Musicians, how do you like using your iPhone?

[Daniel0418]

I am a long time Android user. I think Android OS in its current state is designed in a more efficient way in regards to multitasking, app switching, and notifications than iOS. But, I have always been a phone geek and I love iOS I switch to and from pretty often. When the iPhone SE was announced I was pretty thrilled because to me the iPhone 5 was arguably the best designed smartphone of my life time. So I went out and got it, and I am coming from the Nexus 6P so the adjustment is real. I am having a blast, but as a musician I am struggling with some of the features on iOS because of some of the limitations. Being out of the iPhone game since the initial launch of the iPhone 6, I am wondering if you forum dwellers might have a workaround for the biggest limitation for me as a musician.

Music downloads. I am a drummer, and as a drummer I receive new music from new artists I play with all of the time and I need a way to listen to their songs on the go. Most musicians I have met either email their songs to me, or send a Dropbox link with a list of songs they are working on. Most of the time these are demo songs. Songs not on Google Play Music, Apple Music, or Spotify. Generally what I do on my Android phones is download all of the tracks and I can open them up with any music app on Android including the built in Google Play Music app. I can listen to them consecutively or sort them however I would like so I can play along to them on a drum set or practice pad. iOS is sandboxed and doesn't allow this. With iOS I have not found an alternative way for me to do deal with this limitation. I can't download the songs anywhere so I have no way of getting them together or sort them and play them consecutively. I can stream them through Dropbox or via the mail app, but I have to shuffle through emails or continue to choose new songs every time I want to switch to another track via Dropbox. Is there a way to improve on this? Is there an app that will allow me to save music onto my phone or in an app that will play them consecutively and keep them all together and/or sort them?

And just as a bonus question. As a musician, what apps do you guys find most important on your iPhone? What apps can you not live without? In what ways do some of you use your phones than differ from non-music folk?

Thanks for any replies, I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

There are several USB Drives such as "file hub" in the apps store which you can download install on your iPhone. Then in your mail, download the music and open with anyone of those USB like apps you have install. Generally, those application will create a folder "import" and store all your imported files in there, you can then rearrange to your liking the files within the applications.
I'm not a musician, but I have garage band installed on my iPhone to play some armature piano from time to time. You can try it and see if it's good for you or not.
I have several apps I cannot live without, ranging from call recording apps to games and photo/videos and note taking apps. Apart from making phones and sending messages, my 6s plus is my main gaming device and I play games for 1h on it every day before sleep.

 

[Daniel0418]

Thank you for the reply. I will give that app a shot. Looking for any other creative suggestions.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I can download recorded .wav files via the Spark email app. Give that a shot for downloading the music sent you. Worst case scenario, download on desktop and then transfer to the phone.

I am a musician, I record guitar riffs on my phone pretty frequently. I used to only use Voice Memos, though Apple's new Music Memos app is pretty nice. I also use a microphone, I can't remember the brand off the top of my head, I bought it at Guitar Center for $100 and it plugs directly into the Lightning port.

For music listening, I absolutely avoid using my phone as much as possible. I like good sound quality and Apple severely lacks in that department. However, Radsone has a 10 band equalizer, it makes music listenable on my phone, just nowhere near good. Other than that, I just stream Pandora or Sirius to my truck and/or rental vehicles for work.

 

[Daniel0418]

Thank you very much for the reply. I didn't even know about the Music Memos app. That is great to know. I will give Spark Mail a try starting tomorrow. Where does it download the songs to?

 

[metllicamilitia]

Thank you very much for the reply. I didn't even know about the Music Memos app. That is great to know. I will give Spark Mail a try starting tomorrow. Where does it download the songs to?

Spark gives you the option of where you want to download to, so it really depends on what you have installed for all options. I believe the last one I was able to download showed up in my Music. If my friends don't put titles on their files it won't download properly.