2

I uploaded my whole music library on Google Music (through Google Music Manager) in order to have quick access from the web and sync it with my android phone (Galaxy Nexus). The original size was slighly more than 2GB but when I try to sync after a restore on my phone, the new size is nearly 10GB since Google performed the match and is now providing me high quality tracks (originally the quality was quite poor). Since I have overall 16GB on my phone, this is a bit too much to keep my whole library there and I would like to have lower quality (e.g. 256kbps or lower over the google default 320kbps) to save some space. Is this possible configuring any setting? If not, is there any workaround based on additional tools?

Thanks in advance, Michele

Improve this question
2
  • Google Music always attempts to stream (when possible) at 320kbps, and I would presume the files are all simply encoded that way on the server. The help page implies this somewhat, particularly for matching. There may not be anything you can do aside from re-encoding the files yourself at a lower bitrate and then copying them to your phone.
    – eldarerathis
    Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 12:54
  • Is it your intention to have all of your music on your device (offline)? As I understand it, this is not how it works by default - music is only cached on the device "temporarily", unless you have explicitly specified otherwise in your settings.
    – MrWhite
    Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 20:55

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a simple solution.

Your simple options seem to be:

  • Use Google Music and select a subset of music to keep offline
  • Don't use Google Music for offline tracks; instead sync them yourself
  • Use the "fix incorrect match" button on the web interface to force your low-quality songs to be uploaded (you can use gmusicapi to automate the process)
  • Make enough noise that Google devs take notice (I'm willing to bet their servers support this feature)

One last thing: I was under the impression that matching a song didn't automatically get you access to a 320kbs copy. When uploading, the Music Manager actually provides the bitrate of your copy of the song (here's my code); I've seen low quality (eg 128kbs) local copies matched and then produce a < 320kbs copy when redownloaded.

So, if you've got time to burn, you could conceivably use this to your advantage: re-encoding to poor quality locally and reuploading may result in lower-quality server matches.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks for the answer and your suggestions. I didn't know about the gmusicapi and it's interesting even if it does not solve my problem. I will just select the songs I want to listen each time till I get a phone with more storage allowing me to sync all of them.
    – Michele
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 9:57
  • I agree, you don't automatically get a 320kbps copy when downloaded. I had previously uploaded an album of 64kbps WMA files (which don't play on Android without additional codecs) - if I download these I get 64kbps mp3 files. Whilst these are now compatible with my device (which is great!), a 64kbps mp3 does not sound as good as a 64kbps mp3 file.
    – MrWhite
    Commented Mar 31, 2013 at 23:29

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .