Maintaining a Digital Music Collection

Amen, brother paul

So it looks like Google are going to pull the plug on Google Play Music or at least merge it with 'YouTube Remix'.

I have 15k + of my own tracks uploaded to GPM so this is potentially a complete ball ache. It was inevitable I suppose given their track record of pulling products.

Now considering a Dropbox + Cloud Player combo. Will have to shell out £7.99 a month for DB though.

I always wondered how they’d ever make money off Google Play Music and it seems they never figured that out either. I’ll predict Amazon is going to be next to pull the plug on uploads, Apple will not be far away.

It’s going to be either self-streaming (Plex ahead of the pack there I’d say) or the Spotify model.

i remain v. pleased with subsonic

wtf i pay for google play music

i'm just going to carry a portable radio from now on

Yet another reason to keep your own shit; fuck 'em all.

^^^

Every time I think I might trust a streaming service or a third party server (like Google Play et al), mitigating factors rear their ugly heads. Apple Music's integration with uploads was a world class shitshow (and I think that they actually wanted to please those of us who don't trust a third party.) For collectors, there's virtually no reason to expect labels and lawyers to be able to find a global copyright agreement in hopes that someday EVERYTHING will be online and hosted by someone other than me.

I've tried everything in this thread (and more) and honestly if I'm streaming my own stuff, Plex is the best solution.

I’ll predict Amazon is going to be next to pull the plug on uploads

Fingers crossed that Google maintains the upload service but I'm not optimistic. I've got 30,000+ uploaded and it's been amazing having access to that wherever I am, especially with its integration with Sonos and Chromecast Audio.

Yet another reason to keep your own shit; fuck 'em all.

Why stream at all when there are inexpensive players with great soind and dual micro-SD slots and 400gb microSD are not too expensive and 512gb are around the corner? Then you don't have to rely on data service/connections, you can use Android music applications that can readily deal with large collections (I'm somewhere upwards of 80k tracks ripped from my CDs, with great results using GoneMAD player), you don't have to pay a subscription to access your own music, and it can't go "poof" (assuming you back up on other physical media). It's honestly the golden age for digitizing ones own collection, but even real music lovers are cashing it in for the illusory "cloud" scam...

That’s doable for most ppl yes, if you have a <250 GB library, mine’s around 1.5 TB (200k tracks) so the all-on-my-phone dream is still 6-7 years away.

man if i find something i like on youtube i download that shit.

streaming services to me seem mostly useful for people who don't care what they're listening to. that's not a diss. from a listener's standpoint, i'm not sure there's a huge advantage, in the long term, of having a strong attachment to particular songs or albums. streaming services are probably pretty good for discovering things you might not have heard, which is something i spend a lot of time and effort doing.

my library won't fit on my phone but i do carry a laptop around with me most places, and that will fit my library.

I guess for folks who insist on FLAC for every album, 2x 400gb (or 2x 512gb) isn't sufficient space. But 800gb holds almost 8,000 records at mp3 VBR V-0...

My entire music collection is mp3 VBR V-0 and it's still 1.5TB+ and growing. Like Siegbran I'm holding out for some sort of all-in-one-place dream solution.

I insist on lossless wherever possible, so that makes the dream of a SD chip with my collection (2TB) kind of far off.

I download shit on YouTube too; people post rarities that inevitably disappear.

I don't trust Apple to manage my collection at all, given the debacle in the beginning when Apple Music launched, and then the abortion that is iTunes makes me even more leery. And with Apple absolutely trending towards the streaming model, it's inevitable that they will screw me over and make me do workarounds in the coming years. The good news is that it's dirt cheap to stream your own stuff via Plex, hassle though it might be.

i have never used Plex for music but the other day i was in another country, tried streaming movies via Plex to my phone and it... worked?? i literally never set anything up specifically to make this happen, it just did it seamlessly. i was pretty impressed.

Yup, I might give Plex a go. As far as I can see, if you want Chromecast support and the ability to listen to music offline, a premium subscription is required. If it means taking back some control and hosting my own library, it might just be worth it.

I use the free version of Plex to stream to Chromecasts around my house, and it works well, even using an antiquated 2008 Mac as my server. But I don't stream outside my own LAN, so my use of Plex may be different from what most people want to do with it.

server requirements for something like Plex (ESPECIALLY to serve music files, which tend to be small and have lower bandwidth requirements) are very minimal and old machines can easily handle it...of course the problem with old machines is not their hardware specs to actually serve streaming, but their operating system requirements to run Plex or similar.

