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Phan Favs is a recurring feature that turns the tables and asks you, the readers, about the best apps and games. It’s your turn to drop some knowledge on us! Read more.
We’re back with another edition of Phan Favs! This time we are asking you about music apps. Listening to music is one of the most common uses for a mobile device. MP3 players made this popular back in the day, but now with always-connected devices and more storage options we can do so much more.
Everyone in the world enjoys some type of music. It has been often called the “universal language.” So it’s no surprise that there are hundreds of music apps trying to get a piece of that pie. Some apps simply play your local files while others stream from popular music services. There are plenty of ways to hear a song on your phone, but we want to know your favorite.
How to vote
- Upvote the comment that mentions your pick.
- If no one has mentioned your pick write your own comment.
It’s as simple as that. Next Thursday (May 22nd) we will compile the results and release the top five apps according to your votes. In order to get a good sample size we need your help in sharing this poll. Click right here to tweet about it, and also alert your favorite developers so they can vote! Let the voting begin!
Google Play Music
+ All Access =D
Yep, by far the most fully featured music service out there. Radio, offline, playlists, and on demand streaming of anything you own or don’t own. :)
Spotify has all of this as well, and with my music taste, I felt as though GPM had a limited selection in comparison. Sell me on All access, I tried it for a bit but I want to hear people’s opinions
I don’t think most people realize how much Spotify can do. It really is an all-in-one application, but most people I know think it only does radio and playlists… I listen to a lot of independent and underground rap, and Spotify easily has the most of any of the streaming services I’ve found.
GPM lets you put up any music you own so even if they don’t have it you can get it and put it up. I couldn’t use Spotify a while back since I didn’t have a Facebook but it looks as though they fixed that so maybe I’ll give it another shot, but there is really nothing I could think of that is missing in All Access.
All Access is the best access.
Spotify
Pandora
Rdio
“Some apps simply play your local files while others stream from popular music services.”
Then why of the 4 you listed, only one (Google Play) can play local files?
You can add other ones if you want. He’s just throwing down the popular ones. I believe there are open source ones that play local files (like Apollo).
Scoter man is correct.
PowerAmp
Yup. I’m pretty stingy with my app dollars but PowerAmp’s paid version took the cake after I tried everything else (some time ago). I’ve had bouts of streaming / podcast listening coloring my usage patterns for short periods, but I’ve always returned to my “core” local library of favorite tracks I enjoy maintaining over time.
Absolutely the best music player on Android. So glad people introduced me to it, when I first transitioned to android with the HTC EVO (1st generation, not the LTE version). Only thing missing on PowerAmp is some sort of Sync option, but I don’t really “need” that. UI and widget offerings kill all of the available options.
Beats Music (just kidding)
CloudAround is pretty darn cool. It lets you stream your music from 3rd party cloud services like Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. It can be a little tricky to get it working exactly how you want, but it’s worth it if you want to stream your own tunes on the cheap.
I may check that out… though Google Play Music lets you upload your own music, even does a pretty darn good job of associating appropriate meta data and album art.
That’s fine and dandy if you want to pay a monthly fee.
Uh, no… this is free, and works off free google drive storage.
Well, okay, free up to a 15GB limit, right? So I guess the value of CloudAround depends on your access to free cloud storage.
Sure, I guess if you’re really cheap and have an ungodly large music collection you can spread your 50gb library of music across free cloud hosting services, and configure this thing to play them all… that’s one option.
No, your storage in Google Play Music is separate from the 15GB for drive and email. It is 20,000 songs total, no matter the size.
Slacker (Milk if you own a Samsung Galaxy)
Soundcloud
Love Soundcloud. All access Google music and Soundcloud is all I need
TuneIn Radio
RHAPSODY.
Shuttle+
PlayerPro has killing Smart Playlists, but the rest could be improved. PowerAmp for everything else is my fave.
Deezer does the job for me.
Minimal data usage, I can store playlists locally to my SD Card or Internal Memory and I can upload my own MP3’s.
And, my membership is free (a perk from my carrier).
1. Milk
2. Pandora
3. Spotify
8tracks
Google Play Music, Pandora, Rdio and Spotify
Music Player (Remix)
FolderPlayer
I usually replace the stock music player on all my Android phones with PowerAmp but I love the Walkman app on my XperiaZR
Rocket Player
I use N7 for local music. Google music for other.
jetAudio Music Player
been using power amp for a few years now. best money i ever spent on an app except for possibly swiftkey
Poweramp works the closest to how I feel a music player should. The queuing and browsing features are really great, and you can edit album art and tags without leaving the app. And then there’s the thing where it can autoswitch to different eq presets depending on whether you’re outputting to Bluetooth or the speaker or a hardline. It’s worth however much it is. I don’t remember because I bought it years ago and never once questioned the purchase.
Also, skins and widgets for days.
doubleTwist
I love the layout, and the fact that it automatically downloads album art; plus, their Alarm app (which is really sweet) requires it. LOL. If they just implemented crossfade, it would be perfect IMO.
Google Music!!!
yea i roll the dice everyday! #feeling lucky radio station
2 problems with google play music.
It’s music store is only available in a few countries.
And when I download music from google play directly on my phone I can’t find the mp3 file on my device using a file browser.
Spotify for a paid service. Beat Cloud & Music Player (not Beats) for streaming my mp3’s from Google Drive, Box & Dropbox. If you’re not familiar with Beat, you really should give it a try – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stefanpledl.beat
8tracks! The playlists are created by humans, and are a great way to discover new taste in music.
I enjoy me some songza
Apollo. CM 11
DSub – for streaming your own music from your home computer or server using Subsonic server. It’s like Plex, but soley for music. For people that want to have their music collection available anywhere and not have to upload their entire music library onto the cloud.
I use Shuttle+ light weight, holo themed music player!
GPM.
Especially the pay version. $8 a month for pretty much everything I need. I got rid of satellite radio and haven’t bought a CD ever since.
I like sky.fm and affiliate jazzradio.com – same login – pick the genre and let them pick the music. Too much monkeying around on other “radio” recommendation apps. Grooveshark.com for hand-picking playlists of actual tracks.
VLC Media Player :)
Milk Music
Google Play Masic
Amazon MP3
Mainly I throw this out their because I like their music store. As far as I know the mp3’s bought their aren’t DRMized and it places your downloads on your device in a very easy to see folder amazonmp3, which if you like to keep your music on your SD card you can easily cut & paste later.
winamp
I stopped using this when I switched my PC from linux to windows, but it used to be my main player on my old android phone