Standalone Music App

[slyfox 46]

On 04/05/2022 at 05:14, vferg said:

I came here immediately after finding this app a few hours ago but it looks like everyone already found it! This thing has made my week, it has been forever since I have liked a phone app this much. It's crazy how new it is yet still goes way above the others I have tried. I saw the developers name and quickly realized it's the same guy who created yatse so I fully expect this to get way better over time. If you go over to his support site he is taking requests for features and a lot of people have had success pretty quickly.

Which app are you referring to?

[mbc0 67]

38 minutes ago, slyfox said:

Which app are you referring to?

That will be Symfonium

[nospotify 149]

I feel like I am missing something. Since the recent revisions to Emby's server and Android app, the only difference I see with Symfonium is the still-missing-in-Emby ability to sort by Album Artist within a Genre. What else is everyone so excited by in Symfonium that Emby still lacks?

[slyfox 46]

I really want a dedicated Mac app that can add tracks to playlists. Like PlexAmp.

Edited May 24, 2022 by slyfox

[Tolriq 135]

17 hours ago, wordlover said:

I feel like I am missing something. Since the recent revisions to Emby's server and Android app, the only difference I see with Symfonium is the still-missing-in-Emby ability to sort by Album Artist within a Genre. What else is everyone so excited by in Symfonium that Emby still lacks?

Have you tested the app and checked the settings to make it like you like ? If yes and you still do not see a UI/UX/functions difference then yes you probably don't need an advanced music player and the Emby app can perfectly play music. Everyone have different needs.

[timlance 10]

Any progress on the Subsonic variant?

[FrostByte 5257]

If interested in lending your ideas, etc

 

[MistD 31]

I think most of us music lovers are just tired of asking at this point but here i am, bringing this topic back to life again ...

Music is the most important joy we have in our lives ... much more than movies sometimes.
It baffles me that the dev team don't give it the attention it deserves while it is literally the one thing we use everyday, sometimes several times a day, in our saddest or happiest moments.

I'm listening to music everyday in my car, multiple times a day, when i commute, while i'm working out ... or flipping that juicy meat on the BBQ. 
I still don't get it why a proper music solution is not even on the radar yet.

Are the devs putting some blindfolds on while coming up with all kind of justifications .... or it's just the economy of costs ?
I would literally PAY a lifetime add-on payment for a proper developed music "module" that includes a cool smartphone app. Take my money, now ! 

All the justifications i read so far are just ..... (i will keep it to myself)
While Emby's App "technically" work for music it makes it bloated and frustrating, a less desired music experience.
Like if i'm asking you to kick your tires every time before starting you car. From that point on ... you can drive it like any other car, right ? How long before you become infuriated ?

I don't need Movies and TV shows on my smartphone, maybe in just rare occasions while traveling ... i prefer to watch those on my tv BUT i need music on my smartphone and in my car EVERY SINGLE DAY.

At this point i'm just tired of it. I'm not that rich to afford Roon and if i have to pay a monthly subscription i will pay for Apple music and be done with it.
I will put my old CD collection in those dusty bins and be done.

It's just sad ....
 

[MistD 31]

IDEA

As a first starting point you can literally just "decouple" the Music functionality from the current smartphone app and just "paste" it into a dedicated music app.
I can live with that for a while until you start develop it further.

At least it is a small step into the right direction ... and you take it from there improving the interface, adding cool music focused features and so on.
I'm not a programmer but i assume you have the codebase already, so why not doing it ? I don't think should be that much work ... it's just a matter of "board" decision and realizing how important Music is in people's everyday lives.

 

Edited August 25, 2024 by MistD

[slyfox 46]

Just use Plexamp. Emby has a very long way to go in the music department. 

[MistD 31]

1 hour ago, slyfox said:

Just use Plexamp. Emby has a very long way to go in the music department. 

I think Emby's team did a better job server-side than Plex (ex: multi-artists, better UI in my opinion etc.). They just lack the desire and enthusiasm for a dedicated music app and i don't get it since i bet all of us are also avid music listeners (maybe more so than movies, i don't watch movies every single day ... music on the other hand )

I really love Emby with this one exception - Music. It's frustrating because i know it can become amazing, the best out there.

For Plex is the other way around: Except for their Plexamp ... everything else is worse.

Edited August 25, 2024 by MistD

[feerlessleadr 160]

Just use symfonium as has been suggested in countless other threads on this topic. Works great. 

