Droid X2: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Music

The Droid X2 does a great job of playing and managing music, so much so that you may no longer feel the need to carry around another music player. It includes an excellent built-in music player and manager, and a 3.5 mm headset stereo jack that you can connect to headphones or external speakers. Read this chapter and get ready to plug in and turn up the volume.

Where to Get Music

Before you play music, of course, you first need to get it onto your Droid X2. For details about how to do that, turn to Chapter 12.

You can also buy or download music via Droid X2 apps, such as the Amazon MP3 app that comes with the Droid X2. Tap the Amazon MP3 icon from the Apps Menu to run the app. You’ll need to have an Amazon account to pay for and download music, so set one up first if you want to use the app.

Note

If you tap a download link on a web page for an MP3 file in the Droid X2 browser, the file doesn’t download to your Droid X2’s SD card. Instead, the Droid X2 plays the music file, but doesn’t add it to your collection.

Using the Music App

You play and manage your music using the Droid X2’s Music app. Tap the Music icon in the Apps Menu to launch it. The app organizes your music by four lists, through which you scroll like all other scrollable lists on the Droid X2:

• Artists. Lists every singer, composer, and band in your collection, and number of songs or albums you have from that particular artist.

  Tap the artist’s name, and you see a list of all of her albums, including the album name, and how many songs are included from that album (even if that’s only one song). Tap an album’s name, and you see a list of all the songs it contains. To play any song, tap it.

  
  

  Note

  At the bottom of the screen, you see the name of the song you’re playing (or if you’re not playing a song, the last song you played). At its right is a green Play button—tap it to play the song again. The green Play button also shows up in the list next to the artist, song, and album that you’re playing or previously played.

• Albums. Lists all the CDs (albums) in your music collection. If a thumbnail picture of the album is available, you see it next to the album listing. Each album lists its name and its singer, composer, band, or orchestra. Tap the album to see a list of all the songs in the album. To play any song, tap it.

• Songs. An alphabetical list of every song in your music collection. It shows the song name and artist. Tap a song to play it.

  
  

  Note

  The Droid X2 can play a wide variety of music files, including AAC, AMR, MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC+, and MIDI. Android by itself won’t play WMA (Windows Music Audio) files, but Motorola gave the Droid X2 a special piece of software called a codec so it plays WMA files. For the same reason, it can also play WMV (Windows Media Video) videos (see the note on Note).

• Playlists. Here’s where you’ll find all your playlists—groups of songs that you’ve put together in a specific order for a specific reason. You might have several party playlists, a playlist of songs you like to listen to while you work, another for the gym, and so on.

  To see the contents of a playlist, tap the playlist. Tap any song to play it from that point until the end of the playlist. To play the entire playlist, hold your finger on the playlist, and then tap Play. You can also delete the playlist (but not the underlying music) and rename it when you do this.

  
  

• Genres. This lists all the of music you have on your Droid X2, such as Blues, Classical, Jazz, Rock, and so on. To see all the music you have in a genre, tap the genre. Tap any song to play it from that point until the end of the listing of songs. To play all the music in the entire genre, hold your finger on the playlist, and then tap Play. You can also delete the genre (but not the underlying music) and rename it when you do this.

Note

In addition to the Music app built into the Droid X2, Google also has a cloud-based music player app. With it, you can upload music from your PC or Mac to big Google computers called servers, and then play that music on your Droid X2, without actually having to store the music on your Droid X2. (Because your music lives in the cloud—get it?) The service and app are free and work like a charm. Download the app from the Android Market; search for “Google Cloud Music Player.”

Choosing from the 3D Gallery

Choosing music from a list works just fine, but it’s not very exciting. The Droid X2’s 3D Gallery makes choosing an album as visual and intuitive as flipping through a rack of colorful CD covers. When you’re in the Albums list, simply rotate the phone 90 degrees, and the screen flips to a horizontal view. You see all your album covers in what appears to be three-dimensional space. Scroll and flick through them, and they move into focus and recede in turn. Tap an album cover to see and play the album’s songs.