I guess for folks who insist on FLAC for every album, 2x 400gb (or 2x 512gb) isn't sufficient space. But 800gb holds almost 8,000 records at mp3 VBR V-0

personally I'm very grateful I can't really tell the difference btwn v0 and FLAC for most things

As much as I love gadgets, the days of carrying around more than just my phone are long gone. Modern DAPs are very cool, with their multiple card slots and amazing feature sets, but being able to stream my library via my phone is all I need (though I do have a full microSD card in my phone for when a connection isn't available). I have both Subsonic and J River Media Center set up (just in case one is down) and use BubbleUPnP to play my music to any device (headphones, bluetooth car radio, Sonos, Chromecasts, etc).

personally I'm very grateful I can't really tell the difference btwn v0 and FLAC for most things

Haha, yeah! Age + too many loud shows = no high end hearing.

Yeah offline listening/mobile sync only works with the Plex Pass subscription, I’m glad I got lifetime a few years back. But streaming works on the free version, and Chromecast too I think?

The Google Play news is inevitable but it's still a pain in the hole. Could someone explain (or point to an explanation) of how to set up the basic requirements to stream my own stuff?

Get a Discman. Carry all your CDs with you. Simple!

Every discman I ever had was clunky, skippy shite!

Even though I'm old and my ears probably can't discern lossless and even 192VBR mp3, I have a thing against using destructive compression...never know when some amazing tech will allow me to hear better and I'll want the better sound.

more machine than man now...

would y'all be interested in official issues of stem tracks for songs?

yes

Stream your own stuff from Dropbox/OneDrive cloud drive: upload it there, use the mobile app or website to stream yr music

Stream your own stuff from yr own PC/Mac: set up Plex account, download the server application, point it to your music, download the Plex app on your phone, stream away.

dropbox is embarrassingly better at remembering track position across devices/through time than apple's own native software is

not tried it with Plex but it's v good at remembering where you left off watching videos so i imagine it's the same with music

will Plex stream FLAC files from an external HD?

muzecast

yes xp

Honestly I tried uploading my entire library to Dropbox and it was just a diabolical idea. Takes ages and doesn't really work as anything other than backup. Don't bother.

i will stick a few mixes or whatever on there and it works great. what was wrong with the whole library thing, did it just choke trying to transfer all the files?

Has anyone had Google Music Manager suddenly stop opening on Mac? Not stop uploading, but not opening/running at all? Tried deleting app and preferences panel and reinstalling with no luck. Assuming it's coincidence that it happened just as Google announced the rollout of Youtube Music but until yesterday it's been working fine for a couple of years.

The only thing I noticed was sometime in the last week it asked for keychain access to the password of the linked google account a few times. Once I granted it, it was fine -- maybe your issue is related to that?

have to clear out a bunch of CDs so I'm finally ripping/adding them to my database after years, and I'd forgotten how useful it was as a way of keeping up with new artists when properly maintained. already found out about at least three 2018 albums I had no idea were out

You mean browsing your digital library reminded you to go see what an artist has done lately?

it has random page functionality so I usually go through when I'm adding to it, random page a few times, and see if that artist entry needs updating with new albums. they often do

Ah yes, I find going through my library randomly will lead me to think, "What's so-and-so up to these days?" and I'll find a new EP, some guest appearances or whatnot. Alternately, I make an effort to listen to stuff that has no 'Last Played' date and so I go crate-digging in my own library.

My iPod broke a wee whole ago and I've gone full 'phone for all audio' using SD, downloaded Spotify playlists and Google Play Music to plug the gaps. It's dawned on me tonight that I don't need iTunes any more and a few hours messing about with MusicBee and it feels like a great weight has been lifted. (Not enough to delete the mighty behemoth; not yet.)

i love just using folder structures. mind, it's easy for me cause i've never been a playlist guy, it's just open an 'album' and play it through around here

got my first 400gb micro sd and i've been pretty manic filling it up i must say

4TB HDs are now less than $100

But who makes a portable music player with them?

give it a couple years and you'll have 4TB solid-state drives, those will be suitable for portable music players... 4TB spinning rust doesn't work well, it's a huge power drain and too fragile.