Database Users

[Q] Music on Android

I really want to buy an Android device ( d: ) , but I'm not sure if there is that big of variate of mods and programs to make listening to music easier on Android.
I am used to an iPod Touch (jailbroken) with music controls over the volume rocker (I've read CyanogenMod has that !) and a real fast/easy way to listen to music.
After researching on the net, I have found some really nice programs like PowerAMP, but since I don't own an Android device, i can't really tell how good everything works and what else there is.
Of course I'd read myself into how to root and so on, and I'd do anything to make my next phone a good music player !
So what do you think are really important mods/programs for making music on Android easier and better ?

In my opinion, PowerAMP is the best music player for Android. You modify everything on the equalizer. Of course you've got presets (this way is easier for my). The biggest problem with the application is its price !! you've got a free trial period, but after, you've got to pay...

the default music player on Android gets the job done it just doesnt look good. Id advise just buying a Zune HD or and iPod Touch for your music

Well I have an iPod Touch, but i HATE carrying both an iPod and a phone (a brick right now )
Would it be possible to get the volume-rocker control for music to work with PowerAMP (<-- i dont care if it costs a little. As I've said, I'd do almost anything ) ??

Music controls do work with the volume rocker, track up and down, with PowerAMP. I'm sure CyanogenMod has an impact on that feature though. I think the mod is the fact that the command for blue tooth track next is mapped to the long press volume function, same with the lockscreen controls.

So you are saying that skipping (short hold of up/down) and pausing (power button ?) songs works on PowerAMP "out-of-the-box" (without root ?) ?
And also if I'd like to put CM on my device, it's possible that the functions would interfere ?

No, like I said, not stock. I use trackball wake so I can't comment on that.

so what would i have to do to get the functions like that to work with PowerAMP ?

Root and install CM6x

I use Lithium Player and I love it. It has a unique UI and can fetch album art as well. The player allows you to make playlists and customize the color of the UI. The player also finds playlists from other music apps on the phone, so that you don't have to keep remaking playlists. If you have any problems or concerns, just email the dev and he will reply back in a timely manner. Me and the dev are actually working on something big right now, and if you want to help, please visit my site at futurinnovations.blogspot.com.

Youll have A TON of options. Different players with different feature sets etc.
Trackball/vole skip etc are all available. Dont be afraid to root. Most of the time your device will have a simple one or few step solution.
If youre on here then you are already part of a tremendous community and have a stack of info and help at your fingertips.
With PowrAmp options , the interface , the widgets , lock screen controls etc and most of all the custom EQ make it a much better music experience than an Iphone/Ipod.
DoubleTwist makes Itunes syncing easy if its a MUST.
Winamp features wireless syncing.
Again really a no brainer. Music/sound quality will vary from device to device.
If you just want the best sound neither Android/Apple offer that. Perhaps theres an Android device that does have some great sound hardware but all in all smaller portable players with better sound chips will be a better choice in audiophile terms.
Good headphones + Poweramp are the next best thing. Plus you get the best damn communication OS/devices available off a desktop so go for it.

Mortplayer
One really good FREE Solution to all the features i read about PowerAMP is
MortPlayer... (DL widgets separately).
- lockscreen widget, playing from folders, playlists, volume controls etc.

d.ward said:
In my opinion, PowerAMP is the best music player for Android. You modify everything on the equalizer. Of course you've got presets (this way is easier for my). The biggest problem with the application is its price !! you've got a free trial period, but after, you've got to pay...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you have a problem with price are you a broke ass?

Play music on computer from Tablet?

Hi,
I saw people doing this with their Ipad via Icloud and I was wondering if someone could tell me how do you control music from your computer with your tablet.
The 2 things I want to do are:
1) Be able to control the music that is on my computer from my tablet so it plays on the computer speakers
2) Be able to play the music from my tablet on my computer speakers. For example: I am in the kitchen and want to use the AUPEO! apps from my tablet but want it to play on my computer speakers
Thanks to anyone who can help

I am rooted and I use Thor V14.2

Maybe Gmote?

