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.

Comments

[ThomasC]

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"?

[Luke]

I just miss tab "Collections" :)

[Mark Stosberg]

Thanks John and Paul!

[David Phillips]

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.

[David]

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?

[John Buckman]

"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

[Bjorn]

Thanks, a fine app. Would be nice if it stopped playing when someone calls.
-Bjorn

[Robert R.]

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~

[John Buckman]

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

[Sam Stokes]

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.

[John Buckman]

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

[Bjorn]

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.

[android app developers]

I missed tab 'collections'.

[JC Castellani]

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.

[Ian]

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).

[Paradoxe]

Great news. Thanks for your work. ;)

Is it free (as freedom) software ? Or only free (as free beer)?

[John Buckman]

Free as in beer, I'm afraid the programmer I hired to do this doesn't want to open source it.

-john

[Brad]

Wow i have to say i admire your initiative. Love the concept and I agree wholeheartedly on the reasons for being (I'm an amateur musician myself). If I can be of any help, ever, on any Android development or other issue, please feel free to contact me at the email above.

Thanks again!
Brad

[Conan]

I realize almost two years have gone by since this blog post, but is there a plan to expand this Android app to include downloading? I'd like to easily download a song or album and add it to my phone's music library so that I don't have to stream Magnatune music every time I play it (saving my bandwidth, your bandwidth, and my battery). It would also save me from the stability issues that I sometimes have with the current app, because then I could play them from any player.