Note

When your phone is in horizontal view and you’re browsing through your music with any category other than Albums, such as Artists or Songs, you don’t see the 3D view.

Playing Your Music

Tap a song to play it, and a screen appears loaded with information, and all kinds of controls and widgets.

Among other controls, you’ll find:

• Pause/Play. When music is playing, the buttons looks like this . Tap it to pause, and the button then looks like this . Tap it to play again.

• Previous, Next. These controls work just as you’d expect. Tap previous to skip to the beginning of the song you’re playing or, if you’re already at the beginning, to skip to the previous song. Tap next to skip to the next song.

  Hold down one of the buttons, and you rewind or fast-forward through the song. As you hold, the speed of rewind or fast-forward accelerates. You’ll hear the music as you speed forward or backward, sounding like a bizarre foreign language.

  The length of the song is displayed on the right side of the controls, and the amount of time already played is on the left.

• Slider. At the bottom of the screen is a slider that shows you the progress of the song. It includes the total length of the song, and how much of it you’ve already played. Move the slider to go to a specific location in the song.

  

• Song and album information. Here you’ll find the name of the singer, the name of the album, and the song being played.

  

  That information is “live”: Hold your finger on any item, and a screen pops up that lets you search for it in the Amazon MP3 app, in your browser, in the Music app, on YouTube, or on any other music-related app on your Droid X2, such as the Pandora music-streaming service. If you like the current artist, for example, you can get more information about him, or check out more of his music.

  

• Playlist or album. Tap , and if the song is part of a playlist (or if it’s part of an album in which you have other songs), you’ll come to the playlist or album listing of individual songs. From here, you can tap any other song to play it.

• Shuffle. The Droid X2 music player normally plays the songs in your playlist or album in order, from first to last. Tap the shuffle button to have the songs in your current album or playlist play in a random order—you’ll never know what’s coming next.

  Tap the Shuffle button and it turns green, and you get a notification that Shuffle is on. Tap it again to turn it off.

• Loop. Can’t get enough of the current album or playlist? Tap the loop button , and it plays endlessly from beginning to end, from beginning to end, from beginning to…you get the idea. When you tap it, the loop button turns green. Tap it again, and it plays the current song continuously. The loop button displays the number 1 on it to show you that you’re in this mode. Tap the button again to turn looping off.

• Album cover/visualization. Want to feel psychedelic and groovy when listening to music? Tap the picture of album art at the top of the screen, and it turns into what’s called a visualization—psychedelic patterns and colors that change as your music plays.

Creating Playlists

When you transfer music from your PC or Mac to your Droid X2 using Windows Media Player, you also transfer over your playlists. But you’re not dependent on that to create playlists—you can also create and edit them from your Droid X2.

To do so, hold your finger on a song, artist, or album, and from the screen that appears, tap “Add to playlist.” A new screen appears. To add the song to your current playlist or an existing playlist, tap the appropriate button. To create a new playlist and add this song to it, tap New, type a name for the playlist, and then tap Save. The playlist is created with the song, album, or all of the artist’s songs on it. The playlist then appears in the Playlist area.

Tip

When you press and hold your finger on a song, you can also make it your phone ringtone or notification ringtone. Simply make the appropriate selection from the menu that appears.

Once you’ve created a playlist, you have the following ways to edit it:

• In the playlist listings area, hold your finger on the playlist. From the screen that appears, you can delete it or rename it—or play it, although it’s simpler to just tap the listing to play it.

• When you’re displaying the list of the songs in a playlist, hold your finger on a song, and from the menu that appears, select “Remove from playlist.” The song disappears from the playlist but remains on your Droid X2. When you hold your finger on a song, you have other options, including deleting the song from your Droid X2 (select Delete), and searching for information about the song, or related music via the Web, YouTube, the Amazon MP3 app, or other sources (select Search).

