I am a mac user only, but I am tired of itunes. Is there a better music player for my mac computers and iphone? Also is there a better way of uploading media to my iphone than through itunes? I am just looking for an easier solution than itunes to manage my music and other media.
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Itunes alternative
- Thread starter wicked23
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Spotify Premium allows you to actually download files? I thought it was streaming-only to an internet connected device.
Yeah, you can set your favorite playlists to local on your iDevice. Up to 3,333 songs. They're 320 kbps CBR too. Saves you from having to risk insanely high mobile data costs if you don't have an unlimited data plan. Love it!
Interesting. Please define iDevice. Is that any device running iOS? What about Android devices? What are the device requirements, and steps to do this?
What I'm getting at is... once the 320 kbps CBR MP3 files are stored locally on your device, is there a way to get them off the device, say, to a computer?
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My bad, when I said iDevice I mean any device that runs Spotify.
So smartphones, tablets and computers.
You can per device manage which playlists are stored locally just by turning on a switch. You can exchange them as many times as you like, for as many songs as you like, as long as it's no more than 3,333 songs.
Local songs are stored inside the app. Of course on iOS there is no way to get at them without jailbreaking, as the file structure is hidden away from users.
I couldn't tell you for sure how this works on Android, as I have little experience with that platform. It's safe to say that the developers have made it very hard to get at those files, and I believe it's against the terms of use to access them directly.
You can find out more in the Spotify FAQ.
Here's a screenshot of an offline playlist on my iPhone. Sorry it's in Dutch, but I think you'll get it.
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Thanks for explaining. I figured out how to make a playlist local/offline in the Mac version of Spotify.
If I was going to consistantly spend significantly more than $120/yr on music in iTunes, the Spotify model might be a reasonable alternative to iTunes.
But if it's like you say, and the actual files themselves are not accessible when you mark them for local storage, it's more for someone who wants to listen when they don't have internet access (or wants to save on their data plan) than for someone who wants to permanantly own their music collection. It's not like you own those files. If you ever stop paying the $10 month, or uninstall Spotify, or Spotify goes bye bye, they are gone.
If I was going to consistantly spend significantly more than $120/yr on music in iTunes, the Spotify model might be a reasonable alternative to iTunes.
But if it's like you say, and the actual files themselves are not accessible when you mark them for local storage, it's more for someone who wants to listen when they don't have internet access (or wants to save on their data plan) than for someone who wants to permanantly own their music collection. It's not like you own those files. If you ever stop paying the $10 month, or uninstall Spotify, or Spotify goes bye bye, they are gone.
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You're completely right. It's kind of like borrowing music indefinitely for $10 a month. It's not for everyone. In my case I WOULD have to spend hundreds of dollars a year if I used iTunes. Spotify is a great solution for me.