Google Music Beta

[MannyIsGod]

I just got an invite tonight and I'm uploading my entire music catalog. 6,000 songs on my shitty connection will probably take me quite some time (although if the upload works at school then it won't be so bad). It seems like Amazon cloud but instead of the 5 gig limit Amazon was pimping Google is letting me upload up to 20,000 songs (can't imagine how long that would take).

I've heard that the cloud services like this will of course be up for huge legal challenges but it seems pretty awesome with its integration with Android.

[Sense]

Just requested an invite.. looks promising

[Drachen]

I just got an invite tonight and I'm uploading my entire music catalog. 6,000 songs on my shitty connection will probably take me quite some time (although if the upload works at school then it won't be so bad). It seems like Amazon cloud but instead of the 5 gig limit Amazon was pimping Google is letting me upload up to 20,000 songs (can't imagine how long that would take).

I've heard that the cloud services like this will of course be up for huge legal challenges but it seems pretty awesome with its integration with Android.

So, uh, let me ask.... were all of you songs um... obtained, you know, uh legally?

[MannyIsGod]

A huge portion of them are legal. All? Eh...

[Drachen]

A huge portion of them are legal. All? Eh...

I haven't downloaded music (legal or otherwise) in a very long time, however, I am still nervous to put my collection up on one of these services.

[leemajors]

I haven't downloaded music (legal or otherwise) in a very long time, however, I am still nervous to put my collection up on one of these services.

Same here, I am looking forward to having my photos and videos taken on my phone in cloud storage, but I doubt I will put any of my music into iCloud when it starts.

[Agloco]

I just got an invite tonight and I'm uploading my entire music catalog. 6,000 songs on my shitty connection will probably take me quite some time (although if the upload works at school then it won't be so bad). It seems like Amazon cloud but instead of the 5 gig limit Amazon was pimping Google is letting me upload up to 20,000 songs (can't imagine how long that would take).

I've heard that the cloud services like this will of course be up for huge legal challenges but it seems pretty awesome with its integration with Android.

Dumb question, but does this keep the memory on your phone from getting bogged down? 6k songs is a lot and probably doesn't fit right?

Kinda like a remote terabyte HD that you can access stuff from as if it was on your device?

[spurs_2108]

I got an invite last thursday and still currently uploading my music. I have a total of 19488 uploading and 7152 have finished... It takes a long time. The way the app works on your phone is, it actually downloads the song to your phone so you can listen to it. It doesn't stream it to the phone. It saves the song as cache and then i believe the songs are deleted.There is an option in the settings saying cache music:temporarily store streamed music. So if you have it checked It stores it on your phone temporarily. If its unchecked it wont take up storage. I believe this is correct.

[Nathan Explosion]

I got an invite last thursday and still currently uploading my music. I have a total of 19488 uploading and 7152 have finished... It takes a long time. The way the app works on your phone is, it actually downloads the song to your phone so you can listen to it. It doesn't stream it to the phone. It saves the song as cache and your able to delete all the "saved" songs that have been downloaded to clear up memory. So if you listen to 20 songs in a row, it will download all of them and take up phone storage, but your able to delete those 20 songs to clear storage.

Sounds like the iCloud service. I wish there was streaming option as well instead of just downloading. If I wanted the songs on my phone, I'd put them on there instead of my iPod.

But I imagine Apple and Google (or really the carriers) decided that the data usage would jump through the roof.

[Nathan Explosion]

Just saw your edit Spurs, and if that's correct, then that's a little better. It's not a big deal to just delete songs after a while, but a streaming service would be a nice option as well, although Pandora wouldn't be too fond of it.

[MannyIsGod]

It only keeps a cache but I believe it plays while it streams. It starts up way too fast to download the entire file before it plays. A cache is different than actually downloading it and saving it forever. In essence its doing exactly what a web browser does.