Gmote would be the way to go for your #1 comment. For #2, you could enable the Clear Fi on the tablet (not sure if Thor ROM kept it on there), which turns your tablet into a media server, and then your computer should be able to pick it up, and start playing whatever shared media is on the tablet (this is using DLNA). If the ROM doesn't have Clear Fi installed, you can find quite a few DLNA server apps in the market.

I personally use this foobar remote. Lets me control foobar over Wifi LAN/Internet and basically play music on my PC speakers.
I also use ES File explorer to play files from my PC on the tablet. Works over Wifi LAN or you could setup an FTP or remote login.
PS: As a side note, if you guys are a sucker for stats, this particular (Remote System Monitor) app monitors everything about your pc...hdd usage, cpu usage and temp, gpu stats, network stats etc. Pretty neat....yea and probably off topic
Hope this helps

I use "Media Center Control" (on the market, not free). Can play audio and video on TV from A500. Works perfectly. Supports WOL.
https://market.android.com/details?id=de.MarkusGehlhaar.MCC

Put it down said:
Hi,
I saw people doing this with their Ipad via Icloud and I was wondering if someone could tell me how do you control music from your computer with your tablet.
The 2 things I want to do are:
1) Be able to control the music that is on my computer from my tablet so it plays on the computer speakers
2) Be able to play the music from my tablet on my computer speakers. For example: I am in the kitchen and want to use the AUPEO! apps from my tablet but want it to play on my computer speakers
Thanks to anyone who can help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to check out XBMC. I have replaced my Windows Media Center with it and have not looked back.
Over Wifi I can see my entire video/music library and control what is playing on the PC. It also has a neat remote control feature for pausing and the like.
You will need the client on the PC and the android client is free on the market.

VLC works great. Try that out

Unified remote (http://unifiedremote.com/) is awesome as it will do what you are looking to do in #1 and #2, it has built in remotes that control mouse, keyboard, winamp, vlc, wmp, file browser, and a myriad of others. I especially like that I can power off my PC with it.

AppIdea for devs: Using the Metro start screen as Media Center

I'm thinking of getting a Shuttle slim pc to hook up to my TV and use it as a media center. Unfortunately, WMC is gone from Windows 8, and even if you get it as an addon, it isn't that great....
Apps like Multimedia 8 are nice, but involve a lot of clicking, which can be tedious on the TV. So why not pin everything to the start screen?
Pinning your favourite TV shows, Albums, Artists, Movies, Internet Radio Stations to the start screen gives you access to all the entertainment you could want in a very quick and easy way. While getting meta data from last.fm, thetvdb, imdb etc, make the experience look great
I've created a quick mockup in photoshop to demonstrate how it might look.
Let me know what you think. unfortuately, despite my interest in IT, I went to medschool, so I can't program this myself (I did try though, but didnt get anywhere).
So if any dev likes the idea , I'd be happy to discuss my ideas

Leaving Apple........S4 questions

Hi all,
After 5 years of Apple (not a fanboy) I've had enough, seen the specs for the S4 & some of its features and feel it's time to change.
I've bought every version of the iPhone since the 3G, que'd up or pre ordered every new release but now........ I've just lost interest the iphone is beautiful to look at, but features & inovation have deserted the iphone. So I've pre ordered a S4 which I will hopefully get on release day here in the UK, so for when it arrives I have a few questions
All my tunes & songs are in itunes, will I be able to transfer them, With album art etc?
Currenty use Atomic Floyd earbuds, so can make & recieve calls & skip tracks on the move (cycling) can I buy the same for S4
Books, can I transfer to the S4
I'm quite a user of emoji on my iphone, just in text. this standard in android?
I know I'm going to lose a load of apps, but I'm sat here looking through my iphone & hardly use any of them anyway lol, Just cant wait to bluetooth songs & pics, have files on my phone (in folders) i can access/amend/email just freedom to do these things Apple strangle!, not to mention expandable memory, battery swapping, playing AVI's without converting & pissing about in itunes......
Looking forward to an actual upgrade, something new

all itunes music is compatible with the stock S4 music player, yes with cover art and tags
I'm not sure about the earbuds, but those features SHOULD work
not sure about books either, are they DRM protected?
and even though I'm not sure, I think the stock messaging app does support emoji,
but even if it doesn't, you're free to install another one

