Techy question...

[Bubblehead]

I have an i-phone 6s. I'll be hiking 800+ miles this year from Pearisburg to Wingdale NY and was wondering how to play music on the trail. I have my own songs on Amazon music app, but it'll only play when I have internet reception. Is there a way to play music on trail when you don't have reception? Please enlighten me....Thanks.

[Uncle Joe]

Download the music to the phone ahead of time. For Amazon you can download them in mp3 form to your computer then import them into iTunes. From there sync them to the phone.

[Bubblehead]

Thanks Uncle Joe; I'll give it a try!

[Traffic Jam]

You don't have to import them into iTunes. You can download them through the Amazon music app on your phone. There are several ways to do it.

Open the app, select "Artists", select an artist and under their name are 4 choices. The third choice from the left will download the songs from that artist.

You can also download songs individually but this takes a long time.
Select "Songs" and next to each song are three dots. Touch the dots and you'll get 6 options, one is to download the song.

[Uncle Joe]

You don't have to import them into iTunes. You can download them through the Amazon music app on your phone. There are several ways to do it.

Open the app, select "Artists", select an artist and under their name are 4 choices. The third choice from the left will download the songs from that artist.

You can also download songs individually but this takes a long time.
Select "Songs" and next to each song are three dots. Touch the dots and you'll get 6 options, one is to download the song.

Hadn't thought of that but I don't use Amazon much for music. It's a good point. If you're already in the Amazon eco-system it makes sense to stay there.

I avoid streaming my music for exactly this reason. I turned iTunes Match on once. It seemed like a good idea, all of my music in the cloud, until I walked out of a Subway and my last song wouldn't continue to play until I went down the road a bit.

[Bubblehead]

Thanks Traffic Jam! Will give it a try.

[Traffic Jam]

Hadn't thought of that but I don't use Amazon much for music. It's a good point. If you're already in the Amazon eco-system it makes sense to stay there.

I avoid streaming my music for exactly this reason. I turned iTunes Match on once. It seemed like a good idea, all of my music in the cloud, until I walked out of a Subway and my last song wouldn't continue to play until I went down the road a bit.

I have both iTunes and Amazon and generally purchase more music from iTunes. I'm one of those who prefers to own my music rather than pay a monthly subscription.

[Uncle Joe]

I have both iTunes and Amazon and generally purchase more music from iTunes. I'm one of those who prefers to own my music rather than pay a monthly subscription.

I'm the same way. And I like managing it myself.

[rafe]

Just be aware that tunes on your device eat up memory. By my rough estimate, a typical album of music is 160 MBytes (as standard MP3.) YMMV for different quality settings, encoding methods, etc.

I have about 1/2 or 3/4 of my music collection, about 200 albums worth, on a 32G flash drive. Some stuff never got RIP'd or converted. Converting LPs (old vinyl) to MP3 is tedious. CDs are quicker and easier to RIP.

On my Android devices, I just side-load the MP3s. Plug the phone into any PC, its storage appears to the PC as an external hard drive. Copy the files with Explorer. Done.

Back in the Sony Walkman days, I hiked with a guy who was carrying several dozen cassettes of Grateful Dead concerts in his pack. Trail name Dead Ahead. And yeah, he made it to Katahdin.

[saltysack]

Spotify the best $9.99 per month.....any music any time but easily store playlist for off network.....works like a charm....disclaimer my company pays my subscription....


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[ldsailor]

Here's a different take on the subject. If you are listening to music, how will you hear the sounds of the forest? I want to hear that rattler before I see it. Last October, things were very dry. I sometimes heard water that I couldn't see and wasn't documented in the guide or in Guthook.

I thought about listening to music while hiking, but quickly dismissed the idea when I got on the trail.

[DuneElliot]

I have Amazon and download all purchases to my phone and computer and then back them up. You don't "rent" music from Amazon you can either stream it directly or download it.

I listen to music also while hiking, especially through denser brush where I don't want to surprise a bear or moose. I try to keep my music nature-centric when I'm hiking...mostly New Age, classical or some Gaelic tunes.

[alborg2]

I originally used Amazon music, having downloaded both purchased and free Prime music local to my Iphone. It worked most of the time, but on multiple occasions I was unable to listen to any of it on a hike because there was no internet service, and for some strange reason the app refused to play anything without first being able to connect to the internet. Since then I have switched to saving everything as an .mp3 file on my laptop and syncing the folder containing those files to the phone with Itunes. It's a bit of a pain, but at least I know I'll always be able to access the tunes even without service. I also use the free Windows app "MP3 Quality Modifier" to first change the bitrate of all the songs to 130 kbps, which typically reduces the size of a file by 50% without noticeable loss of audio quality using ear buds.