[spurs_2108]

Another interesting thing is if you click on an artist, then on their cd, and play a song on the cd, it will download most, if not all of the tracks. So its not everything time you click on a song and want to hear it, that it downloads, it downloads the cd when you play a song off of it. Hope that makes sense.

I'm trying to see at what point does it delete the "temporarily" songs off my phone. I'm doing a test by playing a few cds and having most of the cd download to my phone. I saw that I had 1.92 gb left of storage on my phone and have clicked on a few cds leaving me with 1.78 gb left now. I have "cache music" selected also. I stop the song and close the program. I'm going to see how long the songs are saved on my phone. If the songs still stay on the phone I guess the only way to get rid of the songs that are saved is by unchecking "cache music"

[Nathan Explosion]

I don't buy music on iTunes so I don't have much music to put on my phone, although my Radiohead cd pops up in my purchased music, even though I bought it off their site. I think you can download individual songs and whole CDs, but again, I have an 80 gb iPod so why would I do that. I think it's cool that Google and Apple are doing these things without having a separate app to use the service. Ultimately though, it means nothing to me. :)

[spurs_2108]

I have a lot of music obviously. I have a 30 gb creative zen vision m. And the day that it dies I'm going to cry. I've had it for about 5 years. Its held up pretty well. So on it I have the music I listen to the most. Its nice having googles music program to have all my music with me and not just 30 gb.

[MannyIsGod]

Yeah - I have been carrying music on my SD card just because I do't like having to carry my Ipod classic too so I hope this works out.

[MannyIsGod]

The big issue I've found so far has to do with battery drainage. My battery tends to go pretty fast when using this service. I'd imagine data usage is high as well.

[Agloco]

The big issue I've found so far has to do with battery drainage. My battery tends to go pretty fast when using this service. I'd imagine data usage is high as well.

What phone are you using? I just got an EVO 3d and the battery is supposedly an issue already.

[MannyIsGod]

I'm currently using an HTC Hero. The battery is an issue on all smart phones. Normally with pretty decent usage I get a 14-16 hour day before I get down to 20% but an hour of Google Music in the morning dropped me to 20% after 6 hours of use.

[ElNono]

Sounds like the iCloud service. I wish there was streaming option as well instead of just downloading. If I wanted the songs on my phone, I'd put them on there instead of my iPod.

iCloud works for free with the music you've purchased from iTunes. And you can place only what you want on any given device.

For music you didn't purchase through iTunes, they offer a 'iTunes match' service for $25/year that will match the music you have and basically add it as purchased from iTunes, so you can download it on every device and you don't have the upload your gazillion songs. Songs that the service cannot match are uploaded.

[Nathan Explosion]

Yeah, I know about the match. But I don't want music on my phone, hence why I'd like a streaming option.

[ElNono]

I just think it's weird that's not offered as an option considering a lot of people use apps like Pandora, which is 100% streaming. I guess they feel you should be able to access your music even when there's no internet connection around.

[baseline bum]

With storage and raw processing power as cheap as it is, I cannot at all understand the appeal of going back to the 1950s model of dumb terminals accessing servers to do their work and store their data. I mean if you have to do really elaborate calculations like modeling weather, a fire, or other computationally expensive processes and can't afford to buy the hardware to get the job done, I get it. But for everyday shit like listening to music or editing documents?

[ChumpDumper]

True, my lossless collection is reaching about 200GB; I don't think flash type storage is too far off from that capacity. This service doesn't even use FLAC files and will probably work at a less than ideal bitrate much of the time and all that would still count against any limited data plan. I can see how it could appeal to some people though.

[SourCandy]

Figured this was just like dropbox.

[spurs_2108]

I do believe you can upload flac files to google music.

[MannyIsGod]

With storage and raw processing power as cheap as it is, I cannot at all understand the appeal of going back to the 1950s model of dumb terminals accessing servers to do their work and store their data. I mean if you have to do really elaborate calculations like modeling weather, a fire, or other computationally expensive processes and can't afford to buy the hardware to get the job done, I get it. But for everyday shit like listening to music or editing documents?

