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Milk...my alternative to XM

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by sprtent, Apr 8, 2014.

  1. sprtent

    sprtent Member

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    Lately I have been using this free "Milk" music app on my phone and bluetooth it to the car. I thought I share with you guys, because I love it. I realize not everyone's Prius has BT, and not everyone has a lot of phone data to use app on-the-go. But if you do, I think you will like it :)

    I still have 1 month of XM, but for several months now, XM signal on my car has been very bad; at times, unlistenable. Sound are off and on every 2-3 seconds at times, not always. And this is not when there is some obstacles like bridges, trees, etc.

    I found this free music app on my Samsung Note 3. Music channels are very similar to XM. It does not have other entertainment channels like talk radios, sports, disney, and the like. But wow, it has so many music channels for so many different types of music. It's ad-free. It allows you to skip forward to next song 6 times. And best of all, I can still use the (-)/(+) buttons on steering wheel to skip songs. The sound quality is just like XM to me.

    Downside is, ofcourse, you will use your phone data (for me this is not an issue because I have an old but unlimitted data plan from Verizon :)). It does not display singer/song name on my 2010 Nav screen (it does on my 2013 LS460). One of my pics is where I mount my phone, so for me all the control on my phone is right there. On the other pic, I wanted to take a screenshot of some of the music channels, but I couldn't; so this is a pic of the song playing.

    I also have Pandora and iHeartRadio music apps on my phone, but ... imho, there are no comparision here. I haven't use this app on extended long drive to see if there is a cutoff after a certain number of hours, or other catches. But so far so good :)
    milk2.PNG milk1.JPG
     
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  2. joeman

    joeman Member

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    Awesome Dude!
    Will keep that in mind.
    When your not in your car, you can hook your phone up to wifi when available.
    And listen to it that way.
    Sounds like you live in your car, haha
    In my car I don't have bluetooth, so I transmit my music by way of a FM transmitter.
    That is from my a smartphone.
    Hey, it's old school and cheap and it works.
     
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  3. BluetoothEdsel

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  4. neez

    neez Member

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    I use the Beats music app and Slacker radio. I only have a 2GB plan, and either app will use up my data quickly within a few hours of driving. So when i'm home, i can download playlists on wifi, or create my own playlist and download all the songs at home. Then listen to them on my drive. Both apps allow me to skip forward with my steering wheel controls in my other car via bluetooth, i don't yet have a navi HU on the prius yet.
     
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  5. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    For now. ;)

    Just like other car focused phone apps, I quickly tire of pulling out my phone from my front pocket (after I'm all ready belted in) and/or forgetting it when getting out of the car; also battery loss, data limits, and flaky apps (crashes, poor signal, ad pop ups, same commercials over and over) and no convenient place to put the phone. Thus, I prefer using a built in solution like XM (sound quality aside) for day to day commuting but I use Pandora or the apple music app on longer road trips.
     
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  6. sprtent

    sprtent Member

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    :) I do realize it's not for everyone since many people use apple and most don't have unlimitted data to use on car app. Then there's the inconvienent factor of bluetooth connecting. And of course, all good things will come to an end.

    Look like my first picture is not loading up correctly, or it might have been banned :) I'll take this as a sign for me not to favor any product while posting. Let me just say though, with the weak XM antenna/signal, this is working out wonderful for me, way better than XM. I would do this over XM even if my XM is free :)
     
  7. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    That's great.
    And for those that want and can use it great.

    We really have come a long way. I remember when I was younger, I had bought a stripped down Nissan Pick-Up. One of the luxuries I saved up and added later was a stereo and a automobile CD changer. This was literally a 10 disk CD player that was hidden behind the seat. At the time it was "cutting edge". I thought it was so cool to be able to load 10 disks and play them through my Pick-Up Stereo.

    Now? I have about 650 of my favorite songs downloaded on a USB stick, smaller than my thumb.
     
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  8. VicVinegar

    VicVinegar Member

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    This is why I'll keep unlimited data until they pry it away. Even just a few podcasts a week and some streaming music can put a dent in a 2GB cap. I'm almost there now and wouldn't consider my use to be "heavy".
     
  9. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    For those on even the cheapest T-Mobile plans, you can use Pandora with reckless abandon. Once your 1 gb of high speed data is used up, your data is throttled to 2G speeds. To my delight, Pandora still works perfectly. Through BT, my old iPhone 4s works okay but when USB connected through Entune, I get album art. I haven't tried apple radio or iheart radio at 2g speeds as Pandora is my goto music app.


    iPhone ?
     
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  10. DaWeav

    DaWeav Junior Member

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    Just to add some additional information about the Milk Music app, I've read that it is exclusively for select Samsung devices (my S3 included), it uses Slacker Radio for its music service, and they say that it's only free (just commercials free) for a limited time. I'm guessing that the limited time may end when the shiny new S5 hype is over.

    I actually use the Slacker Radio app vice Milk Music since it has a few more powerful features like 'resume play on startup'. But neither app supports Chromecast! As for the Slacker Radio app, I haven't noticed that many commercials anyway.

    Still, Samsung's Milk Music is a good start for Samsung, but I just hope they support it better than their defunct KiesCast podcast app.

    Nexus 7 ?
     
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