[Starchild]

Here's a different take on the subject. If you are listening to music, how will you hear the sounds of the forest? I want to hear that rattler before I see it. Last October, things were very dry. I sometimes heard water that I couldn't see and wasn't documented in the guide or in Guthook.

I thought about listening to music while hiking, but quickly dismissed the idea when I got on the trail.

HYOH what works for you does not work for everyone.

[Miner]

If you aren't after the most recent release, Amazon can be cheaper to buy music from than iTunes. Ironically, many of their older CD's come with a free MP3 download of the music and it costs less than just buying the MP3 album. The fact that buying a physical CD + free MP3 version is cheaper than just the MP3 version doesn't make economic sense, but Amazon seems to be making a profit anyway.

The Amazon music player isn't very good and I normally only use it to download music that I bought and use a different app to play. If you are streaming music from Amazon though, you are stuck with their app. In response to a post above, you mean that you can download music through Amazon, without having to sync with iTunes and actually have it play on an iPhone? I wasn't aware that was possible. I thought everything had to be synced with iTunes and it is one of the reasons I moved to Android where it is just drag and drop.

[centerfieldr162]

Spotify user here. I don't listen to music on the trail but if that's what you are going for then I'd suggest it. Student account for first year $5 per month but you can get discounts for the first few months before you pay the full price if you enter your email. They'll send you some emails with promo codes to get you to pay for it. I don't like to pay for music when I can stream for free on other sites and apps but spotify changed the game for me.

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[alborg2]

In response to a post above, you mean that you can download music through Amazon, without having to sync with iTunes and actually have it play on an iPhone? I wasn't aware that was possible. I thought everything had to be synced with iTunes and it is one of the reasons I moved to Android where it is just drag and drop.

The Amazon Music app for the Iphone allows you to either listen to music from the cloud or download it locally to the phone. This can be either purchased music or all of the free music that comes with a Prime membership. Amazon Music app also has access to any songs you synced with ITunes. But because it sometimes would not open at all without network access I ditched it. I've also had several instances where I had downloaded Prime music, and several months later it would no longer play because for some reason the song had been removed from the Prime library.

[Whack-a-mole]

People are so quick to spout with HYOH, but with that being said, please be polite with your music. We were down below Nantahala last year, and a young guy had packed in a pretty good sized radio, and set it up so everyone in camp could "enjoy" some tunes. I had walked a long way to get away from that. I didn't say anything trying to be polite, but later realized that I should have, because I was pissed off the whole time I was there, and that's absolutely the wrong attitude to have when you are trying to enjoy the woods and get away.

[DuneElliot]

If you aren't after the most recent release, Amazon can be cheaper to buy music from than iTunes. Ironically, many of their older CD's come with a free MP3 download of the music and it costs less than just buying the MP3 album. The fact that buying a physical CD + free MP3 version is cheaper than just the MP3 version doesn't make economic sense, but Amazon seems to be making a profit anyway.

The Amazon music player isn't very good and I normally only use it to download music that I bought and use a different app to play. If you are streaming music from Amazon though, you are stuck with their app. In response to a post above, you mean that you can download music through Amazon, without having to sync with iTunes and actually have it play on an iPhone? I wasn't aware that was possible. I thought everything had to be synced with iTunes and it is one of the reasons I moved to Android where it is just drag and drop.

I guess I should have mentioned this or been more clear. I use a different app to listen to my downloaded Amazon music. I have to copy the files to a different folder but that way I know they are available any time I want them and aren't just hanging out in cyberspace.

People are so quick to spout with HYOH, but with that being said, please be polite with your music. We were down below Nantahala last year, and a young guy had packed in a pretty good sized radio, and set it up so everyone in camp could "enjoy" some tunes. I had walked a long way to get away from that. I didn't say anything trying to be polite, but later realized that I should have, because I was pissed off the whole time I was there, and that's absolutely the wrong attitude to have when you are trying to enjoy the woods and get away.

I hike with music, and as mentioned it is as nature-centric as much as possible. I keep it at a moderate level so that I can hear other things going on and I do turn it off immediately upon coming up on other campers, backpackers, hikers or horseback riders, or when I see wildlife around so I don't spook them.

[happypad]

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