[MistD 31]

19 minutes ago, feerlessleadr said:

Just use symfonium as has been suggested in countless other threads on this topic. Works great. 

I would if the developer develop an iOS version for it  . He is doing an amazing job, unfortunately - Android only. 

Edited August 25, 2024 by MistD

[feerlessleadr 160]

Just now, MistD said:

I would if the developer would develop an iOS version for it  . He is doing an amazing job, unfortunately - Android only. 

Fair point lol

[StewieGreen 159]

IMO - this ^ is the best argument for a stand alone music app.  There are no further options for music in the home screen, it's just the last things I loaded into Emby.  No genres, no last played album (only recently played song), no recently played artists, no artists you may be interested in etc etc etc.  Even the suggestion area of the music section only has recently add, last played and frequently played.  Music needs to be treated differently than tv and movies, most people do not listen to music like they watch movies or tv.

[user24 245]

If Emby do ever get to the stage of implementing a separate music app, then they need a cool new name, perhaps comparable with the competition?

• Plex has Plexamp (a good music theme)
• Roon has RoonARC (somewhat confusing with HDMI ARC)

As a bit of fun, here's some 3-letter options (in alphabetical order) to get Emby motivated!

• EmbyBPM
• EmbyEQX
• EmbyJam
• EmbyMix
• EmbyRPM

Yes, this is "putting the cart before the horse" but we definitely don't want EmbyLag in the marketplace.

[Luke 40082]

39 minutes ago, user24 said:

If Emby do ever get to the stage of implementing a separate music app, then they need a cool new name, perhaps comparable with the competition?

• Plex has Plexamp (a good music theme)
• Roon has RoonARC (somewhat confusing with HDMI ARC)

As a bit of fun, here's some 3-letter options (in alphabetical order) to get Emby motivated!

• EmbyBPM
• EmbyEQX
• EmbyJam
• EmbyMix
• EmbyRPM

Yes, this is "putting the cart before the horse" but we definitely don't want EmbyLag in the marketplace.

What would you like to see in a cool new theme? 

[seanbuff 1147]

5 minutes ago, Luke said:

What would you like to see in a cool new theme? 

They're asking for a name, not a theme 

[user24 245]

@Luke Sorry if I wasn't being clear enough. It was just meant to be a fun post! Generally I'm not too fussed about "themes" and like the Emby UI style a lot. It's simple, clean and generally very easy to navigate. Basic dark or light theme is fine for me.

I would tend to agree with the sentiment of what @MistD is advocating for though:

On 8/26/2024 at 3:05 AM, MistD said:

As a first starting point you can literally just "decouple" the Music functionality from the current smartphone app and just "paste" it into a dedicated music app.

This could be a good way to start and perhaps even eventually lead into a revenue-generating music-related Premiere-type offering later on??? While some people would be immediately wanting an "EmbyMax" solution, having nothing at all could be regarded by many as "EmbySUX" for music.

Slightly digressing from the OP request...(and being serious)... The Emby Server is good - but there are a lot of underlying examples (previously mentioned in other posts) where Movie/Video terminology and functionality does not align well (or even work) for Music (e.g. Studios vs Labels).

Some additional cross-referencing/linking in the UI would be great, to move away from mainly a 'tree-like structure' to being able to 'jump across the branches' directly.. E.g. in addition to the auto-generated "More Like This" section, having a user-customisable "Related Artists" section would be brilliant! I would write a plugin for this if I knew how to.

It would also be very nice to be able to show/hide/reorder the vertical sections on various pages/views. (Yes, it can be done with CSS now.) Being able to do this would enable more flexibility while potentially retaining a clean and simple Apple-like style.

I'm anticipating that the forthcoming "smart" features are going to give some good extra flexibility for customising music browsing and playback.

Overall the Emby team does a great job and ongoing improvements are always greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Edited October 29, 2024 by user24

[MistD 31]

6 hours ago, user24 said:

This could be a good way to start and perhaps even eventually lead into a revenue-generating music-related Premiere-type offering later on

Exactly. Personally, I would pay in a heartbeat for a music "module" (lifetime payment) that includes a native app on devices (smarthphone / TV).

Even Plex realized that "decoupling" major media types into their own dedicated apps it's way better and provides a future for such cool stuff down the road.
They did a cool job with Plexamp, now they are decoupling Photos and provide the Plex Photos app as standalone, while keeping the main Plex app video-centric. They get it !

It's simple: You can't really throw everything and the kitchen sink into an app and provide the same level of focus, cool media-type specific features compared to a dedicated focused experience. 