Well first congrats, the iPhone 5 is great but change is awesome. I believe that there is a way to import your songs from the iPhone 5 to S4, don't quote me on this but I think it was introduced with the S4 ( I have to look it up), otherwise there are apps like doubletwist that should work. Not sure about books.
Also the S4 should come with headphones that let you skip track, answer calls all that good stuff.
Sent from my iPod touch 5 using Tapatalk

barondebxl said:
Well first congrats, the iPhone 5 is great but change is awesome. I believe that there is a way to import your songs from the iPhone 5 to S4, don't quote me on this but I think it was introduced with the S4 ( I have to look it up), otherwise there are apps like doubletwist that should work. Not sure about books.
Also the S4 should come with headphones that let you skip track, answer calls all that good stuff.
Sent from my iPod touch 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know it will come with some earphones, but will be after some premium ones. (normally never take the originals out the box)
I love the iphone 5 for its simplicity & elegance, have it jailbroke to install extra features but for me, its not enough....... Apple (since Jobs) isn't a leader, it's a follower.

I think even Samsung KIES has an option to import iTunes. I don't know about the artwork though.
My GF uses isyncr. It also works over wifi. She gets her album art as well. The only thing that might not transfer is music you bought through iTunes.
But there are dozens of ways to get your music and playlist back with album art. The thing about Android is that there are more than 1 ways to do things.

Music = drag and drop on windows = done
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

hope this will help u
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00048217&fm_seq=52405 :good:
and welcome to the open world

Welcome to the dark side
S4 INFO

You are free now
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda app-developers app

jus71n said:
Hi all,
After 5 years of Apple (not a fanboy) I've had enough, seen the specs for the S4 & some of its features and feel it's time to change.
I've bought every version of the iPhone since the 3G, que'd up or pre ordered every new release but now........ I've just lost interest the iphone is beautiful to look at, but features & inovation have deserted the iphone. So I've pre ordered a S4 which I will hopefully get on release day here in the UK, so for when it arrives I have a few questions
All my tunes & songs are in itunes, will I be able to transfer them, With album art etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just copy all of your songs from iTunes into a music folder either on your phone or a microSD card. The album are should come with them.
Currenty use Atomic Floyd earbuds, so can make & recieve calls & skip tracks on the move (cycling) can I buy the same for S4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't see why not.
Books, can I transfer to the S4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure at ALL about the books. That one you might have to take a loss on.
I'm quite a user of emoji on my iphone, just in text. this standard in android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend GoSMS for SMS messaging. You get an awesome Quick Reply and it's VERY customizalble. It supports Emoji and theming. Check it out here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jb.gosms
All in all, I think you will be happy with the GS4. I also had every iPhone (except the 5) and the freedom I found with Android was well worth it.

There's multiple apps you can use to text emojis. Go SMS is the one I use. I also figured out that if you set your twitter account up to be able to tweet via sms, you can text the number (I think it's like 40404) and use an emoji in the text if for some reason you want to tweet an emoji.