Storage isn't a problem on certain devices but you really can't go over 32 gigs on a a phone. And at some point people would rather not carry around another device just for music. I think accessing it from a home computer is dumb, but otherwise having that storage you just mentioned accessible anywhere is actually fairly amazing. Thats the main problem with the analogy you used. Dumb terminals themselves in the past were only in specific locations. Now they are literally everywhere.

[MannyIsGod]

Dupe

[Drachen]

Storage isn't a problem on certain devices but you really can't go over 32 gigs on a a phone. And at some point people would rather not carry around another device just for music. I think accessing it from a home computer is dumb, but otherwise having that storage you just mentioned accessible anywhere is actually fairly amazing. Thats the main problem with the analogy you used. Dumb terminals themselves in the past were only in specific locations. Now they are literally everywhere.

To piggyback off of this, I don't believe the draw of such services is processing power or even the storage that they offer. The value of such services is accessibility (This also goes for uploading documents, etc to my dropbox). I have all of my music on my 2TB NAS, and it has resided there for a while. It is very rare that I add to that collection so it is not growing and busting the seams of the NAS or anything, but if I want to access that music while outside of my house, I have to preplan, decide that I want to listen to some music that day, and copy the type of music I want to listen to onto my laptop (or phone, or nook) before I leave my house in the morning, then hope that my taste doesn't change before 3 pm. I love my pandora, but there are somethings it doesn't play and I like so many types of music that it is a pain in the ass to create a whole ream stations that are narrowly defined to cater to my every whim.

[Drachen]

I will say this, if I had to time to install and learn dd-wrt onto my router, I would just do that and set up a VPN and create my own "cloud."

[baseline bum]

The more I think about, the more I think cloud computing might make sense in the long term. My beef with it now is that hardware is cheap and storage capacity is increasing at an incredible rate, so why ask a server permission to do something with my data and depend on google to store it when I can do it cheaply while actually possessing, though maybe not owning, the physical representation? The counter is that Moore's Law cannot continue indefinitely, as eventually process size will become so small that quantum effects will ruin it all. Since Moore's Law is the backbone of cheap computing, it stands to reason that hardware will start getting expensive again at some point in the future. I wonder how close we are to that time though, and whether the diminishing returns on things like increasing HD-resolution for video will overtake the desire for one to own and control the physical representation. The popularity of Netflix probably answers that last question I guess.

[ChumpDumper]

I do believe you can upload flac files to google music.I read it converts them to mp3s. It would be nice if people who used it could tell what bitrates they are getting -- if they can get that information.

[Sense]

I got this... not sure what to do with it..

[spurs_2108]

http://www.google.com/support/music/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1100462&topic=1100183

* FLAC files are transcoded to 320kbps mp3 Yeah your right.

I'm not sure you can see the bitrate. I'm looking for it now. Cant find it.

[MannyIsGod]

I can't see the bitrate but the sound quality is great through my 30 dollar ear buds. A more discriminating ear through better cans would probably be able to tell better, though.

[koriwhat]

i love this shit! all my mix tapes on it is badass... i ain't putting no copyright shit up on there though.

[leemajors]

Your mixtapes don't use copyrighted material?

[koriwhat]

Your mixtapes don't use copyrighted material?

possibly, actually i suppose most of them do considering they mix things in. fuck it! it is what it is, why you getting all cocky and shit and trying to act like you're 1 uppin' anyone here on ST? i hate that shit and it seems to be the norm around here with all you little pussies.

[dirk4mvp]

crofl koritwat gets a fresh wet turd planted on his face in every forum he posts in.

[koriwhat]

crofl koritwat gets a fresh wet turd planted on his face in every forum he posts in.

it could be worse, i could be a redheaded faggot like yourself, better yet i could feather my hair and wear it over one eye like all the girls do. actually, damn, my day just got better.