Note

If you’re displaying a list of songs in an area other than the playlist area—for example, in the Songs or Albums listings—when you hold your finger on the song, the “Remove from playlist” option doesn’t appear.

Even if you haven’t imported or created any playlists, the Droid X2 creates one automatically for you—“Recently added.” As the name says, that’s a list of all the music you’ve most recently added to your Droid X2. This playlist is different from all of all others in that you can’t delete or rename it.

The “Recently added” playlist can get extremely long if you often add music, but you can change the length of time the Droid X2 uses to compile the playlist. Press and hold the playlist and then tap Edit. Use the slider to select any time period from one week to 12 weeks, and then tap Done.

Note

You can’t remove individual songs from the “Recently added” playlist.

More Music Options

The Droid X2’s Music app gives you plenty of options that aren’t immediately obvious. The best way to find them all is to press the Menu key wherever you are—whether you’re playing a song or browsing the library in the Artists, Albums, Songs, or Playlists areas. When you press the Menu key, a menu pops up at the bottom of the screen with some combination of these options:

• Audio effects . Tap this option from the menu, and you can add cool audio effects to your music—like surround sound. When you tap “Audio effects,” two choices appear, one for wired stereo devices, and one for the phone speaker. You get to add more effects if you’ve plugged your phone into a stereo device, which includes speakers as well as headphones.

  Tap “Wired stereo devices,” and then tap “Enable audio effects.” Tap “Effects profile” and choose 3D Stereo, Home Theater, or Live Stage to use pre-built effects. You can also choose Custom to create your own settings.

  If you choose 3D Stereo, Home Theater, or Live Stage on the “Wired stereo devices” screen, then Surround and Equalizer can’t be changed, since they’re controlled by the effects profile. However, if you choose Custom for your effects profile, you can change the surround sound type and select a different kind of equalizer.

  Note

  An equalizer changes the emphasis given to certain parts of a piece of music—emphasizing bass, treble, or voice, for example. On the Droid X2, the equalizer settings are self-explanatory: for example Extreme Bass, Brilliant Treble, Balanced, and so on.

  If you tap “Phone speaker” instead of “Wired stereo devices,” your choices are much more limited. You’ll be able to change only the equalizer.

• Library . Brings you back to the music library.

• Add to playlist . Adds the current song or album to a playlist, and lets you create a new playlist, as detailed back on Creating Playlists.

• Use as ringtone . Don’t like the choice of ringtones on your phone? No problem! You can set any song in your library as your ringtone—your phone will play the beginning of the song instead of a ringtone. Just tap this option when it appears.

• Use as notification . Want your phone to play your current song whenever you’ve got a notification? Just tap this, and your phone will play the beginning of the song instead of a notification.

• Delete . Deletes the song or album from your music collection.

Note

The Droid X2 can’t play DRM-protected music purchased on another device and then transferred to the Droid X2. DRM stands for digital rights management, and it’s a technique used to limit the distribution of for-pay music files. So if you transfer a DRM-protected file to your Droid X2, it won’t play.

Press and Hold Options

Another way to access many of the options described in the previous section is to hold your finger on a song or album listing. A screen pops up with a list of options. If you’re holding your finger on a song, you can play the song, add it to a playlist, use it as a ringtone, delete it, or search for more information about it. When you hold your finger on an album, you get the same choices, except you can’t add the entire album as a ringtone or notification.

Note

You can also play music by using your Droid X2 as an FM radio, or by using an app that streams music wirelessly to your Droid X2. To use your Droid X2 as an FM radio, tap the FMPlayer icon in the Apps Menu, and you’ll run the Droid X2’s built in radio tuner. There are many apps that play streaming music to your Droid X2, but everyone seems to love Pandora. Find it by searching for Pandora in the Market (Troubleshooting Apps). If you already have a Pandora account that you use to play music from the Web, all your stations will already be set up when you use the Droid X2’s Pandora app.

