Aesthetically simple/pleasing Music Software?

I thought it's been a while since I looked into whether there were any good music apps that are under-rated or unheard of? iTunes is a horrid bloated mess these days (especially on iPhone) and I'd love to have something that more resembled a traditional music collection where you could flip between genres and see album covers rather than a database. I don't want a screen filed with dozens of rows of words and numbers and stars and menus or orphaned tracks with "Unknown" all over the place.

Just the ability to browse through the full albums in my itunes collection so I could click and scroll between a couple hundred pictures of eg Beatles or Jimi Hendrix albums.

Anything like that out there?

Roon is the consensus choice amongst audiophiles.

I’ve used it in a high end store- it’s fabulous.

It does cost though, but for those who invest in it, they absolutely love it

.....and it is pretty hungry on the server side.

Not that someone thinks that a simple tablet will do the job.

MM

I have had Roon over a year and used it most nights of the week and it is indeed solid and well constructed software but is it aesthetically simple and pleasing? I’m not so sure. I have been playing with the Moment and I’m beginning to feel a stronger pull to the Moment’s software which is to my eyes simpler, cleaner and connects more emotionally. Complication if not aggressively reined in and well hidden is the enemy of aesthetics. There are too many pages on Roon and the queue functionality is confusing even now for my wife and I. It’s not intuitive. To my mind the less the software requires fiddling and the faster it makes you sit back down to listen, the better. The Roon software makes you to fiddle with it and draws out the ADHD in you. I don’t like the way you have to tap the option button and then select radio and the swipe more and then tap and the general appearance is cumbersome on the iPhone. Despite this, I still think Roon is stellar but I’m slowly falling in love with Moment’s software. Sadly, Moment was awful for a long time and has only now just reached stability and maturity. If they could allow Moment’s software to run on an iPhone or Android, I think it would rise to fame. If I had to pick one for life based on aesthetics, simplicity and pleasing on the eye, I’d probably take the Moment over Roon. Now that surprises me as I was a Roon fanatic for ages.

https://youtu.be/43QTgzzYjWw

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I had vaguely thought about getting a moment but for a long time much of the functionality was overkill for my needs given that I don't have a multiroom setup and more interested in physical media than subscription net services. I may see if I can pick one up second hand though.

I guess the original question was for when I want to browse music on my phone or on my laptop when I'm working. I was trying to show a friend an album on my phone yesterday and itunes on that is dreadful, worse than what the ipod had a decade ago. The version on Mac is not much better, trying to browse things on that reminds me of a CRM system at workm it's just not pleasant.

Years ago, B&O had an app that could access the music on your iPhone. I much preferred that to the iTunes. Shame it disappeared. If anyone knows how to get that App back I’d be a very happy man.

PLEX is very good to my point of view.

With it I can not only smartly browse and play my DLNA collection with a mobile app, a web UI or a TV app, but I can also access it remotely and cast it to the location I’m in assuming there is a cast or AP facility, or I can sync selected content to my smartphone for off line listening.

Where did the Beoplayer App for iPhone go?

Can you get it back?

l

A good question that sadly I don't have an answer to. iTunes has been getting steadily worse ever since they got rid of coverflow. I often wonder if the purveyors of this kind of application have ever even heard the phrase human factors engineering.

The interface to my Auralic is OK, not stunning, but sparse and efficient. Wouldn't mind something more eye appealing but at least it's far better than iTunes.

I still have the BeoPlayer app on my iPhone 4 with my BeoSound 8!! 

Apple are about to split up iTunes into a separate Music, Podcasts, Movies/TV apps on the Mac.....more in line with iOS.

That will make iTunes much less bloated, in theory at least.

For what it's worth.

 

 

seethroughyou:

Years ago, B&O had an app that could access the music on your iPhone. I much preferred that to the iTunes. Shame it disappeared. If anyone knows how to get that App back I’d be a very happy man.

If I recall you had to (well I did) pay for that app too

You can access the music on your iPhone now through the B&O app that you use on your iPhone

Click Music and scroll all the way to the bottom

Aussie Michael:

If I recall you had to (well I did) pay for that app too

You can access the music on your iPhone now through the B&O app that you use on your iPhone

Click Music and scroll all the way to the bottom

Aussie Michael:

If I recall you had to (well I did) pay for that app too

You can access the music on your iPhone now through the B&O app that you use on your iPhone

Click Music and scroll all the way to the bottom

I can’t find this access to my iPhone library. This is all I get...

That’s coz you’re in the settings menu (wrong bit) 👍🏻

It’s in the main screen

Gone back out of settings to product page. No sign of music.

You can’t play local content only within the B&O app:

LOL you need a Moment for the music to appear in the app, or at least a multiroom product. Starting with the M3. But to someone with the BL90 that is cruel :-)

Sad. The old B&O app allowed you to play local content away from home and without a B&O device.

Prob cos you’re not signed in to any music service like tune in or deezer through the app. That’s how it looks from your settings page

In settings > iTunes library have you enabled it

Appreciate your advice Aussie M. Yes, I’ve had both iTunes and Deezer enabled with subscription active on Deezer. Only let’s you access if you own a B&O device. The previous app could be bought and used even if you didn’t have a B&O device. The B&O website is clear - local iTunes can’t be accessed by the App at present. Thanks anyway.

No worries. Just trying to help as it works for me. And I’m on the latest version of the app.

That old app/BeoPlayer was made for an iDevice with a cabled (correct: docked) connection to e.g. the BS8.

It was a player app. Since there is no dock option on any B&O device (long gone) there is no need for that anymore.

It only runs on older iOS versions and only works if you already have it installed there.

It was an iPhone app and does not look pretty on an iPad. The radio service used only provides relatively low quality streams.

 

The current app is a control app - made to manage content and settings on the B&O NL devices.

 

The BL90 is a speaker - thus you will need a player device (like the BS Core) connected to the 90’s for the Bang & Olufsen app to work.

Using the local content on the iDevice is no problem - just enable this and it will appear in the app.....as shown in the screenshots.

If you like the way the local files are presented there, there is no way getting around having a BeoSound in the mix (a BeoSound in the mix has always been a good idea by the way).

 

Some years ago the app/apps from Creation 5 was a big hit - maybe they can be used?

There is CC and AP support amongst others.

Hoe about using a BeoSound Encore with the 90’s for a standalone setup - nice user interface and access to radio stations - you can either hook it up to a local DLNA  server or put your music on an attached HD.....works with the good old Beo4. 

Connect a CA or an AP device and you are good to go.

Not that flexible, I must admit - but rather beoclassic.

 

MM

Millemissen, that was a very clear dissection of the logic behind the older BeoApp and why it’s not fitting into the current control of devices. All makes sense now. Thank you.

seethroughyou:

I have had Roon over a year and used it most nights of the week and it is indeed solid and well constructed software but is it aesthetically simple and pleasing? I’m not so sure.

I started the trial version of Roon and shut it down after a few days. It was too difficult to configure properly and in the end was less easy to run through my whole house than iTunes and Apple Music with my Mac Mini and the remote app. I wouldn’t have kept Roon if it was free.