for Preferred Stream quality that you can set between Low, Standard and High, so at least you can set the default you want.

 

[JLiRD808]

With the free version there are settings for Preferred Stream quality that you can set between Low, Standard and High, so at least you can set the default you want.

Thanks I didn't know that! Does the Premium version only offer MORE stations?

I like TuneIn, but wish that the fwd/rev buttons scrolled between station "Favorites" if I'm within my "Favorites" folder, or "Recents" if I've selected a station from within my "Recents". Those fwd/rev buttons do NOTHING practical from my point of view since there are SO MANY random stations to scroll through one-by-one like that.

 

[JLiRD808]

1. Google Play Music
2. Pandora
3. Tune-In Radio Pro

I've been noticing that GPM might sound better than Spotify & Pandora to me in AA, though it could just be the songs I'm choosing to compare. I believe they all claim to stream at 320kbps, not that that is the sole varying factor to compare. It sounds less compressed to me and with fuller low-mids....warmer without losing the brightness/detail.

Does anyone else have thoughts on sound quality in music streaming apps, and how their favorite ones compare?

 

[bmoore0909]

So I download a lot of albums to my phone on GPM so that when I listen on the fly and AA i don't use a lot of data.
I haven't figured out an easy way to navigate using GPM on AA to my "downloaded only" music. Is there a way other than downloading a "playlist?" I know how to find those under the Playlists tab. Id like to just see everything I've downloaded. Is that possible?