Earlier today the guys over at MP3tunes contacted us about their software. What it does, basically, is store your MP3s server-side and stream them to your device where they are played back using the MP3tunes app. Nothing new, nothing special, you might say. Well, that’s true except they threw in a promo code (valid through 04/05/2010) that lets users upgrade from the 2gb free version to the 50gb paid version at no cost (regular subscription costs are $39.99/year). Other neat features include automatic syncing with your iTunes library or folders on your computer, including flash videos. Alternatively you can transcode content from websites and blogs, thus avoiding the need to download content before accessing it.
The catch? Well of course the coupon is only good for the first year of service and streaming to a device only works with the paid service, but hey, for a year it’s too good a deal to pass up and they do not require you to submit your card information until your subscription is actually up for renewal in a year from now.
Here the full press release, including the promo code:
An Android based phone is a capable digital companion with seamless wireless access to calendar, contacts, email, and photos directly from the cloud. The biggest hole is music – where the only provided software is a simple music player. Given iTunes’ huge popularity there needs to be a way to get an iTunes library onto an Android based phone as elegantly as those other digital data types. You should be able to stream any song from your iTunes collection over any data connection (1G, 3G or wifi). In addition you should be able to download songs wirelessly directly to your handset for permanent local storage.
By combining a cloud music service with some new Android software, an iTunes on Android experience is now possible that even surpasses what an iPhone can do. Here’s the steps to get your iTunes music to your Android phone:
- Sign-up for a free MP3tunes account to warehouse your personal music collection here. (Read below to see how you can get 50gbs of storage for free**.)
- Download and install the free LockerSync software which will gather your personal music collection from iTunes and load it into the cloud. Besides your music it will also capture playlists which can be useful. If you’ve got a big music collection you can schedule the sync to run in off-peak hours when your PC is idle and your network connection is untapped. Once the initial sync is complete you can leave the software running and it will automatically add any new tracks loaded to your PC into your cloud storage. If you’ve got music on multiple computers you can run this software on each and you’ll end up with one complete collection with no duplicates.
- From the Android market install the App called MP3tunes and login with your MP3tunes credentials. Then you’ll be able to browse your entire iTunes song library and play songs and playlists.
TIPS:
- Download any song from the cloud to your device by clicking the menu button and selecting “Download”. This will download in the background a high fidelity version of the song storing it locally for future playback.
- Songs stored on your memory card will be combined with cloud based songs displaying one meta collection. Songs will always play from local storage if available in both places to save battery and minimize network lag.
- The app will always prefetch the next song in a playlist to allow for snappy fast forwarding.
- You may notice differences in audio quality. This is dependent on the bandwidth speed you have. Slower connections will automatically have lower quality audio files.
- If you have music files on your Android phone you can load them to the could by selecting “Upload” from the menu or long clicking on a song title.
** Normally the free account is capped at 2GBs however there is a special coupon code:Â itunesonandroid which will get you 50GBs of storage for free (normal cost is $39.95). Go here:Â mp3tunes.com/itunesonandroid, type your email/password, and click the “Buy” button. The coupon code expires 4/5/10.
