8. Playing and Managing Music
In this chapter, you find out how to get the most out of the audio and music playing capabilities of the Galaxy S7. Topics in this chapter include the following:
Playing songs and creating a playlist
Your Galaxy S7 is a digital media player packed with entertainment possibilities. You can play music using the preinstalled Google Play Music app. You can also download apps from the Google Play Store to listen to podcasts and audiobooks.
Purchasing Music in Google Play Music
The Galaxy S7 includes the preinstalled Google Play Music app for finding, previewing, purchasing, downloading, and playing music. This app isn’t the only one you can use, however—there are plenty of other music apps available for download in the Google Play Store.
1. Tap the Apps icon on the Home screen.
2. Tap Play Music.
3. Tap Learn More to discover more about adding songs and copying music to your phone.
4. For now, tap No Thanks.
5. From the Listen Now screen, tap the Menu icon in the menu bar.
6. Tap Shop in the list to open the Music screen within the Google Play Store.
7. The Music screen shows the latest free music and exclusive videos. Swipe up and down the screen to view more featured songs and albums in a variety of categories.
How Do I Know If a Song Has Explicit Lyrics?
If you don’t want to listen to songs with explicit lyrics (and/or don’t want your kids to listen to them), you can easily see which songs and albums have explicit lyrics by looking for the Parental Advisory warning within the song or album tile. You also see the word Explicit in the lower-left corner of the song or album tile.
8. Tap More to view more songs and albums in the category.
9. Tap Top Songs to view the best-selling songs in the Google Play Store.
10. Tap Top Albums to view the best-selling albums in the Google Play Store.
11. Within the button bar at the top of the page, swipe from right to left to view more options.
12. Tap New Releases to view the newest albums in the Google Play Store.
13. Tap Genres to view categories of music you can choose from.
14. View all the genres by swiping up and down in the list. When you find a genre you want, tap the genre name in the list.
15. Swipe up and down the screen to view different sections of the genre page.
16. Tap Top Charts.
17. Top-selling albums in that genre appear on the screen. Tap a category to view new releases and top songs in the genre.
18. Tap the Back icon to return to the genre page.
19. Tap Genres to view a list of subgenres within the main genre.
20. Tap a subgenre in the list.
21. Top-selling albums in that subgenre appear on the screen. Swipe up and down the screen to view all the top albums.
22. Tap New Releases to view newly released songs and albums within that subgenre.
23. Tap Top Songs to view the best-selling songs in the subgenre.
24. Tap the Back icon to return to the genre page.
25. Tap the album or song tile on the screen to view more information.
26. The title and album cover appear at the top of the screen. You can purchase the entire album by tapping the orange purchase button that contains the album price.
27. Swipe from bottom to top on the page to view a description of the album and artist, view songs in the album, read reviews from other Google Play users who downloaded the songs or album, see more albums by the artist, and also view similar artists.
28. Swipe up and down the screen if necessary until you see the Songs section, and then tap a song name to play a 90-second snippet of that song.
29. Tap Play All to play all the snippets in the album.
30. Purchase a song on the album by tapping the purchase button that contains the price of that specific song.
A Song Says It’s “Album Only.” What Does That Mean?
You might not be able to purchase one or more individual songs within the album. Instead, you need to purchase the entire album to hear the song(s). When you see a song in the list that says “Album Only” it means you can’t purchase that individual song to download and listen to on your Galaxy S7.
31. Swipe down the screen until you see the album cover and then tap the orange price button.
32. The Google Play window appears with the price of the album and the credit card that the Google Play Store will use to process the transaction.
33. Tap Buy to purchase the album.
34. After you purchase the album, a Shopping bag with a checkmark tells you that you successfully downloaded the album to your Galaxy S7 (not shown).
Playing Songs and Creating a Playlist
The Play Music app makes it easy for you to listen to music from the Google Play Store directly within the app. When you like a song, the Play Music app also makes it easy to add the song to your playlist so you can open the playlist and play your favorite songs whenever you want.