jus71n said:
Hi all,
After 5 years of Apple (not a fanboy) I've had enough, seen the specs for the S4 & some of its features and feel it's time to change.
I've bought every version of the iPhone since the 3G, que'd up or pre ordered every new release but now........ I've just lost interest the iphone is beautiful to look at, but features & inovation have deserted the iphone. So I've pre ordered a S4 which I will hopefully get on release day here in the UK, so for when it arrives I have a few questions
All my tunes & songs are in itunes, will I be able to transfer them, With album art etc?
Currenty use Atomic Floyd earbuds, so can make & recieve calls & skip tracks on the move (cycling) can I buy the same for S4
Books, can I transfer to the S4
I'm quite a user of emoji on my iphone, just in text. this standard in android?
I know I'm going to lose a load of apps, but I'm sat here looking through my iphone & hardly use any of them anyway lol, Just cant wait to bluetooth songs & pics, have files on my phone (in folders) i can access/amend/email just freedom to do these things Apple strangle!, not to mention expandable memory, battery swapping, playing AVI's without converting & pissing about in itunes......
Looking forward to an actual upgrade, something new
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music: Yes, you can transfer all with no issues. I get music from iTunes all the time. You can't transfer from iTunes itself, you'll need to either drag and drop, import iTunes playlists to other PC/Mac players like mediaMonkey, or get the app iSyncr which wirelessly (or wired) syncs directly with iTunes, the only thing is it's like 4USD. Worth it though. Albums, tags, and all will transfer to and from.
Earbuds: Yes, they will work. The only thing you can't do with them is raise / lower volume. If it has a mic and all that will work great, so will play/pause answer/hangup. I have a pair of Beats with ControlTalk for iDevices and it works great for me.
Books: Not sure. I never use books, If they're from apple then most likely not. Android does support books (obviously), just don't know about the compatibility if you get it from iTunes.
Emoji: Yes, the stock keyboard and many other on the Play store all fully support them.
You will LOVE android. The S4 is one if not the best device to get once it's out. Hope to see you on XDA, and don't forget to root to have even more fun!

For your iTunes music:
1) download google's music manager to your Mac/PC
2) sync music manager with your iTunes music folder
3) download google play music when you get your S4
4) voila! Your entire iTunes music library is now on your S4 with cover art that you can stream from the cloud.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

really
So you really wanna leave?I just wanna one now.

Welcome to android and enjoy your honeymoon by managing all these things. yes S4 could well be your next GF
As said by many, songs should work easily as well as books. I have used a lot of variety of earbuds, I found all compatible. Regarding emoji, handcent sms is the best app.

Contents you can sync:
1.Sync Contacts and Calendar
On your iPhone go to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Set up a new "Microsoft Exchange" account or add Gmail account by going to Add account > Gmail.
Input your email address and login info.
Select "Server" then either input the ME server address or "m.google.com" for Gmail.
On the final screen, select what you want to import—Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and/or Reminders—then hit Accept.
2.Sync Photos, Music and Videos
Windows:
Connect the iPhone with the PC.
Right-click your iPhone, select Explore and copy the media files to your desktop.
Connect the Android phone with PC, and drag and drop the iPhone photos and videos to your Android pictures folder DCIM, music goes to Music.
Mac:
Connect the iPhone with the Mac.
Open the Image Capture and download these files to the desktop.
If you are using new Android runs ICS or above, download Android File Transfer Utility to your Mac, and then drag-and-drop.
Android can't sync with iTunes, so after the syncing of media,you'll need an alternative service to load new media onto the device. You can use Google Play to help you load your collection directly from iTunes.
3.Sycn SMS and voice mail
You need a app to help you sync SMS messages. The free app My SMS is the good option which syncs text messages among your various devices—phones, tablets, laptops, and whathaveyou—and is compatible with both Mac and Windows. Download the app on both phones and follow the setup instructions and the app will easily help you do that.
For the voice mail messages, you just need to pay some money. Programs like PhoneView (Mac - $30) and iExplorer (Mac and PC - $35) can be quite helpful. You'll be able to copy not just voicemail to the desktop, but also your call history, contacts, bookmarks, notes, and media files as well with them.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.books&hl=en
You can always use Google Books, but I am sure you would have to purchase each book over again. It WOULD be nice for publishers to have some kind of cross platform syncing for something like books, magazines...

