Nexus One - How does music work?

[davix8]

Okay so im planning on buying the nexus one phone, i already made a post
( http://androidforums.com/nexus-one/38732-nexus-one-coming-europe-when.html )

I'm curious on how the nexus one manages music,
does it have any program on computer that works like itunes? (pc or mac)
if not:
Do you have to make your playlists from inside the phone music app?
How do you manage and add album artwork?
some songs you get don't have artist, album info: how will you add that info
without a program?

are the speakers loud?
you are welcome to ad any other informations/bugs on how it manages music

thank you

 

[daffyduck]

In my view, the Nexus is a pretty good media player - the sound through my Denon headphones is very good (but will be dependent on what headphones you use).

There is no import software, just a case of creating folders on the SD card on your computer and then dragging and dropping. I use MediaMonkey to burn the CD's to MP3, plus download album art & tag each track.

I don't use the default music app on the phone but MixZing.

Phone speaker, as you would guess, is pretty flat - if you want to output the sound, get a decent dock.....I keep thinking about the B&W Zepplin but cannot justify the cost....will keep wishing

 

[davix8]

In my view, the Nexus is a pretty good media player - the sound through my Denon headphones is very good (but will be dependent on what headphones you use).

There is no import software, just a case of creating folders on the SD card on your computer and then dragging and dropping. I use MediaMonkey to burn the CD's to MP3, plus download album art & tag each track.

I don't use the default music app on the phone but MixZing.

Phone speaker, as you would guess, is pretty flat - if you want to output the sound, get a decent dock.....I keep thinking about the B&W Zepplin but cannot justify the cost....will keep wishing

so with this phone: playlist = folder? and how do i "tag" artwork? thx for reply

*edit. nvm i found out about media monkey. still what was with the playlist/folder thing?

 

[katamari]

I'm planning on buying a Nexus One from Verizon in the spring. I currently use iTunes to organize my music since I have an iPod. I have about 11GB of content on my iPod, so I assume a Nexus One could just replace my old iPod. How do I expand its memory to meet my needs? My music is organized well on iTunes, but the music folder on my computer itself is a nightmare! Is there any way to sync music using iTunes (or any other software)?

 

[FreshPrince]

Media Monkey is the best to me and I've tried 'em all. It's nice and easy, although quite a few steps behind iTunes. This is the only, yes, the only, aspect of the iPhone that I miss, though - the music syncing and how easy it is. I do prefer the fact that you can delete songs or entire albums without even syncing on the N1, though.

 

[FreshPrince]

How do I expand its memory to meet my needs?

Although the Nexus One only comes with a 4 GB micro SD card (which is a shame because the Moto Droid comes with 16 GB out the box), it's expendable up to 32 GB. If you currently have 11 GB filled up on your iPhone, it's probably best to purchase a 16 GB micro SD card. You can get a nice Class 2 on Amazon in the $40-50 range.

My music is organized well on iTunes, but the music folder on my computer itself is a nightmare! Is there any way to sync music using iTunes (or any other software)?

This was a worry of mine as well, but so far so good with Media Monkey. It loaded up all of the playlists and tagged every song exactly the way it was tagged in iTunes for me right off the bat. Only issue would be a few missing album art, but you can add that in the same way you do in iTunes. It's pretty much an iTunes counterfeit.

 

[g_patrick15]

I plan on using songbird to sync my music

 

[cwrig]

I like media monkey much better than itunes.

There is no need to drag and drop if you dont want to, although sone people prefer that method . You can have it sync music with any device it sees connected.

 

[daffyduck]

I like media monkey much better than itunes.

You can have it sync music with any device it sees connected.

How have you got the sync to work - never managed to do it myself

 

[FreshPrince]

How have you got the sync to work - never managed to do it myself

Are you mounting your phone once connected via USB?

 

[mi_canuck]

Word of caution - I found there to be occasional pops and clicks when listening to "music" on the Nexus (be it either Pandora or MP3/M4A files)... heard with both incl head phones and aftermarket ones (iphone ear phones)... didn't impress me too much, and got more and more annoying as it wasn't going away...

 

[malzfreund]

I plan on using songbird to sync my music

I just tried this with the latest Songbird 1.6.0b2 build (codenamed Madonna) and it's working great.

I set up a smart playlist in Songbird (~30 items). Some of the items were in flac format. Then I synced the playlist. Songbird did a great job and automatically encoded the flacs into ogg format.

 

[davix8]

hey, so i read through these answers. Cwrig posted about mediamonkey, i downloaded it and like it.
but, will mediamonkey fully sync the nexus one including playlists and..stuff? thx.

 

[MartinS]

I just downloaded Doubletwist which looks good on my laptop. It immediately imported everything from iTunes. Layout will be VERY familiar to iTunes users...

I'm yet to connect my N1 though so will have to report on that later.

 

[davix8]

I just downloaded Doubletwist which looks good on my laptop. It immediately imported everything from iTunes. Layout will be VERY familiar to iTunes users...

I'm yet to connect my N1 though so will have to report on that later.

nice, if it works i will be able to import my itunes. but my itunes is on mac... i have a windows partition but i wouldn't be able to import itunes.
is double twist available for mac?

 

[MartinS]

I believe the site stated it was coming for the Mac.

Other than that, the N1 is definitely a supported device.

 

[Tiptopdrop]

If you want to keep using iTunes, and like things like smart playlists, you should check out iSyncr in the Android Market.

 

[rynowhi]

I use doubletwist and love it. It also auto-converts any video files you have (avi, divx, etc.) that aren't supported to supported formats when syncing w/o asking. Obviously this adds to the load time, but its pretty nice to just sync and not have to deal with minutia.

I have noticed the popping using my headphones, but I found that it was actually caused by static electricity getting transferred through the headphones. If you have the phone in your pocket or where it is rubbing against cloth for an extended period of time, it'll start crackling (figured it out while wearing some workout clothes that sent some unexpectedly strong shocks...). I haven't had a problem since then, although I have to be careful where I put the phone while I listen to music.

 

[grainysand]

I second/third/fourth DoubleTwist. I'm usually not into using this sort of programs and stick to drag-and-dropping into folders, but the media conversion feature is amazingly useful and convenient. As long as you don't try to have it convert youtube videos, because it has the unfortunate tendency to convert from the .flac, which is low-quality, instead of drawing straight from the .mp4.

 

[popeye304]

So doubletwist just gets your music from the PC to the phone. Once it's on the phone, what is used to play the music, the default application?

 

[Fabolous]

So doubletwist just gets your music from the PC to the phone. Once it's on the phone, what is used to play the music, the default application?

Yeah, the default music player is passable, but not great.

So far, the best music app I've used is '3'. Well, it's actually a superscript 3 for 'cubed'

Give it a try in the market, just search 'rockon' and you'll find it.

Very ingenious UI. With some refinement, it could be standalone player worthy (i.e. on par with iPod Touch and ZuneHD)

 

[katamari]

Will I be able to sync music bought from the iTunes store to my Nexus?

 

[Tiptopdrop]

Yes and no. You can sync the "iTunes Plus" music which does not have any DRM, but you can't play any music that has DRM. You can figure out which is which by looking at the "Kind" field in iTunes.

 

[SnotF]

THats not really true, apples drm was broken some time ago. Its fairly easy to remove. That was why they did that free undrm promo a while back.

 

[Tiptopdrop]

SnotF,

What part of "you can't play any music that has DRM" is not true? If you removed the DRM, then it does not have DRM, therefore my statement no longer applies.

Also, if you remove DRM, the kind field in iTunes would update.

Perhaps you meant to say "There are programs out there that will remove DRM. If you do this, then you can play it"?