MaFt's Musings » itunes

Music Streaming in the Wake of Spotify Lockdown

MaFt — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:11:15 +0000

Here’s the scenario: My music collection is on my main Windows PC on the middle floor of my house. I do 99% of my work on my MacBook Pro either on the ground floor or the top floor of my house. I like my music but hate iTunes (only use it for syncing iPhone/iPad apps and backups) so using Home Sharing was out of the question – I cannot trust iTunes to look after my music collection properly plus MediaMonkey is so much better with regards to features and functions.

So, how do I listen to my music while I’m working? MediaMonkey doesn’t work too well in WINE, it’s OK in Parallels but running a 2nd OS solely for music isn’t ideal…

For a while I used Spotify. I was using it ‘wrongly’ apparently though as I used to listen to albums I already owned rather than for discovering new music. They have recently limited the free version to only play a track a maximum of 5 times so my use has been severely affected.

I’ve been hunting for a method to play music on my MacBook Pro that doesn’t involve iTunes. Someone mentioned Airfoil for streaming music across a network which sounded OK but I would have to physically go to the computer to change tracks / playlists… Then I discovered MonkeyTunes which, put simply, allows you to use Apple’s Remote app on iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad to have full control of MediaMonkey. Sweet!

So, now I have my MacBook Pro running as an Airfoil ‘speaker’, the windows machine running as the Airfoil source and I use my iPhone to control it all. I can also use my Android phone as the remote too, or my iPad.

Another bonus is I can install the free Airfoil speaker app onto my old iPhone 3G and stream it to that if I wanted to connect that to my stereo or the dock when I have guests and the MBP isn’t loud enough.

I’m pretty chuffed! So even with iOS 4.3 allowing HomeSharing of iTunes library, I can still use MediaMonkey for my music AND have all the benefits (and more) of that being shared across handheld devices and computers!

The only thing that annoys me is I didn’t discover all this 2 years ago…

Physical CD or Digital Download?

MaFt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:44:34 +0000

Music has played a massive part in my life – since I was first introduced to Metallica and Megadeth by my older brother, Nat, I have bought and listened to countless albums. While I was at uni I built up an awesome punk-rock vinyl collection but in a possibly silly move I sold it all a few years back when we were seriously strapped for cash. However, I kept my CD’s and, although occasionally sell a few that no longer get listened to, I still have just short of 900 physical CD’s in my possession. There are clearly storage issues here – while it’s not a huge collection, it certainly isn’t small…

Recently I’ve bought a few MP3 albums via iTunes, Amazon and Play – ones for which I simply couldn’t get a physical CD (eg “It’s A Life” by de Heideroosjes and “Live in SoHo” by Linkin Park) or where the digital version was ridiculously cheap (“Forget and Not Slow Down” by Relient K – $3.99 [£2.60]!!)

So, here is my dilemma: There are a few albums I want to buy but physical storage is an issue. I like to have something physical to hold, I like to read the booklet / liner notes, I like to have something I can re-rip to MP3 should my hard drive decide to pack up. Hence I like to own a physical CD. On the flip side, a digital download requires no extra physical storage space (although I would need to back up these files), they are available straight away (no need to wait for Royal Mail) and are generally slightly cheaper. And therein lies my problem – they are only slightly cheaper; if at all! Sometimes it is cheaper to get the physical CD! We’re talking pence here, though, not pounds. For example, the new Paramore album “Brand New Eyes” (which is on Spotify) and AFI album “Crash Love” are both around £8 for digital download or physical CD. What should I do?! Do I take up more space to physically store a CD but then get the added bonus of having the liner notes to read or do I save space and download at the sacrifice of not physically owning anything? So, tell me, What Would Jesus Do?!

iTunes over the Network

MaFt — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:36:23 +0000

After my rant yesterday about iTunes being a bit rubbish at managing libraries over the network I’m going to eat a bit of humble pie… I thought I’d give it another try and it seems to be OK now. This could be down to one of two things either 1) an update to iTunes solved some issues or 2) better account control on Windows 7 RC. I’m going to opt for a mixture of the two!

I’ve also been playing with ‘Remote’ for the iPhone which works really well. Just to have the iPhone sat next to me to switch tracks without having to keep switching to iTunes itself – it’s really lazy but could be handy if I ever connected the laptop to the stereo for parties. Which I might now it works properly!

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