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Upcoming Plex Update to Add One-Click iTunes Library Import, New Music Features

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Plex this week announced changes to its media software that will move the service beyond its video roots. Following updates that added online movie trailers and a recommendation engine, the next version of Plex will bring several new music features that Plex Chief Product Officer Scott Olechowski says will challenge iTunes in the music department.

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As reported by Gigaom and PCMag, Plex users will be able to import their existing iTunes libraries, including playlists, ratings, and smart playlists, into the Plex app using a new one-click import feature. Plex is partnering with music database company Gracenote to add music file recognition and tagging to simplify the organization of this newly imported media.

One a user's music is imported, the service will leverage Gracenote's extensive database to provide Genius-like music recommendations based on a user's personal music collection. Users also will be able to create station-based playlists from a song's selected characteristics such as genre, tempo, or mood.

Plex also is working with Vevo to roll out a premium feature that will match music videos with the songs that are in a user's music library. These Vevo videos will be available to watch without advertisements by Plex Pass subscribers. Plex hopes this new music video option will drive additional users to sign up for its subscription service, which generates about 80 percent of the company's revenue.

The next version of Plex is expected to debut in the coming weeks. Beyond this version, other possible future music features may include music downloads and integration with a music subscription streaming service.



Article Link: Upcoming Plex Update to Add One-Click iTunes Library Import, New Music Features
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/08/plex-music-itunes/
Plex is pretty great, I just wish AppleTV had a built in App for it (rather than needing to use Airplay from iPhone/iPad)
 
mainstreetmark said:
Here's how to intercept the "trailers" app on AppleTV and turn it into Plex.
Click to expand...

^Been doing this for some time, and it admittedly works pretty well. Nothing, though, would beat a native app / channel for Plex for me. They keep adding all of these worthless channels that I immediately hide; why not add a useful one (yeah, yeah, I know Plex is probably seen by Apple as a competitor to iTunes)?

C'mon Apple. Redeem my faith in the AppleTV...
 
Getting back on topic, this would be great if after import Plex could play DRM content. Which it can't. Bummer. Music video feature could be cool.
 
I love Plex. I built a hackintosh media server and use it for all my TV shows and movies.

As long as they compete with iTunes in a sense and don't actually become iTunes (i.e a bloated piece of crap).
 
Wish Plex had proper support for iTunes videos to begin with.

iTunes channels have been awful for years.

People like me who keep their iTunes as media hub for everything want to have proper play count sync with Plex, which it has, but it lacks a decent view of iTunes movies, TV shows and the like.

Maybe they fixed it recently, but at least that's what I always encountered and put me off.
If you fix that, Plex, I'll be glad to stream at friends' places from iTunes back at home, not having to sync movies and shows to my iPad that's already struggling with storage issues if I want to have a decent selection to choose from spontaneously.
That way, I'd have everything ready at all times and play counts would keep syncing which is pretty important to me. (one of the drawbacks of things like Netflix)

Glassed Silver:mac
 
Glassed Silver said:
People like me who keep their iTunes as media hub for everything want to have proper play count sync with Plex, which it has, but it lacks a decent view of iTunes movies, TV shows and the like.
Click to expand...

I think you need to give it another shot.

It lists unwatched things, tracks where you are when you watch it (synced across all devices) and the skin I use has a really good view for listing movies and tv shows. The automatic tagging is just fantastic. I just have two folders - TV shows and movies, and Plex does the rest for me.
 

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arkmannj said:
Plex is pretty great, I just wish AppleTV had a built in App for it (rather than needing to use Airplay from iPhone/iPad)
Click to expand...
This is literally the only reason I don't even consider getting an AppleTV. I'm sure I'd love what else it has to offer, but this is a deal-breaker for me that keeps me away.
 
Kilamite said:
I think you need to give it another shot.

It lists unwatched things, tracks where you are when you watch it (synced across all devices) and the skin I use has a really good view for listing movies and tv shows. The automatic tagging is just fantastic. I just have two folders - TV shows and movies, and Plex does the rest for me.
Click to expand...

I know that Plex outside of iTunes synchronization through the iTunes channels is amazing, but I specifically mean the iTunes library as source and record keeper of play counts that Plex synchs against.
(The playcount synch always worked for me, however the list of movies and TV shows in the iTunes channels has been horrible for me)

So to clarify are you talking about the iTunes channels here or Plex in general?
I know the rest of Plex is amazing. :)

Glassed Silver:mac
 
richardsonrs said:
I love plex.
Click to expand...

Me too. I have all my 250+ blurays ripped on my hard drive and let plex organize and tag it to play on all my devices( FireTV, iphone, ipad, roku, bluray players.. etc..) Possibly one of my most beloved app.
 
