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New Android App for Magnatune
A new, official Android App for Magnatune is now available, and is free for anyone to use.
You can download it from various Android app stores, such as Google Play and App Brain or you can install the APK file directly.
Be sure to look for "Magnatune (official app)" when you download it from your favorite Android store. Don't accidentally install the much older "Magnatune (beta)" app that was done by a fan many years ago, and which doesn't work at all any more.
The Magnatune (official app) works well on a variety of Android phones, including large format tablets, in portrait and landscape mode. I've tested it on Android version 2.2, 2.3 and 3.0, at both low resolutions and high. The app has a clean and minimal interface, features browsing by genres, artists, albums as well as full text search. It works both for free (non member) and in member mode, just like the Magnatune web site does.
For this app, I hired veteran Android developer Paul Yago, who did an outstanding job working with me to get a lot of functionality in a clean, non intrusive interface.
Note about logging in: some members with long and complicated passwords have had problems logging in with the Android app. I've seen problems like this with the iPhone app and long passwords, but I'm not sure if the problem is that they're very hard to type, or there's a problem with Apache and long passwords. At any rate, if you change your password on Magnatune to something shorter, that seems to solve the Android-logging-in problem.
Posted by John Buckman on December 4, 2012 at 11:57 AM | Permalink
Comments
On Google Play, the app description includes the following:
"With a membership, you can download any and all our albums, in a variety of DRM and perfect-quality formats."
Shouldn't that be "DRM-free"?
Posted by: ThomasC at Dec 4, 2012 12:26:58 PM
I just miss tab "Collections" :)
Posted by: Luke at Dec 4, 2012 12:31:16 PM
Thanks John and Paul!
Posted by: Mark Stosberg at Dec 4, 2012 1:12:37 PM
Downloading it now. I presume one won't have to login again every time you close it, the way you have to with the web site? Is there a way to connect it to John's emails? That's the main way I explore new music.
Posted by: David Phillips at Dec 4, 2012 3:13:56 PM
Thank you for this. I miss tab "Collections" too and I wouldn't like to change my passord because of its size. There's no other way to fix that?
Posted by: David at Dec 7, 2012 10:06:00 AM
"I wouldn't like to change my passord because of its size. There's no other way to fix that?"
Not at the moment, as it appears to be a problem with Apache.
However, we're currently rewriting Magnatune from scratch, and in a few months Apache won't be part of our setup any more, and any password size or complexity limits should go away then too. Then we'll have new bugs! (grin)
-john
Posted by: John Buckman at Dec 7, 2012 10:15:14 AM
Thanks, a fine app. Would be nice if it stopped playing when someone calls.
-Bjorn
Posted by: Bjorn at Dec 10, 2012 5:45:18 AM
Hi John,
Would you consider posting the APK file directly? I have significant issues with Google Play, so manually installing an app is the best course of action for me.
Thank you for your time,
Robert~
Posted by: Robert R. at Dec 12, 2012 11:23:38 PM
Would you consider posting the APK file directly?
Good idea -- I've now added a link to the APK file at the top of this blog entry.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman at Dec 13, 2012 2:22:49 AM
It's great to see an official Magnatune app for Android, thanks for investing in this!
Unfortunately I'm having trouble getting it to accept my password - which isn't long or complex, it's just 8 characters, with capital letters and numbers but no "special" characters.
I'd also second the request of Kevin Whitaker on the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.buckman.magnatune&reviewId=Z3A6QU9xcFRPRVl1MG5zcjgyZE15YkJyTnlnbkxmQURRR2RIY204eF9iMy1vSmt5ZW15SXJaWmJhdUFkUHhqZ2g1dzcwM2VJUFY0N2FwVHlCellKQ09oWFE) - it would be great if the app supported the Android media controls. Besides lock screen controls, it would also mean I could listen to Magnatune in my car via Bluetooth, and have it start/stop automatically when I get in/out, use the car stereo controls etc.
Posted by: Sam Stokes at Dec 15, 2012 1:25:15 PM
Hi Sam, I changed your password to all lower case, and then I was able to log in fine as you.
The problem *might* be mixed case. It's code that someone else wrote, that no longer works at Magnatune, and I'm in the process of replacing it, so my apologies...
At any rate, these problems will go away with the new magnatune rewrite.
Noted on the Android media controls, will prioritize that for the next version.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman at Dec 16, 2012 4:03:01 AM
As I said before, a fine app!. I installed it on my Android phone, but the new version also keeps on playing when get a phone call. This prevents me from using the app at work.
Posted by: Bjorn at Dec 16, 2012 1:03:08 PM
I missed tab 'collections'.
Posted by: android app developers at Dec 19, 2012 3:26:05 AM
Hi,
Bug in this app with Android 4.0.4 on Samsung Galaxy S2: if you put the app in background, by pressing the middle physical button of the phone, and then try to recall it in foreground, by pressing 2s on the middle button and selecting the app, it's black screen for a while before having the message "Magnatune has stopped". To relaunch, sometimes you have to go on the task manager to kill the remaining process before you can again launch the app.
But good work anyway, bugs are normal in the development phase.
Posted by: JC Castellani at Dec 19, 2012 9:49:22 AM
It mostly works for me, with a 12 character password including mixed case and digits.
One little problem: the "Settings" menu item always brings up the login screen (even though I'm already logged in), with the entries greyed out. Cannot do anything from that screen but "go back", so no settings for me. This is on Android 2.2.1 on LG Optimus V (model number VM670).
Posted by: Ian at Dec 27, 2012 3:07:36 PM
Great news. Thanks for your work. ;)
Is it free (as freedom) software ? Or only free (as free beer)?
Posted by: Paradoxe at Jan 25, 2013 4:21:35 AM
Free as in beer, I'm afraid the programmer I hired to do this doesn't want to open source it.
-john
Posted by: John Buckman at Jan 25, 2013 10:16:07 AM