Using Your Droid X2 While Playing Music

Because the Droid X2 is built for multitasking, you can play music even when you’re doing something else. Open the Music app, start the music, and then feel free to use other apps and features. The music keeps playing. While music is playing, a small button appears in the Notification bar . Drag down the Notification bar and tap the song playing, and you’ll be sent back to the Music app.

Even when your phone is locked, if you were listening to music before the Droid X2 locked itself, it keeps playing. Turn on the screen, even though the phone remains locked, and you’ll see the track playing. Tap the track, and the player’s controls appear. You can pause and play music as well as skip to the next song or go back to a previous song, without having to unlock the Droid X2.

Playing Music and Media on Other Devices

The Droid X2 lets you share, view, and play music, videos, and photos using a standard called DLNA, short for Digital Living Network Alliance. The Droid X2 is DLNA-compliant, which means that it can share media with other DLNA devices, such as TVs, computers, and mobile devices. When you buy a device, look in the documentation to see if it’s also DLNA compliant. You can also look for this logo on packaging or documentation: .

Note

If you’re not sure whether you have a device that’s DLNA-compliant, go to www.dlna.org. In addition to finding out more information about DLNA, you can do a search for your device and see if it supports DLNA.

Here’s just some of what you can do with your Droid X2 and other DLNA devices:

• Stream your music, videos, and photos from your Droid X2 to a DLNA device, such as a TV, PC, Xbox, or Playstation 3.

• Transfer music files from your phone to your PC.

• Transfer pictures from your Droid X2 to your PC.

• Stream videos from the Droid X2 to your TV.

• Browse any videos you have stored on your PC using the Droid X2, and then stream the video to your TV using an HDMI cable (see Using HDMI to View Photos and Videos on a TV or Monitor for details about HDMI).

There are more possibilities and permutations with your Droid X2 and DLNA; this section can’t cover them all. Set up your Droid X2 as described in this section, and then follow the information that appears onscreen.

To do any DLNA magic, your Droid X2 needs to be connected to a network or a DLNA device—which means a Wi-Fi connection or a USB cable connection. In the Apps Menu, tap DLNA. From here, you can do nifty things like play media from another DLNA device, copy media to a DLNA server, copy media from a DLNA device to your phone, and share media with others. For example, you can play the Droid X2’s videos and music on the computer or play or share music, videos, or photos from your Droid X2 to a flat-screen TV. Or you can play music and video from a computer on your Droid X2.

After the app launches, select what you want to do—for example, Play media. Each selection has a different set of screens to follow. You may run into difficulties, because the DLNA devices to which you connect each have a different set of rules, capabilities, and features. Try checking the documentation of any device to which you want to connect or do a Google search, and find out what it can and can’t do. DLNA is still very much on the bleeding edge, so you may not always be able to get it to work.

Google Music Cloud Player

The Google Music Cloud Player may forever change the way you manage—and even think about—your music. It allows you to play music on your phone that isn’t actually on the device itself, and instead lives in what’s called the “cloud”—basically big Google computers called servers that store your music and stream it to your Droid X2 (or any other device, for that matter).

To use it, you need to first install the software on your PC or Mac (whichever computer houses your music collection). You then tell the software to upload the music to the cloud. After that, you install the Google Music player on your Droid X2 (or other Android device). At that point, you can listen to your music from the cloud—as long as you have a 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi connection, of course.

The Music player isn’t a separate application; instead, it integrates directly into the Google Music player on your Droid X2. When you go to the Android Market, search for Google Music and then download an upgrade. The cloud player will be installed.

Mostly, the cloud player looks and works just like the normal Google Music player. There are a few differences, though. There will be times when your music won’t be available from the cloud—whenever you’re not connected to the Internet—so you can choose to hide streamed music at that point. You can also set a variety of other options, such as whether to only stream music when connected via Wi-Fi rather than via 3G or 4G.

Note that as I write this, the cloud player is still in beta, and may not yet be available for your PC or Mac. But as soon as it is, grab it and update the music player on your Droid X2—this is one fabulous player.