Glassed Silver said:
I know that Plex outside of iTunes synchronization through the iTunes channels is amazing, but I specifically mean the iTunes library as source and record keeper of play counts that Plex synchs against.
(The playcount synch always worked for me, however the list of movies and TV shows in the iTunes channels has been horrible for me)

So to clarify are you talking about the iTunes channels here or Plex in general?
I know the rest of Plex is amazing. :)

Glassed Silver:mac
Click to expand...

Ahh I see. I've never explored the channels that much (I found it quite buggy - BBC iPlayer and some others). If I were you, I'd just ditch iTunes and use Plex exclusively if you can - streaming to iOS devices works well over the LAN and remotely (Plex Pass unless you tunnel or VPN).
 
arkmannj said:
Plex is pretty great, I just wish AppleTV had a built in App for it (rather than needing to use Airplay from iPhone/iPad)
Click to expand...

It would be nice to have native support for Plex on the ATV instead of doing the workaround outlined in the Plex Wiki. I find that sometimes you have to reset Plex on the Mac as ATV has trouble keeping the connection when starting cold.
 
faizoff said:
Me too. I have all my 250+ blurays ripped on my hard drive and let plex organize and tag it to play on all my devices( FireTV, iphone, ipad, roku, bluray players.. etc..) Possibly one of my most beloved app.
Click to expand...
I am working through my DVD collection doing the same thing. Have about 1000 titles completed but have a long, long way to go. :( Plex has been rock-solid working with all of my devices...roku, smartphones, tablets, notebooks, smartTVs, and Blu-Ray players, except my AppleTV (which is why I've disconnected it and packed it away).

This upcoming update will just make it even better.... provided that they don't break what is currently working smoothly and reliably.
 
Kilamite said:
Ahh I see. I've never explored the channels that much (I found it quite buggy - BBC iPlayer and some others). If I were you, I'd just ditch iTunes and use Plex exclusively if you can - streaming to iOS devices works well over the LAN and remotely (Plex Pass unless you tunnel or VPN).
Click to expand...

Won't ever happen.
iTunes is just that shy of being the perfect media manager for what I want in it.

Plex is nice, but you won't see me moving away from iTunes for my media management for a very long time, I'd miss too much with Plex and pretty much any other thing I've ever looked at.
(and I've done that quite a lot, since I wanted a second solution parallel to iTunes for some specific reasons, long story short: nothing satisfied me even for secondary needs)

All power to those for who Plex does everything they want! :cool:

Glassed Silver:mac
 
I haven't used iTunes in about a year. Who cares any longer about it? Yes, I have over 200gb of lossless music rips, but I have been streaming for years now, so my local music library is long forgotten on my NAS. (And yes, I have a better than most equipment and speakers, but honestly, high bitrate streams are generally as good to my ears as lossless.)

I dumped Beats a few months ago for Google Music. Google's library is almost as good as MOG used to be, before Beats bought it. But Google Music is better in many ways:

I hear a song on the radio in my car, I recognize it with Google, then I have the option of streaming it, or the whole album, from Google Music. If there are any premium videos related to it, I get them too. For $8 a month.

Plex is great. If it wasn't for Plex Connect, I would have dumped my ATVs too. I haven't had cable/satellite for 7 years now and would never go back to it. I am done with it.

Apple needs to get with it, or risk going the way of Microsoft. Beats was a bad purchase, not because it was expensive, but because it showed that Apple just doesn't get it anymore.

The Beats hardware business is passé. Their $15 million acquisition of MOG was smart, but Apple spent $3 billion to buy it a few months later, and will spend much more to rebrand it and undo the damage that Beats did to the service. By that time, many of us will have moved on to services like Google Music and will not come back to Apple, unless there is a compelling reason. And NOT the walled garden, iTunes kind of reason.

I want Apple to kick butt, because I like their design and nobody does design like Apple in the industry. But the world is moving on and iTunes is no longer where the cutting edge, or the money, is.

Plex is far from perfect, but at least they have a vision. And they are keeping me tethered to my ATVs. If Apple kills Plex Connect, my ATVs will go into a drawer and Apple will have a tough time getting me back.

End of rant.
 
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Heavy Plex user here, super glad I've got the lifetime PlexPass when it was still cheap at $75. More and more I have the feeling that I've bet on the right horse.
 
saschke said:
Heavy Plex user here, super glad I've got the lifetime PlexPass when it was still cheap at $75. More and more I have the feeling that I've bet on the right horse.
Click to expand...

I love Plex on my Roku... but I still don't understand the benefits of Plex Pass.
 
MrXiro said:
I love Plex on my Roku... but I still don't understand the benefits of Plex Pass.
Click to expand...

Streaming iTunes music to my Roku via the Plex iTunes channel is still very bad. Hopefully, this fixes it but I'm doubtful since the Roku support from Plex seems to be pretty bad (Note - I'm not sure who's at fault (Plex or Roku)).

MrXiro said:
Is that the ability to stream my media anywhere outside of my home? I wish it came with the iOS app.
Click to expand...

It's the ability to load Plex media on a device so you can watch it off-line (no connection to your server).
 
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