New: Support for APE (Monkey’s Audio Codec) files
New: Better usage of AlbumArtist field
Fixed: Playlist reorder issue on Windows 10 (PC)
Fixed: Slow startup on Windows 10 Mobile
Fixed: Pausing and resuming ShoutCast radio streams (Phone)
Fixed: High memory consumption while streaming could cause problems (Phone)

The app now supports APE files as well! APE (Monkey’s Audio Codec) is a lossless audio codec that offers very high compression rates. APE file sizes are typically about 10% smaller than comparable FLAC files. If you have APE files in your music collection and you are a user of the Pro Version, you can now use Music Mode to play these files!

Please be aware that while the APE format has very good compression ratios, it is a lot of work to decode this format, due to the complexity of the compression algorithm. This is not a problem on PCs, you won’t really notice. But mobile phones, playing a lot of APE files can drain your battery noticeably faster than other file formats. Please be aware of this when using APE files on your mobile phone. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you! 😉

The app now makes better use of the AlbumArtist field, if found in the tags. This should help people who make regular use of it, e.g. for classical music (storing composer in album artist field), or for other purposes. Previously, the AlbumArtist was ignored if the performer was the same for all tracks.

Enjoy the latest version of Music Mode. If you like the app, please tell your friends, and don’t forget to give the app a decent rating!

The latest update for both PC and Windows Phone adds support for Ogg Vorbis and Opus audio files! Ogg Vorbis is great for low bitrate compression, while Opus beats mp3 and others when using medium and high bitrates. So especially on the phone where storage space might be limited, these are two excellent options for compressing your audio files. Please let me know if you experience any problems with the new codecs! You need the Pro Version to play these formats.

If you already have Opus files in your collection, you will have to reset your music library in the app settings, to get them scanned and added correctly. Ogg Vorbis files should work without library reset.

Notice to Windows 8.x users:

Until now, I have tried to make all new features available on all platforms, even on Windows 8.0. But in this case, due to technical reasons the new codecs are only available on Windows 8.1 and higher. In the future, there might be more features which will only be added on Windows 8.1 and some even on Windows 10 only. If you still use Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1 and want all the latest features in Music Mode, I would recommend you to consider using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer. Windows 10 is pretty mature by now, and it will be the last big Windows version for a very long time. So once you made it to Windows 10, you won’t need to install a new Windows version for a very long time. The free upgrade offer ends in about three months.

Fixed: Last.fm scrobbling when phone is locked
Fixed: App closing or not responding anymore on Windows 10 Mobile
Fixed: App resuming with wrong view after phone was locked
Fixed: Layout problems on small screen sizes
Fixed: App resume speed improved

This is a pure bugfix release, no new features this time. Scrobbling to last.fm did not work for some users if the phone was locked. A bunch of bugs in Windows 10 Mobile could cause different problems in the app. This update should fix all these bugs, plus a few smaller rare problems.

Have fun with the new version!

Overview:

New: Equalizer
New: Zoom via hotkey (Ctrl+Plus/Minus)
Fixed: Crashes on library update

Details:

I have been working on this since quite a while. Now it is finally finished! Say hello to the new high quality 10-band equalizer, available to all Pro Version users! Finally you can adjust the audio output, to perfectly match your audio equipment. It works well even with high definition audio up to 24bit/192kHz and with surround audio files.

A recommendation for best audio quality: If you turn up the equalizer a lot, it’s always recommended to lower the „Preamp“ to some degree, to compensate for the EQ volume increase. Otherwise, during loud passages, the equalizer could push the audio above the maximum, which would lead to degraded audio quality. This is a general rule for all kinds of equalizers.

You can now change the app’s zoom factor without having to go into the app settings. Just press Ctrl+Plus/Minus to zoom in or out. Please note that it can take a while until the app updates the thumbnails, so they can appear burry for a while.

The last update has caused the app to crash for a few users. This should be fixed now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please let me know if you still experience crashes.

Have fun with the latest version!

Tons of new stuff in this version!

