How do you stream your own music collection?

[nullmoon 784]

As above really! Apparently you can just dump your collection on Dropbox or Google Play for free and use various apps to play stuff on the go as would with Spotify...but with your own music? The wonders of the 21st century! 

 

I'm not great at keeping track of new and amazing ways of living side by side with our technological overlords, but this sounds like an easy enough thing to achieve. It would also save me the hassle of editing the pen drive in my car every week XD 

 

Is this all as easy as it sounds? Do you recommend any particular apps/methods? Is there any danger to you if pretty much all your music library had been downloaded illegally from here? XD 

 

Thanks in advance x

[LIDL 692]

I still use the old school way aka drag and drop to my mobile or iPod cos I don't trust clouds that much, and it is easier since no internet connection needed.

[Original Saku 1593]

I've used the google play music method in the past and it is indeed convenient, but it has it's limitations (sound quality) and I'm not the biggest fan of the app UI. It is probably the easiest method though.

 

I currently use a slightly more complicated method to stream my collection to my devices, but in the end the SQ and other advantages are worth the extra hassle.

 

Foobar2000 w/ foo_upnp plugin (Source Machine) -> Bubbleupnp Server (Source Machine) -> Bubbleupnp Mobile app

 

Basically you have a foobar installation running with your media library loaded  and foo_upnp server running then configure bubbleupnp server on the same machine to work with foobar upnp server. at this point all you need to do is configure the bubbleupnp app to receive the server from your source machine and voila full quality FLAC files on the go as well as your full collection anywhere.

 

You can also use other media servers other than foobar, I just use foobar because it's convenient since I already use it and it's always open on my PC anyways. But you could use something like servio and accomplish the same thing as well as videos and pictures too.

[spockitty 643]

I use Spotify for my local files.

It's a bit tricky because you have to first add the files to a playlist on PC, then download said playlist on your phone (while you're connected via the same wi-fi of course).  Also, it's only available with premium as it's basically an offline playlist. 

 

I used to have that music flash drive for years, but my music collection was too fast growing to keep updating it over and over again lol 

[YuyoDrift 1540]

Same as @LIDL. I can fit all my playlists from iTunes onto my current iPhone, which I had organized from scratch long ago, so the need to stream any of it is not necessary.

 

Should I forego the apple products in the near future though, I'd probably buy a standalone MP3 player and reserve digging through my entire collection through a web-based RDP session like Google Chrome's. I used to always have a separate MP3 player with about 8GBs of room so I can always drag and drop new stuff and listen to it on-the-go, so it wouldn't be hard for me to return to that.

 

edit: I see @spockitty did the same thing lol

 

I could always just pay for a streaming service if I want to hear anything US-based too.

[colorful人生 2777]

• There's also Subsonic and Tomahawk Player (although it's been abandoned :/.)
• Like @Original Saku mentioned, there's a lot of media server options in both the paid and open-source realm. I know you can use Plex for your media library as well.
• If you aren't anal about metadata and correct artist art, Google Music has a 50,000 song limit (300 mb per song). If you strung together whole albums into a continuous .mp3, you could end up w/ a shitload of stuff hosted freely by Google.
• On a slight tangent, the chinese vk netizens have taken to Xiami to upload just about everything vk. They're a bit controversial b/c of their paid options, but anything HQ is freely available. You can straight up pull the 320 mp3s that are uploaded (* or whatever quality it was uploaded at) w/ a bit of devtool knowledge.

Edited August 9, 2019 by colorful人生

[secret_no_03 959]

I despise streaming, but I store my music locally or on mega.

[nullmoon 784]

36 minutes ago, LIDL said:

I still use the old school way aka drag and drop to my mobile or iPod cos I don't trust clouds that much, and it is easier since no internet connection needed.

True dat

[nullmoon 784]

Holy cow! Thanks for the help everyone!! There's a lot to digest here

[Komorebi 2193]

Same as some above, I use an iPod on the go and iTunes at work. I still have my old mp3 around too.

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

I have both an my old IPod 5 for my music and my phone for just social media and texting

[nullmoon 784]

Just as a follow up to this, I've started using Google Play Music and apart from a pretty janky interface it's perfect! There's a 50,000 song limit for the free account but that's more than enough space. I get to stream my music collection wherever I like just by using their app

[Komorebi 2193]

3 hours ago, nullmoon said:

Just as a follow up to this, I've started using Google Play Music and apart from a pretty janky interface it's perfect! There's a 50,000 song limit for the free account but that's more than enough space. I get to stream my music collection wherever I like just by using their app

Good to know. I might give it a shot.