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Tikatika

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 12, 2012
709
794
Northern California
So, I purchased my first song from the Play Store. I expected that it would show up in the default S4 Music player. But no, it didnt, it went to Google Play Music and the only way I can listen to it is on that app. It won't shuffle play on my car's Bluetooth because it's not in the default player.

I clicked on the "pin" in the song and supposedly it downloaded somewhere but I can't find it.

All my music is on my SD card. I checked there. Also it is not showing on internal storage.

If anybody has experience with new music management on an unrooted Galaxy, please help. I must confess I am missing the simplicity of iTunes at the moment!
 

ChazUK

macrumors 603
Feb 3, 2008
5,393
25
Essex (UK)
Download it from a browser on your pc/mac and transfer the file to your s4. You can possibly do this on the S4 browser by browsing to music.google.com and opening it on the browser in desktop mode.

You do only get 2 downloads of a song from the browser though so beware of that.

Google Music cloud songs only work on the Google Music app sadly. Might be better off using Amazon to buy from as it downloads the music to the device.
 

hallux

macrumors 68040
Apr 25, 2012
3,437
1,005
What if you were to use the Google Music player for ALL your music? It reads the device music AND the purchased music and will allow you to "pin" music to listen offline so you can cache on your home wireless and then listen on the go. The GM player WILL stream through Bluetooth, I do it all the time using a Motorola S11 FlexHD headset, the audio control button on it can also control the Music app (pause, play, skip forward, skip backward).
 

Tikatika

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 12, 2012
709
794
Northern California
Thanks Hallux for the suggestion. I did get Amazon MP3 player set up and it was simple and effortless to do. I'm pretty much invested in Amazon, prime member, and I use the Kindle reader app, so I guess I will use them for music as well :)

It is wonderful that we have so many choices!
 

jeffe

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2008
601
50
Thanks Hallux for the suggestion. I did get Amazon MP3 player set up and it was simple and effortless to do. I'm pretty much invested in Amazon, prime member, and I use the Kindle reader app, so I guess I will use them for music as well :)

It is wonderful that we have so many choices!

Great choice, however, if you've got time to check out your options, I'd also consider downloading the Google Play Music Manager onto your computer and allow it upload your library on your desktop to the Google Play Music locker storage (up to 20,000 songs).

I have mine auto-sync any songs I purchase on amazon to google play automatically by watching the directory I download the songs to and it works pretty great in that I never have to plug my phone to gain access to my music and can purchase music from either service.
 

paulsalter

macrumors 68000
Aug 10, 2008
1,622
0
UK
I wish they would change this, so when you pin it it downloads the file for other music apps

I do use the google music app now though, I find it quite nice

I do have the google music manager on my Mac so anything that gets added to iTunes automatically gets added to google music (I buy most music from Amazon but occasionally from google)

Was going to go fully Amazon for music, but when google music came out here and offered 20,000 uploads for free I couldn't resist :)
 

akuma13

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2006
928
424
Has anyone used Google Music All Access? Despite the slow downloads I love the access to millions of songs! I'm thinking of ditching my CD collection now.
 

Assault

macrumors 6502a
Mar 19, 2013
513
0
in the taint
So, I purchased my first song from the Play Store. I expected that it would show up in the default S4 Music player. But no, it didnt, it went to Google Play Music and the only way I can listen to it is on that app. It won't shuffle play on my car's Bluetooth because it's not in the default player.

I clicked on the "pin" in the song and supposedly it downloaded somewhere but I can't find it.

All my music is on my SD card. I checked there. Also it is not showing on internal storage.

If anybody has experience with new music management on an unrooted Galaxy, please help. I must confess I am missing the simplicity of iTunes at the moment!

I just wanted to point out that I have an S3 and I am using the new subscription Google Play Music and I have no issues using the steering wheel controls on my car to control Music Play. Is your car stereo A2DP compliant?

As for music storage, I believe Google caches the music you pin for playback offline, but doesn't physically store the music in a usable file format when using a mobile app. You must use you computer, log in to Google Play, go to Music All Access and then download music manager from your options menu. Music Manager is what is used to upload and download all your music.
This isn't very streamlined of a process, and I'm not sure why Google doesn't allow downloading direct to your phone, unless the RIAA or FCC have some sort of regulation preventing this on "open", non-drm regulated mobile hardware/software?
 

jeffe

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2008
601
50
Has anyone used Google Music All Access? Despite the slow downloads I love the access to millions of songs! I'm thinking of ditching my CD collection now.

Yeah I'm using it. loving the combination of my own library of songs and a subscription music service. I'm a big fan.

----------

As for music storage, I believe Google caches the music you pin for playback offline, but doesn't physically store the music in a usable file format when using a mobile app.

Pretty sure it is cached as a mp3 file in google play music's data directory on the device.
 

jamojamo

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2010
387
7
Has anyone used Google Music All Access? Despite the slow downloads I love the access to millions of songs! I'm thinking of ditching my CD collection now.

I am using it. I like it so far. Radio stations are pretty good at grabbing music from the genre you want if you "thumbs up/down" items. Although there have been times where I've been surprised by how a random song slipped in here and there.

My son is a big Spotify user so I need him to use it for a while and compare.

Now to figure out how to get it to work on my iPhone....
 
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