Social Player by MyStrands
About a week ago I was lucky enough to stumble across an app that has truly impressed me and beyond anything else, it is changing the way that I listen to music. I am a huge music enthusiast and music makes up a large part of my life as an amatuer musician/former audio engineer. My home studio, extensive music library, internet radio, and Sirius satellite radio are all invaluable to me. Well now I have something else to add to that list of invaluable music resources - MyStrands.
MyStrands/Social Player is much more than just a freeware music player for your S60 3rd device. It is a community and a music discovery service that - among other things - analyzes the songs you listen to and makes real-time recommendations based on several factors. I don’t want to get into too much detail about the website and free services (because this is an S60 3rd apps review blog!) but you should begin your MyStrands experience by signing up for a free account on their site.
The S60 3rd app itself is listed on the download page as only being compatible with the E60. The forthcoming version (Social Player 2.4) is compatible with other S60 3rd devices and should be formally released within about one month. The following review is of the upcoming version 2.4 so some features may vary between versions 1.0 and 2.4. To avoid confusion, note that version 1.0 of this app is called ‘MyStrands’ while the upcoming version has been renamed to ‘Social Player’.
Once installed on your S60 3rd device and launched for the first time, Social Player asks for your username and password or you may create an account if you do not already have one. While there is an offline mode, to fully experience MyStrands you should also choose a data connection type. The app supports WLAN, 3G, and GPRS although certain functions are inhibited with GPRS due to bandwidth limitations. Once entered, this information is then saved for future logins.
The main screen gives you direct access to the various sections of the app: My Music, Now Playing, My Recs (recommendations), Who’s Listening (other MyStrands members who have listened to the song you are currently playing), and Community (your MyStrands friends). Once you build your music library and sync it for the first time through the options menu (both functions were performed surprisingly fast with 330 songs on my memory card) you’re ready to go. Browsing through your library can be done by Track, Artist, Album, or Playlist. Once you select the track(s) you want to listen to, choose play -> selected.
If available, the album art is displayed on the player screen. I was surprised at the fact that album art was even displayed for much of my more obscure music.
Scroll to the next section of Social Player or access it through the Options menu to view recommendations according to the track you are currently playing. The number of recommendations displayed is configurable in Settings. Recommendations are quickly loaded and displayed alongside their album art, the fun really starts. Pressing the Options key allows you to view info about each recommendation and even stream the song clip right to your device!
The next section of Social Player is Who’s Listening. Here you can see a list of other community members who have listened to the track you are currently playing. Select one of the members listed and you can add them as a friend and even view their profile and play history in the integrated browser!
The Community section allows you to view a list of your friends and access their profiles as well as their play histories. You can also manage your friends list and view your own profile and play history. For those friends with the option enabled you can also send them sms messages.
The future is very bright for MyStrands and I really can’t wait to see what new features will be available in future versions of Social Player. Among the items on my “wish list” are a more traditional library browser (ie Artist -> Albums -> Tracks a la iPod), keypad shortcuts for play/pause/etc, and album art that displays from the tag if available. Beyond Social Player there are also many more offerings and functions available on the MyStrands site including plugins for popular PC media players, PartyStrands which allows you to view details, pictures, playlists, and more for various parties around the world (way too much to explain, you have to check it out), IndieRadio, and links to listen to and/or purchase recommended songs from one of various vendors including iTunes and amazon.com.
Once you do sign up for your free account, be sure to add me to your community!
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One thing to note: Version 1.0 of this app reads the following directories to build your library - additional directories that have been added in Social Player 2.4 are marked with an ‘*’
E:
E:\Sounds
E:\Sounds\Digital
E:\Sounds\Simple
E:\MyMusic
E:\Others
C:\Data
C:\Data\Others
C:\Data\Sounds
C:\Data\Sounds\Digital
C:\Data\Sounds\Simple
C:\Data\Videos
*E:\Data
*E:\Data\Others
*E:\Data\Sounds
*E:\Data\Sounds\Digital
*E:\Data\Sounds\Simple
*E:\Data\Videos
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