Idea for a best WP app ever

Hi guys ;D
Sooo, I do not post very often, lol, I do not post at all due to constant lack of time, you know, daily job, family and stuff, anyways, here is the thing and I need your professional advice.
I've got a brilliant idea to make an app for a Windows Phone 8, basically, there is no application which syncs music using wireless, right? Yeah, so that will be an app like that, you know, easy sync, you can view music library from the phone, one click to transfer you songs to a phone, browse playlists, made by different music players, syncs them as well (I am aware of that there is no way to actually sync playlist object though).
Now, what I'm concerned about, is that a good idea for an app? Or maybe that's a stupid idea and no single person on planet earth will ever use it?
I am not really sure, because I do not want to invest a huge amount of a time to find out that. Can you help with making a right decision and give some advice maybe?
Thanks

I believe XBox music does this. Install it on your computer and it will scan your files and add them to your 'collection'. Which, in essence is your cloud collection. You can then retrieve anything you download through your xbox music pass on your phone / pc that is in your collection.

sukanaher said:
Hi guys ;D
Sooo, I do not post very often, lol, I do not post at all due to constant lack of time, you know, daily job, family and stuff, anyways, here is the thing and I need your professional advice.
I've got a brilliant idea to make an app for a Windows Phone 8, basically, there is no application which syncs music using wireless, right? Yeah, so that will be an app like that, you know, easy sync, you can view music library from the phone, one click to transfer you songs to a phone, browse playlists, made by different music players, syncs them as well (I am aware of that there is no way to actually sync playlist object though).
Now, what I'm concerned about, is that a good idea for an app? Or maybe that's a stupid idea and no single person on planet earth will ever use it?
I am not really sure, because I do not want to invest a huge amount of a time to find out that. Can you help with making a right decision and give some advice maybe?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My app already does that. Sort of.

@Plazma1
I was basically thinking about completely offline software, - all this cloud stuff does not appeal to me. I am the guy who prefers to have my stuff 100% private, you know So do a lot of people I think
@mcosmin222
Can you post a link to your app or is it in your signature?

sukanaher said:
@Plazma1
I was basically thinking about completely offline software, - all this cloud stuff does not appeal to me. I am the guy who prefers to have my stuff 100% private, you know So do a lot of people I think
@mcosmin222
Can you post a link to your app or is it in your signature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signature.

@mcosmin222
Yeah, I've seen your app some long time ago, when it was pretty much "young"
But your solution differs quite a lot But I was just curious - are you using default WP8 music player mechanisms? Or maybe xaudio2 for example? With last, you can do more stuff - equalizer, lets say, nice controls for audio playing - you know, track bars and stuff. The only drawback is that you really do not have any access to WP audio library and that limitation sucks big time
I was thinking about such player but that is just too much hassle with storing music in isolated storage

sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
Yeah, I've seen your app some long time ago, when it was pretty much "young"
But your solution differs quite a lot But I was just curious - are you using default WP8 music player mechanisms? Or maybe xaudio2 for example? With last, you can do more stuff - equalizer, lets say, nice controls for audio playing - you know, track bars and stuff. The only drawback is that you really do not have any access to WP audio library and that limitation sucks big time
I was thinking about such player but that is just too much hassle with storing music in isolated storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default the app uses the built-in player but you can switch modes to make it use a different player with more features. Go to Help+Settings, last tab.
I found ways of getting music in isostore faster for the user, one of them involves downloading from skydrive, the other involves direct file transfers between the phone and a desktop companion.
For WP7, what you propose is pretty difficult. But I can do this on Windows 8 + Windows Phone 8 app (I am building a companion app which runs on Metro). Once I can get myself a windows phone 8, this will get sped up considerably

I'm not sure third party apps can change things in the music library. Still, even if it would require its own player, I say go for it, because the native WP8 player makes me sad.

SilverHedgehog said:
I'm not sure third party apps can change things in the music library. Still, even if it would require its own player, I say go for it, because the native WP8 player makes me sad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app is almost ready for public release. I am just waitting to finish the 8.1 version and make them both public at the same time.
You can download the phone version from the link in my signature.