Overview:

New: Radio Streaming from SHOUTcast (Experimental, Pro Version)
New: Last.fm integration (Pro Version)
New: Landscape mode with two column layout
New: Option to restore last view on startup
New: Uses „sort names“ for artist, if stored in tags
Fixed: Playback issues

Details:

Radio streaming has been requested quite often, and now you have it! About 60.000 radio streams from SHOUTcast are now available for Pro Version users. Start listening to your favorite tunes and discover new music! The app automatically downloads and shows artwork for every played track, as long as the phone’s display is on. Streaming is still experimental and might not yet be 100% stable. Please report any problems you have. The feature will also be enabled for users of the free version for a while, so existing users can try it as well.

A lot of people asked for last.fm integration on the phone. Now it is finally available for users of the Pro Version! I added local caching for the phone version: If you are offline, your tracks will be stored in a local cache file, and the app will upload them when you are connected to last.fm again. The last.fm integration is also perfect if you use the new radio streaming to discover new music: You can later login to last.fm to see which tracks have been played, and find out more about them. Pretty cool!

A landscape mode has been added. If you use your phone in the car as navigation device, in landscape orientation, you will be glad to hear that your favorite music player supports landscape orientation as well. When used in landscape mode, the app displays a two colum layout!

A new option has been added, to restore the last view when the app is started. If this is enabled, the app will continue right where you left off last time. Finally, the app will now use „sort names“ for artists, if they are found in file tags. This is only applied to new files. If you want the app to use sort names for existing files, you will need to reset your music library.

Some users have experienced a weird bug where the app would play a seemingly random song instead of the song they selected. Also, on Windows 10 Mobile, playback could stop after a few songs, caused by a new bug in newer versions of Windows 10 Mobile. Both problems should now be solved. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

The next big features I am planning are playlist support and random/repeat modes.

Have fun with the new version!

Overview:

New: Songs view
New: Local cache for last.fm „scrobbles“
New: Uses „sort name“ for artists, if stored in tags
Fixed: Problems with export playlist tracks function
Fixed: Endless loop when started on a PC without music files

Details:

This has been asked for over and over again. Finally, the „Songs“ view is available in the app! Now you can browse through all your songs, in an alphabetic fashion. I hope you guys like it! This view also shows the format and bitrate of your tracks, and allows you to sort your songs based on format or bitrate. So if you want to cleanup your library and get rid of bad quality files, this view is your new best friend as well!

In previous versions, the last.fm integration did only submit tracks when you were online. Now the app will store played tracks in a local cache file when you are offline, and submit the tracks when you are connected to last.fm again. So you will never lose your playback history again.

There have been a bunch of smaller changes as well. The app will now use „sort names“ for artists, if they are found in file tags. This is only applied to new files. If you want the app to use sort names for existing files, you will need to reset your music library. There was a problem with the export playlist tracks function, if some special characters were contained in artist names. This is fixed now. Finally, when the app was started on a PC without any music files, it would get into an endless loop, asking for the music folder over and over again, without a way to exit the app. A cancel button has been added, to get you out of this situation.

Have fun with the latest version!

Overview:

– New: New logo design.
– New: Years view added.
– New: Countries translated, assign using drag+drop.
– Fixed: Wrong position when inserting tracks into playlist.
– Fixed: Last.fm authentication (hopefully fixed, please test).
– Fixed: Last.fm scrobble last album track.

First, I’d like to thank Tomasz „Vizal“ Ososinski (teceerbe@gmail.com), who was so kind to create the cool new logo for the app, thanks a lot!

Following a user request, I have added a new view to the app. Similar to the „Decades“ view, the new „Years“ view lets you browse your albums by year. The view can be selected from the main menu, but you can also open an album and click on the year to browse all albums from that year. You can also set the year for an album, by dragging the album and dropping it to the target year.

I have finally added translations for all countries in the „Countries“ view. Additionally, you can now assign a country to an album, by dragging the album and dropping it to the target country in the list.

A bug has been found in the playlist behavior. Sometimes, when adding new tracks to the playlist using drag+drop, the tracks were not inserted at the right position. This is now fixed.

Finally, I have done some modifications to the last.fm integration. There were a bunch of problems with the last.fm authentication, caused by a change to the last.fm servers. If you had problems activating the last.fm integration, please try again now. Please let me know how it goes. There was also one other small problem with last.fm integration. When playing an album, the last track was not scroblled to last.fm, until you started the next track. This is also fixed now. All tracks are submitted to last.fm on track end.