The problem is Emby doesn't have the courage (my 2 cents, no offense intended) to just be lean and just throw away excess "baggage" that are done poorly. I get, you try to compete with Plex / Jellyfin but you can be better than both of them, by focusing on just 2 things and doing them AMAZING well.

For the things I mention below, yes, some people will throw a tantrum and scream .... until they realize there are better "self-hosted" solutions out there :

1. Throw away Audiobooks - Emby it's light years behind Audiobookshelf and audiobooks needs also a special treatment similar to Music. No, you can't put them in the same bowl again.

2. Throw away Books - Any hardcore books fan out there who needs a server, needs also a book management platform with E-Reader integration / sync supporting all the major e-reader brands out there (Kindle, Kobo etc.). If Emby can't provide a proper book management platform with E-Readers integration ... why support books at all ?

3. Throw away Photos / Home Videos - There is Immich, look at what these guys are doing. Everything from the object / faces recognition with AI to the huge effort invested in the server, dedicated app etc. Emby will be playing catch-up forever and simply can't match their level of features and user experience.

What Emby can be the best at ?

A. Movies / TV Shows / Live TV

 - It's your golden expertise that you are doing exceptionally well. Not much to say. 

B. Music

- Server side the potential is there. UI/UX is cool, multi-artists are cool etc. 
- Music is the next best thing, implemented pretty well server-side

I would love to have a "lean" media server with just these 2 areas of expertise done exceptionally well. Let others do the "bloating" poorly.

There is so much that can be done with music:

- music dedicated Home Screen with music-centric suggestions and immersion pulling you further into personal library: artists, albums, songs, moods ... music played today last year, recommendations ... so much can be done
- multi-room: use the dedicated smartphone app to control and play music on various endpoints thru the house. 
- proper offline sync / download
...... I could continue a lot.

Anyway. I hope Emby will become more aware, lean and courageous.  Cheers ! 

[gong700 4]

所以，亲爱的emby什么时候开发独立音乐app

So, dear emby, when will you develop an independent music app？（ios）

[Fumetas 1]

Algo nuevo sobre esto?

He probado a usar Emby para reproducir música y he notado que por ejemplo en Spotify, cuando dejas de escuchar música y a las horas vuelves a abrir la aplicación, Spotify te sigue recordando en que canción y en que lista de reproducción has estado la ultima vez reproduciendo la cancion en el momento exacto cuando la paraste. Esta opción no la he encontrado en emby, cuando paro la cancion y a las horas vuelvo a abrir Emby, es como si nunca hubiera reproducido nada y tengo que empezar a reproducir la musica o la lista desde el principio.

[Luke 40082]

7 hours ago, Fumetas said:

Anything new on this?

I've tried using Emby to play music and I've noticed that on Spotify, for example, when you stop listening to music and reopen the app after hours, Spotify keeps reminding you of the song and playlist you were playing the last time you stopped. I haven't found this option in Emby; when I stop a song and reopen Emby after hours, it's as if I've never played anything and I have to start playing the music or playlist from the beginning.

Hi, yes that kind of thing is something that we plan to add. Thanks.

[Jägs 85]

Sorry to rehash this argument, but I still think it would be more straightforward to implement the Subsonic API than develop a separate music app:

There are at least a dozen iOS apps—and probably more Android ones—that support the API, so you'd be able to tap into an already vibrant development community.  That's the approach Navidrome took:

https://www.navidrome.org/docs/developers/subsonic-api/

Funkwhale as well:

https://docs.funkwhale.audio/developer/api/subsonic.html

Ampache:

https://ampache.org/api/subsonic/

And there was even an effort to build support in Jellyfin, though it's no longer maintained:

https://github.com/nvllsvm/jellysub

There are several others here as well:

https://github.com/basings/selfhosted-music-overview

Since development on Subsonic ceased years ago (one of the reasons why I'm using Emby for music), there has been a recent effort to support and expand the API:

https://github.com/owncloud/music/wiki/OpenSubsonic-API

[Tolriq 135]

The Subsonic API is outdated and ultra limited, the OpenSubsonic extensions https://github.com/opensubsonic/open-subsonic-api (That I created) fixes a lot of things, but it actually still not on par with what Emby can propose specially on the transcoding parts.

So while I'd love to see more servers supporting OpenSubsonic, this is clearly not yet a proper choice for Emby that have more to offer via it's own API.

And most of the old clients that only support Subsonic would look bad with Emby as missing too many things on the artists handling.