Author Topic: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!  (Read 3953 times)

backyardfeast

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Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« on: August 30, 2015, 04:38:12 PM »
Ok, hopefully I won't sound like I'm 80 and technologically out of touch, but I have gotten into a tech rut which is starting to interfere with my cheap home entertainment.  I'm hoping ultra-hip but not gadget-obsessed mustachians can help! :)

Way back when, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I used to find out about a new band, and go to the record store and buy a cassette tape.  Then, later, I bought cds.  Then I would only pick up a cd occasionally at a concert.  Several years ago, DH transferred our cd collection to various hard drives around the house, and we use various devices to access the music at home and stream it through a nice receiver/speaker system.

The problem now, though, is what to do about new music and podcasts?  Now, when I find a new artist I like, their music is online.  I do stream music and podcasts through my laptop.  But I need a system to download music/podcasts to be able to listen offline, whether accessible to our receiver system at home (which could be accessed through a flash drive), or to my car.  In the car, I have an audio jack (and I'll double check whether it has a usb port) and a cd player.  I have an Android smartphone.

I know if I had an iphone, ipod, or used itunes, all of this would be easy.  But we are an Apple-free household, which is one of the things that has stalled me.  So...help!  Is there an awesome app that I can use to download music/podcasts to my phone and a way to then play them through my car speakers? I don't want the content to sit on my phone accessible only through earbuds--I never use them.  Should I be just downloading mp3 files to a flash drive and then plugging it in from various places?  I would like a nice interface, which a flash drive doesn't have.  I feel like I should be making way better use of my fancy phone, which at the moment has no apps! Lol.

Thanks for helping me out of my tech rut and getting into the 21st century!

JLee

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2015, 04:56:09 PM »
I have decided to splurge and pay $9.99/mo for Google's music service (mostly because I'm in Canada all summer and there's no Pandora here). You can download stuff for offline listening and they also have 'radio' stations that play similar music to a chosen artist. There's a 30 day free trial, if you want to check it out.

geekette

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2015, 05:46:45 PM »
Here's a list of "the best" podcast players, and here's a list of "the best" music players from Android Central.

I can't say I know anything about them because we're an Apple household.

Epry123

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2015, 06:18:21 PM »
YouTube mp3 convertor. Or is that that technically stealing?

backyardfeast

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2015, 08:53:27 PM »
Thanks for those links, geekette; I'll check them out.  Anyone have any favorites out there?

JLee, that's interesting about Google music service; I didn't know that existed!  Ideally I'm hoping to find something for free, but I'll have a look.

Epry, interesting..... I'm still really looking for a way to manage the content, though, rather than just access it.

Thanks all, keep the ideas coming!

JLee

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2015, 08:54:34 PM »
Thanks for those links, geekette; I'll check them out.  Anyone have any favorites out there?

JLee, that's interesting about Google music service; I didn't know that existed!  Ideally I'm hoping to find something for free, but I'll have a look.

Epry, interesting..... I'm still really looking for a way to manage the content, though, rather than just access it.

Thanks all, keep the ideas coming!

If you were in the States and had Amazon Prime, you could also use the streaming service bundled with Prime - unfortunately it's not available in Canada. :(

JimLahey

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2015, 03:14:18 AM »
I recommend the Pocket Casts app. It costs a few bucks but is the best podcast app out there IMO. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts&hl=en
You can stream the podcasts or download them and listen to them offline. For music I pay for Google Play Music. Spotify is good too but i've found that certain artists I like have more music available on Google Play. Like the podcast app you can stream or download the music to listen to offline. You can also upload music from your library to Google Play. There are different stations you can check out to find new artists and you can create your own based on your taste in music.

backyardfeast

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2015, 07:36:08 PM »
Thanks for the tip, JimLahey (great name btw).  A couple of questions to all: do I need a separate app for podcasts and music?  Or is there something that will do both reasonably well?

Second, can I use google play without a subscription?  With more limited features, I would understand?

JimLahey

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Re: Help me Get more music and podcasts into my life!
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2015, 08:42:38 PM »
Thanks for the tip, JimLahey (great name btw).  A couple of questions to all: do I need a separate app for podcasts and music?  Or is there something that will do both reasonably well?

Second, can I use google play without a subscription?  With more limited features, I would understand?

I'm sure there is one but none that I have used. Podcast Addict is another podcast app that I have used and it is free. There is a free version of Google Play but I believe it's streaming only though. There is a free version of Spotify as well.