[MannyIsGod]

Koriwhat critiquing other's hair? Thats some shit.

[koriwhat]

Koriwhat critiquing other's hair? Thats some shit.

let's critique weight or better yet facades because i know you love to front. fake motherfucker!

[dirk4mvp]

lol koriwhat considers himself handsome, which takes confidence with that fat wet turd smeared on his face.

[redzero]

True, my lossless collection is reaching about 200GB; I don't think flash type storage is too far off from that capacity. This service doesn't even use FLAC files and will probably work at a less than ideal bitrate much of the time and all that would still count against any limited data plan. I can see how it could appeal to some people though.

What kind of speakers do you use?

[ChumpDumper]

Nothing special; just sensitive to lossy formats when it comes artifacts.

[koriwhat]

lol koriwhat considers himself handsome, which takes confidence with that fat wet turd smeared on his face.

anything is better than being a red headed pos like yourself... faggot with your little girl haircut... i don't give a fuck that i sport long hair, i don't style my shit and don't care too, it's cool if you do but god damn, girls were sportin' that same faggot look back when i was in middle school. i guess your mother had to find out sooner or later that you're a queer, i wonder if the hair gave it away or the dick in your ass?

[dirk4mvp]

fat wet turd smeared everywhere.

[koriwhat]

fat wet turd smeared everywhere.

we've all seen your photo, we know.

[dirk4mvp]

we've all seen your photo, we know.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs007.snc3/11457_1127022667955_1598848008_30321909_7072746_n. jpg

which one of these faggots slid it in your ass that night?

[koriwhat]

dude, seriously, calling me a faggot is only masking your own insecurities... go borrow your mother's products and her flat iron and get to work little batty boi!

oh and don't forget the tight girl skinny jeans and your cool bracelets and whatnot... accessories are key for you're little queer ass. also, make sure you get your pirate on and brush your hair over one of your eyes, i know how you queer's do these days.

[dirk4mvp]

dude, seriously, calling me a faggot is only masking your own insecurities...



:lmao

:lmao

:lmao

calling other posters is a faggot is your only defense so what are you talking about?



btw I'm betting it was the wannabe ###### with dreads that slid it in the back. Have you fucked up giving any of those guys tattoos?

lol can't draw stars

[Dr. Gonzo]

koriwhat, you have pretty hair.

[koriwhat]

btw I'm betting it was the wannabe ######...

only some stupid fuckin' redheaded bieber would be dumb enough to spout this bs here... i'd love to see you get your face kicked in but you don't have the balls to say shit like this in public and i'll bet everything on it too.


koriwhat, you have pretty hair.

thanks, i guess... :lmao

[dirk4mvp]

:lmao faggot with hair down to his ass hanging with a bunch of random dipshits

[Viva Las Espuelas]

I will say this, if I had to time to install and learn dd-wrt onto my router, I would just do that and set up a VPN and create my own "cloud."

Can you expand on this a bit?

[MannyIsGod]

He's talking about installing custom firmware onto his router in order to make a home PC a server he can use as a "cloud". In other words, stream from his home server etc etc.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Yeah, I got that. Just want to know which program etc.

[Drachen]

He's talking about installing custom firmware onto his router in order to make a home PC a server he can use as a "cloud". In other words, stream from his home server etc etc.

Yes and no. I strive to never leave a computer on when not in use. Additionally, all of my music/movies are saved on my network attached storage (a WD myworldbook). Vpn access will allow me to access everything on my network remotely as if I was at home.
Ddwrt is a custom firmware which replaces your routers firmware and one of its features is allowing for vpn access. I, however, don't have much time in my life to mess with it. (7 month pregnant wife, grad school, work, non-embryonic children, and job search take priority)

[koriwhat]

I, however, don't have much time in my life to mess with it. (7 month pregnant wife, grad school, work, non-embryonic children, and job search take priority)

don't forget spurstalk...

[Drachen]

don't forget spurstalk...

