Alternate MP3 stores

[paulsalter]

I have been using iTunes for about 6 years and have all the syncing working nicely with my iOS/Android and Macbook working nicely

I am after trying out one of the cloud based solutions for music, see how they all work (so I can get the option to play any of my music when i want)

iTunes Match did look interesting, but I think this is only for Apple devices
Amazon cloud looks nice, seems to work on all devices and does a match when uploading similar to iTunes Match
Google Music not available to me at the moment

Amazon is looking the best at the moment due to it being available, but I would have preferred to use google as it might fit better with the android eco system

Anyone using music cloud services with Apple & Android have any thoughts

 

[ChazUK]

I'm in the UK and have been using Google Music without issue for months now.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/07/23/how-to-get-google-music-on-your-uk-nexus-7/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/19/how-to-use-google-music-from-anywhere-yes-outside-of-the-unit/

My wife is also using Google Music now (not long ago activated it for her Galaxy S 3) and its working fine for her too.

Definitely worth a try to keep things in sync across devices. Web access to your music is great too.

 

[Dolorian]

Google Music is not "officially" available in my country but there are ways to make it work.

I sync my iTunes library with Google Music and after the initial upload (which can take quite a bit depending the size of your library) I now have all my music available for listening to on my Galaxy S3, on any computer I sign in with my Google account and even in the iPhone if I log in to it via a browser. I have to try it with my PS3 to see if it works as well.

The Mac app for Google Music launches at system start up and uploads any new music you may have added to iTunes since your latest sync. It also syncs any podcasts you may have. It is very nice and Google allows you to store up to 20,000 songs in high quality mp3.

 

[mlg1998]

I use the Amazon MP3 app and cloud because 99% of the music is cheaper than iTunes and is easy to sync with my Mac. I do use iTunes if the prices are the same though.

 

[paulsalter]

Thanks for replies, I might have another look at Google Music, just unsure of the downsides of putting music on there when it's not officially available

I am giving Amazon a try at te moment with the free 250 song upload, to see how it goes, will try google a bit more after this

I still want to use iTunes, just an easy way of accessing all of my music if I want to play something not synced locally

 

[ChazUK]

Anything added to my iTunes Library is automatically uploaded to Google Music in the background so for me, the combo of iTunes and Google Music is perfect.

 

[paulsalter]

Anything added to my iTunes Library is automatically uploaded to Google Music in the background so for me, the combo of iTunes and Google Music is perfect.

Hows does this work if you upload things slowly manually, I am on capped broadband, not the fastest either, so my plan was

Manually point the uploader at my top artists and get these done first (one artist at a time), after I have got this done point the downloader at my whole itunes library for the rest of my music.
is it clever enough to do this, or will it re upload everything again

I started doing this once, got logged in as US, google asked for confirmation as not logged in from this location before, I then read the TOS and got a bit scared off, so didnt actually sign up for music

 

[ChazUK]

Hows does this work if you upload things slowly manually, I am on capped broadband, not the fastest either, so my plan was

Manually point the uploader at my top artists and get these done first (one artist at a time), after I have got this done point the downloader at my whole itunes library for the rest of my music.
is it clever enough to do this, or will it re upload everything again

I started doing this once, got logged in as US, google asked for confirmation as not logged in from this location before, I then read the TOS and got a bit scared off, so didnt actually sign up for music

Once a song is uploaded, it knows that it's on Google Music and doesn't duplicate it, even if you edit the ID3 tags within Google Music.

EDIT: The only time I've had duplicates is when I have used iTunes Match to upgrade some of my lower bitrate songs, it uploads the new file alongside the old. I did have a few occasions of that. To solve it, I deleted the low bitrate versions from iTunes, then deleted the duplicated album from GM and it automatically uploaded the iTunes matched versions left behind in iTunes.

There are a couple of ways to control what gets uploaded.

Create a smart playlist of top artists and set GM to upload those only (you can choose to upload by playlist as below).

Then tick off the playlists you wish to upload (you can later create an "all music playlist to upload the rest). AS it's a smart playlist, any music added to your library from those artists would be added to the queue to upload.

Upload by specific folder:

If you have iTunes set up to organise the music in your music folder into Artist/Album/Track, you could add the artist folders to Google Music, only uploading those.

These could be a little convoluted but those are suggestions on how to control what gets uploaded.

 

[paulsalter]

Many thanks for those screen shots, I have this app but as I am not registered it won't let me run it

I understand the way I want to do it is not ideal, but being on capped broadband means I cannot just let it upload

I have 55GB of Music, My BB is capped at 40GB per month, which I use about half that for other things

Thanks again for the info

 

[3bs]

Many thanks for those screen shots, I have this app but as I am not registered it won't let me run it

I understand the way I want to do it is not ideal, but being on capped broadband means I cannot just let it upload

I have 55GB of Music, My BB is capped at 40GB per month, which I use about half that for other things

Thanks again for the info

Is the cap on download + upload or that 40GB just for the upload? I've never had to worry about caps so I'm not sure how it works.

 

[ChazUK]

No worries Paul. Hope whatever you go with does the job.

We also have a 40gb monthly limit on our home broadband but we've been using our unlimited data on our phones to upload via tethering. Faster uploads than our broadband too.

 

[paulsalter]

Is the cap on download + upload or that 40GB just for the upload? I've never had to worry about caps so I'm not sure how it works.

I think it's for both, though would have to double check (plus it's only a 2MB line, cannot get any faster, so will take ages to get music uploaded)

with streaming/downloading I currently use around 20GB per month, so aslong as I dont let it upload 24/7 I should be fine

This is one of the positives I have found with trying Amazon, told it to upload about 100 songs, and it matched all but 7, so it only uploaded 7 (it does cost £22/year for over 250 songs, which is not to bad)

 

[PBz]

I have converted 100% to Amazon. Use on iPhone & Nexus 7.