Grooveshark?

[wanderr]

Ha, that's definitely worse than it is for me, where only half of them fail. I'll keep you posted. You can also email [email protected] for support. Obviously they know that there are playback issues on 2.0, but it's possible that the more people complain the faster it'll be fixed.

 

[rdahms81]

Hey Wanderr,

can you explain how the cache works for grooveshark mobile. I have no idea how much cache I need. Is 1 gb enough or should I set it to a higher number? What are the advantages/disadvantages to having a higher/lower cache level? What happens if/when I clear the cache? I believe cache has something to do with remembering the song, therefore, making it easier to load and play. Can you explain cache to this computer simpleton. Thanks in advance

 

[searayman]

Hey Wanderr,

can you explain how the cache works for grooveshark mobile. I have no idea how much cache I need. Is 1 gb enough or should I set it to a higher number? What are the advantages/disadvantages to having a higher/lower cache level? What happens if/when I clear the cache? I believe cache has something to do with remembering the song, therefore, making it easier to load and play. Can you explain cache to this computer simpleton. Thanks in advance

cache allows you to download music to the phone so you dont have to stream so you can listen to it on a subway etc

 

[wanderr]

I'm not too familiar with exactly how this platform works, but I think we have two types of caching: explicit, where you can tell it that you want to make sure certain files are available and play quickly even if your connection isn't so good, and automatic where based on some criteria (I'm not sure what that criteria is at the moment, sorry!), it will decide that you're likely to listen to a certain song again, so after you play it for the first time it keeps it cached. I think the default limit of 1GB is pretty large, so I wouldn't bother increasing it unless you run out of room for all of your explicit caching requests.

 

[homemadehitshow]

Can you explain Grooveshark ? I'm pretty familiar with LaLa, Rhapsody, Spotify, just not quite understanding GrooveShark.

 

[wanderr]

Well there's definitely a fair amount of overlap between us and all of those services.

How we differ from Lala:
-I'd say we're pretty similar, but we do away with the "silly" notion of having to pay to listen to the same song more than once.
How we differ from Raphsody:
-My understanding is that they are pretty much a purely subscription based music service, and their subscription prices are rather high.
How we differ from Spotify:
-Spotify is also pretty similar to Grooveshark out of these, with a major difference being that they are only available in a handful of countries, the fact that you must install their software to use their service, and I'm told the experience for non-subscribers can be pretty lousy, with lots of ads all over the ap, and annoying audio ads. I haven't had the chance to use Spotify much, since it's not available in the states yet and I haven't bothered to hunt down the proxies I would need and get that all set up.

Basically with Grooveshark, you can just go to Grooveshark - Listen to Free Music Online - Internet Radio - Free MP3 Streaming and search and listen to whatever you want for free. The main site is flash based (written in Flex), and it feels more like an app than like you are browsing the web, which makes for a better user experience in my opinion. You don't need an account to use the site, but you will need to create one if you want to create playlists, favorite songs, or add songs to your library.
Subscribing is totally optional, and subscribers get to use the site ad-free, access to a desktop version of the app, more themes, a VIP badge, higher limits on favorites and library size, and the ability to try out the newest features first, including the mobile apps, but the key is that you do not have to subscribe or even log in to find music and listen to whatever you want.

We also have an artists section to help artists & labels promote themselves, get in touch with fans and of course monetize, but I don't work on that part and I don't use it because I'm not a musician, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[cardpogi]

See if you can Help

I know this is basically a Moto Droid Forum... But since I see you responding alot to it... I've been using the App on Android 1.5 on my Archos 5 device but when I Upgraded to Android 1.6.. It just stopped working... you have any idea what this maybe about wanderr?

 

[wanderr]

Oops

Looks like there was a pretty nasty bug on our end. It should be fixed now. Please let me know if you're still having any problems.

 

[redoctober]

charging for app in addition to VIP?

i read this on the Grooveshark website "for a brief time, VIPs get to use it (grooveshark mobile) completely free."

does this mean that we'll end up paying $3/month for VIP and then an additional monthly premium for access to the mobile app?

also, will users ever be able to access their Library? or will you be able to sort alphabetically by song title or album name? or will we ever be able to drag an entire album into "current songs" like we can on the desktop version?

 

[wanderr]

Yes, once the apps are better quality, mobile subscriptions will be another tier higher than VIP in cost. I don't know how much higher, and I'm *pretty sure* that the plan is to grandfather current VIP mobile users in so they can continue paying $3/month and still use mobile without paying anything extra, one of the benefits of being an early adopter.

Caveat: I don't know if any of those plans are set in stone, so if the economics of that don't work out, it could change.

Now as for upcoming features, I know for certain that library support is coming (though I'm not sure how far off) -- one of the big hurdles here is that user libraries can be massive, 50k songs, and we want access to your library be instantaneous, so they're trying to figure out the best way to keep all that information on your phone so you don't have to hit the servers all the time.

The whole UI is being revamped, but I'm not directly involved. I certainly hope that sorting options (including track number) will be included, and I'm not sure about support for dragging but I believe they will be adding long-click options which should certainly include play all and add all, if they don't I will be giving them hell myself.

 

[redoctober]

thanks

thanks for the update. sounds like we're on the same page on the sort. being able to bring an entire album into my list would be bigger for me than the Library feature. and really, if you get the sort feature figured out, then the whole selecting entire album issue figures it self out, in a way.

i'm excited to see this app grow.

 

[cardpogi]

...

Looks like there was a pretty nasty bug on our end. It should be fixed now. Please let me know if you're still having any problems.

Thanks alot wander.... uhm... sorry for being such a nag.... wondering if you could send the new .apk... cause since grooveshark isn't on archos's App's Lib, I had to crack the device to get the Google Market but paid apps or apps with restrictions dont seem to show up on my screen.. xD