Experiencing Audio Stuttering While Playing On Android?

Every once in a while we have heard reports of random stuttering of music when you turn your screen off. Sometimes we could track the issue down to a bluetooth connection, but other times, the source of the issue stumped us. But, we did find an interesting post on Reddit where user, PlsGoVegan reports an interesting fix.

It seems that by disabling the "Hey Google" hotword detection, the audio stuttering issue is fixed.

If you are running into this issue, try disabling this hotword and let us know if it works for you as well!

Empty Library in Rocket Player

We are currently aware of a bug in Rocket Player that will results in the Rocket Player scanner running indefinitely and no music appearing in your library. This is definitely not the experience you should be having. We already have a fix for this and have uploaded it to the Google Play Store. Unfortuntately, the Google Play Store is recently taking around 7 days to approve and release updates.
In the meantime, you can get the latest version from the Amazon App Store.


Amazon App Store


Rocket Player on Amazon App Store


As soon as the Google Play Store updates with the new version, I will update that here.

In the meantime, try the Amazon version and please let us know if you are still seeing issues so we can get it fixed ASAP.

Update on Apple's new Music App and iSyncr

If you have recently upgraded your Mac to Catalina, you have probably noticed that iTunes is nowhere to be found. Apple has replaced iTunes with the Music and Podcast apps. These brand new apps have definitely created a bit more difficulty with iSyncr, but the good news is that we have already released an update to work with the new Music app. Here are some of the details for syncing on Catalina.

Music App

We have a special version of iSyncr Desktop specifically for Catalina users. So you will want to click on the iSyncr Desktop icon in your menu bar and select Check for Update. You may need to do this twice in order to get to version 6.0.3+. Additionally, we have rolled support for the new Music app into our dark themed version of iSyncr.

If you are a current white themed user and plan to move to the new version of Mac OS, you will need to upgrade to the dark themed version of iSyncr.

Podcast App

We are still waiting on more details about the new Podcast app for Mac OS. We are hopeful we can support it but as of now, there is no interface into the Podcasts app like there is with the Music app. But we are keeping our fingers crossed that an interface will be in an upcoming release. For now, if you use iSyncr to sync podcasts, I would recommend waiting to upgrade your Mac to Catalina.

In the meantime, never hesitate to email me if you have questions or concerns.

Thanks for being iSyncr supporters!

Death of iTunes? What does that mean for iSyncr?

You may have seen in the news recently that Apple announced their plans to replace iTunes on Macs with their Music and Podcast apps that are currently on iOS devices. This understandably has led to many emails to us asking about the future of iSyncr. I thought I could outline our current plans here to help alleviate any concerns.

Windows Users

For those Windows users out there, Apple has said that they currently are not planning to make that same move for Windows. That means that iSyncr will continue to work with iTunes on Windows just as it has for the last decade.

Mac Users

For Mac users, we have been investigating and plan to support the new Music app with iSyncr in our dark themed version of iSyncr. We have a beta version of support ready for anyone wanting to try it.

If you are a current white themed user and plan to move to the new version of Mac OS, you will want to upgrade to the dark themed version of iSyncr at that time.

Podcast App

We are still waiting on more details about the new Podcast app for Mac OS. We are hopeful we can support it as well but we just don’t know yet until we have more information.

In the meantime, never hesitate to email me if you have questions or concerns. And if you are interested in being a member of our beta, please email [email protected].

Thanks for being iSyncr supporters!

Introducing Fuel Music Player!

Introducing a new music player from JRT Studio, Fuel Music Player! This new music player has a fresh design and speedy responsiveness, yet also has an awesome custom audio engine on the backend, attempting to marry the two. Check it out on the Play Store and see what you think!

At this point, Fuel Music Player is what we’d call high-quality beta software. Tons of features are missing, planned and on the way, so if you give it a try, we’d love to hear your feedback as we continue to improve the app going forward.

I hear you saying, what about Rocket Player?!? Well, Rocket Player isn’t going anywhere. It isn’t dead and still has features that are not available in Fuel Music Player. We love music players and our nine years of experience developing on Android tells us there is no “best” designed player. As such, we plan to continue to develop both, cross-pollinating features when it makes sense, but they are different players with different feels. You are free to love one more than the other, or love both the same!

As always, our apps have feedback buttons, feel free to use them! We’d love to hear from you.

Amazon Appstore Having Issues (Again)

Just like in the past, the Amazon Appstore is having some internal issues and isn't allowing anyone to download Rocket Player. We don't know or understand why, and Amazon hasn't responded to any of our support requests over this memorial day weekend. Unfortunately, we cannot make them do anything and can only sit and wait on a resolution.

For those interested, here is what Amazon shows us for Rocket Player device support. We are aware that a few old phones and Kindle's are not supported, but everything else should be.

Update: 5/30/18 - Amazon finally got back to us with a response, and it seems to be a canned response saying some apps get restricted. Nothing in the Amazon Dev Console UI says the app is restricted, nor does the submission accepted email. We've asked for more information.

Update: 6/02/18 - Amazon didn't say why Rocket Player isn't showing in the store, despite saying it is live. However, Amazon noted that Rocket Player failed one test, which I was aware of. I fixed that test and re-submitted, and it appears Rocket Player is available again.

