12. Playing and Managing Music
In this chapter, you find out how to play your favorite music on the phone. Topics include the following:
→ Using the Music app to play songs stored on the phone
→ Creating, using, and managing song playlists
→ Using Group Play to broadcast songs to multiple phones
If you’re in the mood for musical entertainment, your Galaxy S 4 is up to the task. In this chapter, you find out how to use the built-in Music app to play songs and other tracks stored on your phone. With the new Group Play feature, you can play a song on several phones, creating a stereo effect.
Some Songs Can’t Be Played
Most music tracks stored on your PC or Mac will play in Music. Copy-protected songs, such as those encoded with Apple’s AAC (protected) codec, can be copied to the phone but will refuse to play.
Playing Stored Songs with the Music App
You might have amassed a collection of your favorite tracks in iTunes, Windows Media Player, or another PC or Mac media organizer. By following the techniques described in Chapter 15, you can use USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth to copy those songs to your phone. Using Music, you can play these songs whenever you want.
1. On the Home screen, tap the Music shortcut (if you haven’t removed it). Otherwise, tap Apps and then tap Music.
Another Music Player
A second music player app is preinstalled on the Galaxy S 4. Play Music (or Google Play Music) is a general music player that works much like Music. In addition to playing content stored on your phone, Play Music links directly to Google Play, enabling you to easily preview and buy new songs. Be sure to check out its customizable equalizer.
2. To find the first song you’d like to hear, tap Songs, Albums, or Artists to view an alphabetical list of your songs, albums, or artists/groups; alternatively, tap Playlists to view playlists (groups of songs) you’ve created, as well as your favorite, most played, recently played, and recently added tracks. See the “Working with Playlists” section for additional information. For instructions on customizing the tabs, see “More Fun with Music” at the end of this section.
Searching for a Song
You can search for music, too. Press the Menu key and tap Search to search for a song title, album, or artist you want to hear. (In most views, you can also press and hold the Menu key to automatically initiate a search.)
3. If the song you want isn’t visible, continue tapping icons to narrow the results. For instance, when viewing the Artists list, tap an artist, tap an album, and then tap the song that you want to play.
Additional Options for the Selected Song
If you press and hold a song title in any view other than Playlists, a pop-up menu appears. You can delete the song from the phone (Delete), set it as a new phone or contact ringtone (Set As), or add it to a playlist (Add to Playlist), for example. If the song is currently playing, press the Menu key to display these options.
4. The song begins to play (top).
5. Optional: Switch to a dedicated, full-screen view (bottom) by tapping the album icon or its placeholder. To restore the original view, tap the down arrow icon or press the Back key.
Song Selection Affects Playback
The song you initially select determines what other songs automatically play after the selected song ends, as well as what additional songs are available to you without returning to the main selection screen. For instance, if you select a song from an album, all additional songs from the album will play until the last track is completed.
The order in which the songs play is determined by the state of the Shuffle icon. When there’s a slash through it, songs play in listed order. If you tap the icon to remove the slash, the songs in the selection play in random order (shuffled).
6. Tap the Play/Pause button to pause or continue playback. In list view, tapping the name of the active song (shown in blue) has the same effect.
7. Full-screen view only: Drag the playback slider or tap a spot on the line to go forward or backward in the song.
8. Tap the Previous or Next button or swipe the screen to the left or right to play the previous or next track in the album or current selection, respectively.
9. Full-screen view only: Tap the List button to play a different song from the current album or selection. To make a new selection (such as choosing a different album), press the Back key until you reach the main Music screen.
10. Press the phone’s volume control or tap the onscreen speaker icon (in full-screen view only) to increase or decrease the volume. Adjust the volume by pressing the volume control or adjusting the slider.
11. Optional: To change the equalizer setting, tap the SoundAlive icon on the volume slider, select a setting in the SoundAlive dialog box, and tap OK. (You can also open the dialog box by pressing the Menu key and tapping Settings, SoundAlive.) Some settings, such as Virtual 7.1 ch, can be selected only when you’re using earphones.
Basic Controls Available Outside of Music
If all you want to do is pause, continue play, or switch songs within the current album, playlist, or selection, you can do so from the Notification panel. You can do the same using the Music widget (if it’s installed).
12. If you leave the Music screens (to run another app, for example), you can return to Music by launching it again or tapping the album icon in the Notification panel.
13. Optional: Quit Music by pressing the Menu key and tapping End.
Working with Playlists
Playing a specific song or album isn’t always what you want to do. For such times, you can create special song selections called playlists. A playlist is any combination of tracks that you want to play together. For instance, you might create a playlist that includes all albums by a favorite group or songs from a genre (such as blues, techno, or classical) performed by many different artists.
Creating a Playlist
You can create a new playlist in several ways, but the simplest—and the one you’re most likely to remember—is to start from Playlists view.
1. Within Music, press the Back key as many times as necessary to reach the main screen, and tap the Playlists tab.
2. Press the Menu key, and tap Create Playlist.
3. Name the new playlist, and tap OK.
4. The new, empty playlist appears.
Adding Songs to a Playlist
Here are some of the ways to add songs to a playlist:
• To select from an alphabetical list of all songs on your phone, open the playlist. Tap Add Music for a newly created playlist, or tap the plus (+) icon for a previously created playlist. Select the songs/tracks, and tap Done.