@mcosmin222
Yes, I was talking about WP8, - I didn't realize that your app is for WP7 actually ;P Dunno how things looks like on WP7 regarding xaudio2, on WP8 you got C++ support for it, and I have tested playing some random music with it and in fact, it works. Equalizer works - not the best EQ I've seen in my life but its something.
@SilverHedgehog
Nope, there is no write access to the music library on WP8 device, you can only read songs names and that's it. Not a big deal. But anyways, with a custom player there are following issues:
1. Player has to have its own music library within app isolated storage, so now you have 2 places where you have your music stored and that is inconvenient.
2. Player must be put in a background, and yet there are no "legal" ways to use proper multitasking. And even if we put this app in a background as geolocation app (so it need to use GPS time to time as well), - there will be no integration with a system itself - so no quick controls and stuff.
I was talking about completely custom 3rd party audio player, without any single standard mechanism used.

sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
Yes, I was talking about WP8, - I didn't realize that your app is for WP7 actually ;P Dunno how things looks like on WP7 regarding xaudio2, on WP8 you got C++ support for it, and I have tested playing some random music with it and in fact, it works. Equalizer works - not the best EQ I've seen in my life but its something.
@SilverHedgehog
Nope, there is no write access to the music library on WP8 device, you can only read songs names and that's it. Not a big deal. But anyways, with a custom player there are following issues:
1. Player has to have its own music library within app isolated storage, so now you have 2 places where you have your music stored and that is inconvenient.
2. Player must be put in a background, and yet there are no "legal" ways to use proper multitasking. And even if we put this app in a background as geolocation app (so it need to use GPS time to time as well), - there will be no integration with a system itself - so no quick controls and stuff.
I was talking about completely custom 3rd party audio player, without any single standard mechanism used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
C++ for WP8 only works for native games. You can not build a player app that will run in the background using C++. So your library is useless, unfortunately.
My app fully supports WP8 as well.
As I said, there are ways to legal ways to go around the problems you just mentioned, and my player does that already. But you can not use C++ to do it. My decoders are written in pure C#.
You can not avoid "standard" mechanisms when working on an operating system. Even if you wrote all with ANSI C++, you would still depend on the system.
if you want, we could collaborate and use your library for winRT.

@mcosmin222: You can create native "component" (a C++/CX DLL) which is usable by non-game apps just fine. It *should* even work with background agents (there's no technical reason it wouldn't; is there a policy against it?) so I don't think that would be a problem. Marshaling data across the ABI does impose a small performance penalty but it shouldn't be significant for audio data.

Yes, that is what I was saying, C++ component, which implement all audio functionality using xaudio2, it completely manages all buffers and offsets and just plays audio All the rest is C# code, which calls component in a separate thread - there is no such requirement when calling xaudio2 engine from games, but from regular app it has to be in a separate thread. I am not really sure right now because I was doing this research almost a year ago, just when got my ATIV S; from what I can recall, C# CG impacts in some way audio buffers processing by the system, basically that is what GoodDayToDie said. So this rest of the code is also responsible for working in a background by implementing pseudo geolocation functionality. And thats it! We got a background app which plays music
I've done this - I know it works
But, there is always some but, there is always something that just not play nice.
1. Music must be stored in app iso storage.
2. No integration with quick controls for music playback
3. Additional desktop app, that will transfer music to WP8 app iso storage
I really don't think that a regular users will ever go after such solution, which requires additional app to be installed. Another thing is that is requires user to learn new way of playing his/her music, - such app will never succeed. By success I mean attraction of at least half of a million users.
@mcosmin222
I am not saying that your solution will never succeed, if you are using standard methods and do not require user to change his/her habits - there is a good chance

GoodDayToDie said:
@mcosmin222: You can create native "component" (a C++/CX DLL) which is usable by non-game apps just fine. It *should* even work with background agents (there's no technical reason it wouldn't; is there a policy against it?) so I don't think that would be a problem. Marshaling data across the ABI does impose a small performance penalty but it shouldn't be significant for audio data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh well...it is worth the try...
But I don't think it will work(just a guts feeling xD).
But I expect some stupid policy to stop it, especially those related to p/invoke.
EDIT: Hmm...this might actually work. I tried adding a reference to a C++ runtime lib project from a C# background audio agent and surprise surprise, it worked.
I stand corrected then
not sure how this all relates to dll's written using ANSI C++ though.
I do not believe the marshaling overhead would be too great. It probably would be small enough to work even with apps requiring better performance.
@sukanaher,
Do you have the component already ported to WP8? If so, can you share it please? It would speed things up considerably.