-Justin

Lyrics: Sad to have to say goodbye

I’m sad to say that after three years, I’ve had to unpublish my Lyrics application from the Play Store. Four years ago, I had a vision of creating a lyrics app that could be used by any music players on the market, including my own. There was an application in the market previously that legally showed lyrics, but they then decided to morph into being a music player instead of a lyric providing application, so I felt like there was again a gap for an autonomous lyrics tool that could be used by many. As such, I started digging into trying to replace this lyrics application with one of my own. Unfortunately, very few companies out there hold the licenses needed for displaying lyrics. Luckily, I found one willing to work with me. The bad news is that they wanted me to guarantee them an ad revenue rate that is barely attainable in the U.S. and Europe and I wanted to distribute to the whole world. It seems crazy to me to deny lyrics to Brazilians or Indonesians because of some archain price point set back before smartphones were invented. To complicate matters, the company wanted as much per lyric view as Spotify currently pays an artist when their song is played. Wow. I love songwriters, but getting as much per lyric view as a full Spotify song play seems a bit excessive. My repeated offers to split all ad revenue 50% were rejected. I still don’t fully understand why. So lastly, we settled on a subscription model. It was something new. Untested waters. Maybe it could work?

The deal was struck, and I built the lyrics app I wanted. You could view lyrics within the app, or any music player could integrate with the app to see lyrics directly. It wasn’t a competing music player, it was a source of lyrics for all Android users. I was pumped to have created what Android needed. However, within two weeks of release, I had my answer. People don’t want to pay for lyrics. During the trial period, a high percentage of users were loving the app. Usage was extremely high. Feedback was great. Then the paywall hit. Under 1% of users who were loving the app were willing to support my work and the songwriters with cash. That trend held true for three years. I lost money every single year, plus the development cost. I held out hope but in the end nothing was going to change unless the business model changed.

I made one last pitch to the company holding the licenses for an ad model. I thought maybe three years would have been enough to move from the crazy high minimums being imposed across the world, but alas, it was not enough.

Maybe one day I’ll find a lyrics deal that makes sense as a business model. The code is already written. Until then, I’ll curiously watch the market. My guess is that companies and apps in the lyrics market will come and go until someone secures a deal with a much lower minimum. Maybe Genius has done that. Maybe MusiXmatch has. If they haven’t secured a partnership type deal, I think they won’t be around too long.

In the end, I hate to see the end of Lyrics from JRT Studio but I have to put my time and energy into my other apps. Thank you to those that did support this experiment. It really does mean a lot to me. I hope you understand this decision.

-Justin

Android Auto Support Issues

As most of you know, Rocket Player has full Android Auto support now! Yay! You can easily control your favorite Android music player from your car's Android Auto interface. This gives you Rocket Player's incredible sound, customizable EQ, filters and more, all on your daily commute.

While Rocket Player has been working great for most everyone, some people are seeing issues. This makes sense, as Android Auto itself is still quite new and not battle tested. Further, car manufacturers aren't known for their stellar software. So if you've found an issue, please follow the following steps.

  1. Are you seeing this issue on your phone or on a car stereo? If you are seeing this on your car stereo, try using Android Auto on your phone
  2. You are seeing an issue using the phone app? If the issue isn't one of the known issues listed below, please email [email protected] so we can work on the issue with you.
    • No text is initially shown in the menu, but the text is clickable.

Bluetooth For Your Home Stereo

While I work, I'm constantly testing JRT Studio's products. I'm a believer in using what you make. As such, I usually stream music via Bluetooth to some desktop speakers instead of plugging the phone in. This allows for testing Rocket Player's Bluetooth compatibility. The trouble is that these speakers are made to plug into your computer and don't have Bluetooth. So I've been using various Bluetooth receivers. My favorite has been the Sony MW600, as it shows you what song is playing. However, after years of use, the battery is now down to three or four hours tops before needing to be re-charged, as a result. So I ordered the newer Sony device, SBH52, however, it randomly disconnects which is completely unacceptable. So now it is on to device number three, the "Mpow", pictured above. This device is super cheap with great ratings on Amazon, so I'm really interested to see how it goes.

-Justin

Rocket Player And Samsung "Close All" Bug

After receiving some scattered reports, I finally figured out why some people are saying Rocket Player is unresponsive. The issue I've identified is with Samsung's task killer. If you use the "Close All" button or swipe Rocket Player away on Samsung devices running 6.0.1, I can confirm that Rocket Player may stop responding.

I don't currently have a timeline for a fix, but I'll be devoting most of my time to fixing this issue. However, Android Auto support is in beta and might hold up this fix. Right now, Google keeps flagging my Android Auto support, claiming that voice support does not work. However, it works great for me and they will not disclose how to reproduce the issue they are seeing. I won't be surprised if they reject the full update and continue to refuse to give details on the test they are doing that is failing.

Your best option to get this fix quickly is to join our beta program for Rocket Player.

Update: This Samsung issue is now worked around by the latest beta version. 4.3.38 and later has this fix.

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