1. Tap Google on the Home screen.
2. Tap Play Music.
3. From the Listen Now screen, tap the Menu icon at the left side of the menu bar, as discussed earlier in this chapter.
5. Within the list of categories in the orange menu bar, the selected category is Songs. Swipe from left to right to view more categories.
6. Swipe up and down the list of songs (if necessary) and then tap the song title in the list.
7. Tap the Pause button while you’re playing the song to pause playback.
8. Tap the Play button to resume playing the song (not shown).
9. Tap the Play bar at the bottom of the screen to view more options.
10. By default, the Repeat icon is active so the song will repeat when it finishes playing. Tap the icon to turn off the repeat feature; when the current song finishes playing, Google Music Player begins to play the next song in your queue.
11. Tap the Rewind icon to begin playing at the beginning of the song.
12. Tap the Pause button while you’re playing the song to pause playback.
13. Tap the Fast Forward icon to move to the end of the song.
14. Tap the Shuffle icon to play a random song in your library after the current song ends.
15. Rate the song so other Google Play Music users can see your rating by tapping the thumbs up (good) or thumbs down (bad) icon.
16. Tap the Library icon to view all songs in your library; you can listen to another song in your library by tapping the song in the list.
17. Return to the My Library screen by tapping the Back touch button.
18. Open the menu for the song by tapping the Menu icon to the right of the song name.
19. Tap Start Radio to add the song to your own personal radio station that you can then listen to on any Android smartphone, an Apple iPhone or iPod, or on the Google Play Music website.
20. Tap start Instant Mix to have the Play Music app randomly play all songs in the list.
21. Play the next song in the list by tapping Play Next.
22. Download the song to your Galaxy S7 by tapping Add to Queue.
23. Add the song to a new playlist by tapping Add to Playlist.
24. Within the Add to Playlist window, tap New Playlist to add the song to a new playlist in the New Playlist window.
25. Type the playlist name in the Name field.
26. Type a description of your playlist in the Description field.
27. Share your playlist with all other Google Play Music users who view your profile by sliding the Public slider button from left (off) to right (on). Otherwise, only you are able to hear music in the playlist.
28. Tap Create Playlist. A pop-up box appears at the bottom of the screen that informs you that Play Music added the song to your playlist. Open the song options menu again by tapping the Menu icon to the right of the song title.
29. View all the artist’s albums that you’ve added to your library by tapping Go to Artist.
30. View the album you’ve added to your library by tapping Go to Album.
31. Tap Delete to delete the song from your Galaxy S7 and from your playlist within the Play Music app.
32. Tap Share to share the song directly with another device using Android Beam, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi Direct, save the song to your Google Drive account, copy the song link to the clipboard, or share the song as a link within the Email, Facebook, Gmail, Google Hangouts, Memo, or Messages app.
33. Tap Shop This Artist to shop for more music from the artist in the Google Play Store.
34. Tap Buy to purchase the song in the Google Play Store.
35. Tap the Back touch button to return to the main Play Music screen.
Adding a Podcast App
One popular podcast manager is BeyondPod, and the lite version of it is free. The lite version has all the features of the Pro version except that scheduling of updates is disabled, you can update only one feed at a time, and you can download only one podcast at a time.
During the first 7 days after installation you can use the full version of BeyondPod at no charge. If you decide you want all the bells and whistles BeyondPod has to offer, you can purchase an unlock key for $6.99. If not, you can continue to use the free lite version indefinitely.
1. Find the BeyondPod app in the Google Play Store and install it. (Read Chapter 12, “Working with Android Applications,” for more information on getting apps from the Google Play Store.) After you have installed the app, tap Open to launch the app.
2. Tap Let’s Start in the Welcome screen.
3. Swipe up and down in the window and tap one or more podcast categories. After you tap a category, a checkmark appears in the upper-right corner of the category tile. When you’re finished, tap Continue.
4. Keep the default settings and tap Finish.
5. Scroll up and down the feeds list in the What to Play window within the My Feeds screen. Tap the down arrow to the right of a feed category name to view podcasts within that category.