@mcosmin222
I haven't understood correctly - you were talking about using background agents, I was talking about multitasking by imitating geolocation tracking app, - well, I am not sure if this will work with background agents due to the fact, from what I remember, there are 2 types of background agents on WP8 - I got no idea how things look like on WP7. So, there is a local music playing agent and music streaming agent - in both cases you do not have access to a raw audio data, to raw bytes, you just specify network source or local source and thats it.
If you are planning to use xaudio2 and all its benefits - you will need to extract audio PCM data from file and audio stream as well, so you will need your algorithms working with a raw bytes (an actual file) - it is not possible in case of background agents on WP8 - they just load your file or stream and thats it - you cannot access its data.
For proper music player, you will have to implement everything from scratch, no background agents, proper, android like multitasking, access to a music library, access to a system, system integration, basically you need everything that is not available on Windows Phone 8 and from what I observe will not be available in 9 - MS just holds this functionality for them selfs, thats it, we are limited to the minimum.- that is why I am thinking more about dumping my WP device.
Yeah, I have an xaudio2 wrapper lib written a year ago somewhere on my PC - it is a mess, it depends on my other libs and it is just a static linking lib, it is not a component. If I would ever share this, I will have to prepare a proper static library or component, but at this moment, besides daily job, I'm involved into other projects.

sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
I haven't understood correctly - you were talking about using background agents, I was talking about multitasking by imitating geolocation tracking app, - well, I am not sure if this will work with background agents due to the fact, from what I remember, there are 2 types of background agents on WP8 - I got no idea how things look like on WP7. So, there is a local music playing agent and music streaming agent - in both cases you do not have access to a raw audio data, to raw bytes, you just specify network source or local source and thats it.
If you are planning to use xaudio2 and all its benefits - you will need to extract audio PCM data from file and audio stream as well, so you will need your algorithms working with a raw bytes (an actual file) - it is not possible in case of background agents on WP8 - they just load your file or stream and thats it - you cannot access its data.
For proper music player, you will have to implement everything from scratch, no background agents, proper, android like multitasking, access to a music library, access to a system, system integration, basically you need everything that is not available on Windows Phone 8 and from what I observe will not be available in 9 - MS just holds this functionality for them selfs, thats it, we are limited to the minimum.- that is why I am thinking more about dumping my WP device.
Yeah, I have an xaudio2 wrapper lib written a year ago somewhere on my PC - it is a mess, it depends on my other libs and it is just a static linking lib, it is not a component. If I would ever share this, I will have to prepare a proper static library or component, but at this moment, besides daily job, I'm involved into other projects.
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Ok, long story short:
Yes, you can access the stream of raw bytes from local storage. You may or may not do the same with online sources.
No, MS does not use a different kind of multitasking system. The difference is the MS player can actually access to user library.
Maybe, we can implement an equalizer filter which can be applied before the raw bytes get to the player. This can be done with C# too, so it is not required to use C++ at all (the difference in performance is minimal anyway) However, in order to do such a thing, one must implement media stream sources for the file formats which usually do not require streaming (like mp3, mp4, wav etc), so we can have access to the raw bytes sent to the player. This is very time consuming, and the reward isn't really all that big. Sure, if you have codecs in CX that are usable in WP apps, we can do this...
The only thing MS does to impair a proper music player is access to the user library.

double post failure

Anyways, we have strayed off topic a little bit, but from what I can see - there is no interest in such application, that will sync music to PC using wireless