(I do that while doing other things.... LOL)

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Great. Out of all the routers out there, mine isn't supported. It had instructions to find out by other means but I don't feel like doing it or even reading what I'd have to do.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Great. Out of all the routers out there, mine isn't supported. It had instructions to find out by other means but I don't feel like doing it or even reading what I'd have to do.

I found an article that allows me to do this(dd-wrt) by plugging in another wireless router into my unsupported wireless router. I'll see if it works.

[MannyIsGod]

Why would you want to have two routers? Is one your broadband modem with a built in router?

[Spurminator]

I have about 20K songs on here so far. I don't like that it automatically uploads everything from your library without first asking if there are specific artists/playlists you want uploaded, but I'm working on organizing it.

So far, loving it, and considering switching from iPhone to Android for the sole purpose of accessing it on my phone.

[koriwhat]

Why would you want to have two routers? Is one your broadband modem with a built in router?

repeater

[koriwhat]

I have about 20K songs on here so far. I don't like that it automatically uploads everything from your library without first asking if there are specific artists/playlists you want uploaded, but I'm working on organizing it.

So far, loving it, and considering switching from iPhone to Android for the sole purpose of accessing it on my phone.

i use it on my ipad though the controls are very laggy

[Heath Ledger]

when u get it can u send an invite? id like one if you can. i did sign up with google how long does it take?

[cheguevara]

damn all these services. the 2nd dotcom bubble is coming guys. the 2nd bubble is coming...

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Why would you want to have two routers? Is one your broadband modem with a built in router?


Great. Out of all the routers out there, mine isn't supported.


.....Into my unsupported wireless router.

[MannyIsGod]

Yeah but why wouldn't you just replace it with the new router instead of hooking them both up?

[Viva Las Espuelas]

I have uverse.

[NASpurs]

I have uverse.

I have uverse as well.

I connected my second router as an access point to the 2wire router supplied by AT&T and it's working like a charm. I just turn off the wireless on the 2wire router, using it as a modem basically and connect to my 2nd router.

[Nathan Explosion]

Why wouldn't you just use the new router to replace the old one? I don't have Uverse, so maybe it has something to do with that, but it seems like a logical question that someone else also asked.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

The router provided is used as a hub for everything. I'm thinking it's a vital part of processing the tv signal as well as the Internet. Haven't really investigated my assumption but being that someone else made an article showing you have to hook up another router, I felt it was safe to think that the router provided is essential in continuing my uverse experience.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

I have uverse as well.

I connected my second router as an access point to the 2wire router supplied by AT&T and it's working like a charm. I just turn off the wireless on the 2wire router, using it as a modem basically and connect to my 2nd router.

So you've had no problems? Did you it set up a dd-wrt on it as well?

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Also do you have the gray or black router? A buddy of mine has the black one but I didn't get the model number. Wanted to see what it could do.

[NASpurs]

I stole this from another forum but this guy explains it better than I ever could.


Uverse is IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), which is delivered to your home in four streams of internet packets. The packets are then sent to the stbs in your home where they are decoded and displayed on your televisions. The RG (Residential Gateway) is what receives the services from the outside world and brings them in to your home. The cables used to connect the RG to your STBs (Set Top Boxes) can either be coax, Cat5, or a combination of the two.

That RG (Residential Gateway) is the "router" that we've been mentioning in this thread. You can't disconnect it because everything goes through it and unplugging it would disable the services. What I did though, I just disabled the wireless signal it sends and connected my wireless router (wired)through the back of the RG.

Anyway my router is much more powerful than the router the RG provides which is why I disabled it.

[NASpurs]

So you've had no problems? Did you it set up a dd-wrt on it as well?

I have a separate Linksys WRT54G router with dd-wrt installed.

Are you looking to install dd-wrt or some other custom firmware for your router? If dd-wrt isn't supported, you can also look if it supports Tomato.

I have a black RG.