I wish everyone a happy new year, all the best!

The Windows Phone version has finally left the „beta“ phase with this first official release!!

Overview:

– New app logo and icons
– New sort and display options
– Folder navigation support
– Share function
– New appearance options
– Pro Version upgrade option added

First, I’d like to thank Tomasz „Vizal“ Ososinski (teceerbe@gmail.com), who was so kind to create the cool new logo for the app! It looks a whole lot better than the old one. Really cool stuff, and just in time for the official release! I would also like to thank all beta testers of the app. I got a whole lot of great feedback and suggestions, and some beta testers were also extremely supportive, helping me a lot to track down and solve some very difficult problems in the app. Thanks to all of you!

Probably the biggest functional improvement in this version is the hamburger button, which allows you to change the sort and display options of many views in the app. Now you can directly list all songs by an artist or genre, if you do not like to navigate by album. You can also change the sorting of many views. You like to have your albums sorted by album name, by artist, by date added or last played? All possible now, check it out!

Another important new feature is the folder view. Now you can finally navigate your music by folder structure, instead of using the media library. You can also set a start folder, so you do not always have to manually locate your music folder (e.g. if it is somewhere on the SD card).

A share function has also been added. Press+hold on a track or album, and you can share the actual music file with your friends, using e.g. Whatsapp, Mail, OneDrive, or you can post the song information on facebook or twitter.

Finally, there are a bunch of new settings to customize the appearance of the player. You can switch the theme of the app (dark or light), you can decide to use your phone’s accent color in the app instead of the default blue color, you can change transparency,… Also, the settings have been re-organized to allow easier access.

Pro Version: Since the app is very new, I have decided to keep all features unlocked for some more time. But after a while, some features (e.g. flac playback, the appearance options and fade effects) will be disabled, and you will need to buy the Pro Version to unlock them again. The Pro Version license is also valid for the PC version of the app: Buy it once and you can use it on all your Windows devices!

If you like the app, please be sure to submit a great rating and review! And please consider supporting the future development of the app, by purchasing the „Pro Version“ upgrade. Thank you.

Have fun!

This update adds some more functions to the playlist view. Most importantly, you can now automatically remove all duplicates from your playlist with a single button click. Additionally, you can save the playlist right from the playlist window, and export playlist songs as well. Press the „…“ button on a playlist for the new extended functions.

Have fun with the new version!

– Overview –

– New functions to shuffle and sort playlists, and easily add tracks
– Windows 10 playlist reorder bug solved
– Improved playlist loading (auto repair)
– New setting to restore view on startup
– Reduced memory consumption

– Details –

This update adds new important functions to playlist handling! You can finally shuffle your playlist, or sort it using various sorting schemes. Then there is a button that allows you to search for a  track or album and directly add it to the playlist. Finally, there is a button that will add the currently playing track to the playlist. The last one should make playlist building a lot easier. Now you can listen to tracks, and once you find one that suits the playlist, just hit this button.

If you are using Windows 10, you might have noticed that after installing the latest big Windows update, you cannot re-order playlist tracks anymore. There is a bug in the Windows update, which breaks the reorder function. I have added a custom reorder solution to work around this problem, until a fix in Windows 10 is available.

Playlist loading has also been further improved: A lot of people have problems importing their playlist. Often, the problem is that they have moved their music library to a different folder, or moved it from one PC to another PC. In such cases, all file names in the playlist files are usually wrong, and the playlist cannot be loaded anymore. But now, music|mode will try to detect such errors, and automatically repair all file names for you! Please note that this only works, if your complete library folder has been moved. If you reorganize your library by renaming or moving individual files or folders, this cannot be fixed.

In the options there is now a new setting that allows you to always restore the last view of the app on app startup. So whenever you start the app, it will resume where you left off. By default, the home screen is shown on startup, but you can change this now if you like.

Finally, I could greatly reduce the memory consumption while adding new files. This could be a problem on devices with very low memory, and is now resolved.

Have fun with the new version!