• To add entire albums or an artist to the playlist, tap a view tab (such as Albums or Artists) to help you find the material that you want to include in the playlist. Press and hold the artist or album name, tap Add to Playlist in the dialog box that appears, and then tap the name of the playlist to which you want to add the material.
• While browsing songs from an album or by an artist, you can add multiple songs by pressing the Menu key, tapping Add to Playlist, selecting the songs, tapping Done, and then selecting the target playlist.
• While playing a song, you can add it to a playlist by pressing the Menu key, tapping Add to Playlist, and selecting the playlist. (In list view, you can also press and hold the song title to reveal this menu.)
Built-in Playlists
In addition to the custom playlists you create, Music provides several playlists that it automatically maintains: Most Played, Recently Played, and Recently Added. An additional playlist called Favorite contains all songs that you’ve marked as favorites. To mark a playing song as a favorite, switch to full-screen view and tap the star icon above the playback indicator. To remove a song from the Favorite playlist, tap the star icon again or open the Favorite playlist, press and hold the song title, and tap Remove in the menu that appears.
1. Return to the main Music screen by pressing the Back key as many times as necessary. Tap the Playlists tab to view the defined playlists, and tap the playlist that you want to hear. Your created playlists (My Playlists) appear below the built-in ones (Default Playlists).
2. Tap the song you want to hear first. (If you select the first song, the entire playlist plays.)
3. The selected song (shown in blue) begins to play. When it’s done, other songs from the playlist play until Music reaches the last song in the playlist or you halt playback.
4. Optional: Tap the album icon (or its placeholder) in the controller to switch to full-screen view.
5. Optional: Tap the Shuffle icon to toggle between playing the songs in order (slashed) and playing them in random order (no slash). The Shuffle icon is visible only in full-screen or list view.
Picking a Different Song
If you’d rather hear a different song from the playlist, tap the List button and select the new song.
Managing Playlists
Using Menu commands, you can add songs to or remove songs from the current custom playlist, change the playback order, or edit the playlist’s title. You can also delete custom playlists that you no longer want.
1. Open the custom playlist that you want to modify. (On the main Music screen, tap Playlists, and then tap the playlist’s name in the My Playlists section.)
2. Press the Menu key to display the menu.
3. Add songs. Tap the plus (+) icon to add songs to the playlist. Select the songs/tracks and tap Done.
4. Remove songs. Tap Remove to remove songs from the playlist. On the Remove screen, select each song that you want to remove and tap Remove. (Note that removing a song from a playlist doesn’t delete it; it just removes the song from the current playlist.)
5. Edit the playlist title. Tap Edit Title. In the dialog box that appears, modify the title and tap OK.
6. Change song order. Tap Change Order to set a new playback order for the songs in the playlist. To change a song’s position, drag it up or down in the list by its dot pattern. When you finish, tap Done.
Deleting a Playlist
You can delete any custom playlist by pressing and holding its name on the Playlists screen. Tap Delete in the dialog box that appears. (Caution: The playlist is deleted immediately; no confirmation dialog box appears.)
Sharing Songs with Group Play
Group Play, an app introduced with the Galaxy S 4, creates a Mobile Access Point on your phone, enabling you to share music, photos, or documents with up to 10 nearby Samsung phones and devices that are also running Group Play. Preinstalled on the Galaxy S 4, Group Play is also available on Google Play as a free download for the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II and 10.1, and Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Broadcast, Not Transferred
Group Play material is merely displayed or played on the group members’ screens—much like streaming music or videos. For information on transferring songs and other files between phones, see Chapter 15.
1. From the Home screen, tap Apps, Group Play to launch the app on the phone that will share the music. Instruct the others to do the same on their phones.
2. Tap the Create Group button. (The Set Group Password check box determines whether others will be requested to enter a PIN to join the group.)
3. Instruct the others to tap the Join Group button. (If there are other nearby groups, they’ll be asked to choose the one they want to join.)
5. Select the songs/tracks that you want to play. (All eligible songs display in a scrolling list.) Tap OK.
MP3 Files Only
In Group Play, only songs in MP3 format are listed and can be played.
6. The music begins to play on your phone.
7. Instruct the others to tap Share Music. The music plays on their phones, too.
8. The song(s) selected in step 5 play in a continuous loop. To end the broadcast, press the Back key and tap OK in the confirmation dialog box.
9. The main Group Play screen reappears. You can continue the sharing session by selecting new content (repeating steps 4–7) or exit the program by pressing the Back key and tapping Yes in the confirmation dialog box. The others exit by doing the same.
>>>Go Further: Exploring Group Play for Music Settings
• To change the speaker style for all participants, press the Menu key, tap Speaker Style, select a style, and tap Apply.
• You can tap icons at the bottom of the screen to control playback, such as pausing the current song or skipping to the next one. You can also drag the slider to a new position in the track.
• Tap the Volume icon to change the volume for your phone, individual phones, or all phones.
• Tap a speaker to assign or reassign phones to that speaker. Numbers in parentheses show the number of phones assigned to each speaker.
• Tap the Member icon to display the group membership.
• Tap the Back icon in the upper-left corner to end music sharing.