[NASpurs]

Waaait, I'm a little confused reading this thread. Are you trying to install dd-wrt on the 2wire router provided by AT&T? There's no way you can do that. You would have to get another router that supports dd-wrt or Tomato and piggy back on the 2wire router. Just making sure that's what's going on.

[leemajors]

Uverse is a bitch about replacing boxes, I cannot make any headway in getting new gear and it's been about three years. I am assuming the black one is the newer hardware?

[NASpurs]

I've been with the service for three or four months so I really can't tell you if the black one is the newer model but I can tell you the model # if you want, it's 3801HGV.

[leemajors]

I've been with the service for three or four months so I really can't tell you if the black one is the newer model but I can tell you the model # if you want, it's 3801HGV.

Thanks, I knew there was new hardware and what you have is likely it. We have a bitch of a time with the DVR in my roomate's room sometimes.

[MannyIsGod]

RE Uverse modem/router - You should be able to set up some sort of pass through/modem only mode to where it works as a regular cable/DSL modem and then your router functions normally. In that mode I assume it would still send the appropriate signals to your STBs but since I don't have any direct experience with Uverse I can't be sure.

The important point is that it won't be functioning as a router but just a modem.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Waaait, I'm a little confused reading this thread. Are you trying to install dd-wrt on the 2wire router provided by AT&T? There's no way you can do that. You would have to get another router that supports dd-wrt or Tomato and piggy back on the 2wire router. Just making sure that's what's going on.
yes. that's what's going on with me. so which one is better? dd-wrt or tomato? sorry, i'm being lazy here :D

[NASpurs]

yes. that's what's going on with me. so which one is better? dd-wrt or tomato? sorry, i'm being lazy here :D

First, I think it depends on whether you actually have the option depending on your second router but by pure choice, I couldn't tell you. I've been using dd-wrt for years now and it's great but I haven't been able to use Tomato on my router since it's not supported. Some people will stand by Tomato and others will stand by dd-wrt. I wish I could try Tomato out to tell you the truth. I hear good things about it.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

yeah. i'd planned on making sure the new router was supported. you made the second reference to tomato i've seen. i thought it was a nickname for dd-wrt for some reason. i'll have to check it out now. thanks.

oh, and are you having any problems with that hub? i looked it up and it looks like it's giving a lot of people grief.

[NASpurs]

I think the wise thing to do is pick out a router first and then look if either or both of the firmwares are supported. After doing some reading on Tomato, you can't go wrong with it either although some of the information I read is that it doesn't support 802.11n right out of the bat without some modified firmware. Not sure how up to date that information is. Just don't skimp out on the ram if you do heavy networking, internet usage at home.

The hub runs great about 97% of the time except of the occasion stutter/lock-up with the guide. Other than that, it's been good but that's probably because I heard if you really fill up the DVR, it'll start to really suffer. I usually don't have my DVR filled to the brim though.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

thanks, man. i'll check all that out. i'm not going to, or not planning on, doing heavy networking with it.

[IronMaxipad]

You need to put your 2wire into Bridge mode if you want it to act as a modem only.

[koriwhat]

i picked up a linksys wrt54gs v4 the other day for $3.99 at thrift town, put dd-wrt on it and put it into repeater mode. shit's legit and easy as hell to do. when it's time to replace my router(hooked up to TW), i will use it the same way as that linksys since it's newer and supports n-band.

[leemajors]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/27/google-music-now-lets-you-download-your-entire-library/


Computer meltdown? No backup? Well, at least your tunes are safe. Google Music just gained a new feature that lets you to download your entire library including purchased songs. A simple click in the Music Manager is all it takes to restore your entire collection -- or just your purchased music -- from the cloud. In addition, the web interface now allows you to select and copy multiple tracks to your device of choice. While there are no limitations when using the Music Manager, purchased items are restricted to two downloads each via the web interface. So next time your system crashes go right ahead -- rev up that broadband and fill up those hard drives.