6. Tap a podcast to view the episodes.
7. Tap No, Thanks to close the Quick Tour box at the top of the screen.
8. In the My Episodes screen, each recent episode appears as a tile on the screen. Swipe up and down the screen if necessary to view all recent episodes. If you don’t see the episode you want, tap See All Published Episodes at the bottom of the list.
9. Add an episode to your episode list by tapping the Menu icon within the episode tile and then tapping Add to My Episodes in the menu.
10. Return to the list of your episodes by tapping the podcast name in the menu bar.
11. Tap Download to download the episode to your Galaxy S7.
12. Tap Add to Playlist to add the episode to your playlist.
13. Tap the Menu icon to view a menu with more options.
14. Tap Delete Episode to delete the episode tile from the My Episodes screen.
15. Tap Set as Favorite to mark the episode as a favorite. After you add the episode as a favorite, the favorite icon (a red heart) appears to the left of the podcast publication date at the top of the tile.
16. Tap Mark Played to mark the episode as one you’ve already listened to. After you mark the episode as played, the episode tile is gray so you can’t play the episode.
17. Tap Share Episode to share the episode link using the Memo app, Android Beam, Facebook, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, the Messages app, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, Gmail or Email, or to copy the episode link to the clipboard.
18. Tap Play to play the episode.
19. The number of episodes in your playlist appears in the upper-right corner of the podcast tile in the feeds list. View all episodes in your playlist for that feed by tapping the playlist number.
20. Tap the car icon to view a large control area at the bottom half of the screen. This large control area includes a large Play button as well as buttons to rewind, fast forward, go to the beginning of the podcast, or skip to the end of the podcast.
21. Turn on sleep mode to pause the playback automatically after a certain period of time by tapping Sleep and then tapping the amount of time you want to play the podcast before it stops playing.
22. Change the playback speed by tapping 1x. Note that you can’t change the speed of streamed podcasts, which are podcasts that play while the podcast app receives the rest of the podcast.
23. Use the slider to shuttle through the podcast. When the podcast ends, BeyondPod begins to play the next episode in the playlist, if any.
24. Use the playback controls to pause, play, or jump forward or backward in the podcast.
25. View a menu with more options by tapping the Menu icon.
26. Tap Share Episode to share the episode link using the Memo app, Android Beam, Facebook, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, the Messages app, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, Gmail or Email, or to copy the episode link to the clipboard.
27. Tap Play Videos as Audio to play the episode in audio mode only.
28. Return to the My Episodes screen by tapping the down arrow icon.
29. The podcast information appears in the playback box at the bottom of the screen so you can play the episode by tapping the Play icon.
30. View the options menu for the My Episodes screen by tapping the Menu icon.
31. Tap Update Feed to refresh the current feed on the page.
32. Tap Sort to sort episodes in the My Episodes list by a variety of criteria, such as listing the episodes alphabetically by name.
33. Tap Filter to filter episodes in the My Episodes list by a variety of criteria, such as viewing only those episodes you downloaded to your Galaxy S7.
34. Tap Share Feed to share the feed link using the Memo app, Android Beam, Facebook, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, the Messages app, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, Gmail or Email, or to copy the feed link to the clipboard.
35. Tap Edit Feed to edit feed settings such as changing the feed category.
36. Tap Search to search for a feed in the BeyondPod database.
37. Tap Compact Cards to hide the brief description of the episode in each episode tile.
38. Tap Play Videos as Audio to play all episodes within the feed in audio mode only.
39. Close the menu by pressing the Back touch button.
By default, feeds are set to automatically update on a configurable interval. You can change the interval by tapping and holding on the left edge of the screen and then swiping right. Within the menu, tap Settings. In the BeyondPod Settings screen, tap Feed Update Settings to change the interval.
Deleting Feeds
If you want to delete a feed, tap and hold your finger on the left side of the screen and then swipe right. Within the menu, tap and hold on the feed name for a couple of seconds. A pop-up menu displays that includes a Delete Feed option.