MediaMonkey for Android: Introduction

MediaMonkey for Android (MMA), is designed to be a great standalone media manager/player, and an even better companion to MediaMonkey for Windows (MMW).

When used on its own, it provides much of the advanced media management functionality that users expect of MediaMonkey products.  When used in conjunction with MMW, it lets you share your media between your desktop and devices so that your media library and most of its attributes (e.g. metadata including multiple attributes per field, ratings, play history, bookmarks, etc.) are the same, whether you're on your phone/device or at your desk.  You'll have a single consistent view of your media collection.

When MMA is used as a standalone application, it depends on the Android operating system for media scanning and playback.  Whatever formats are supported by your device will be supported by MediaMonkey, and whatever fields are read by the Android scanner on your device will be visible in MediaMonkey. In general, this means that most popular audio/video formats can be played (with some exceptions, especially on older devices), but that some fields may not be read (e.g. Album Art in some cases, Album Artist field, Ratings, Composer, Play history, Bookmarks, and fields such as Artists that may have more than a single attribute).

When MMA is used in conjunction with a MMW server, metadata for all supported formats is synced directly between the server and the device, so that even if the Android OS doesn't support a particular metadata item, it will appear in MMA.  The downside, of course, is that although other Android apps can read media and playlists synced with MMA, they may not see certain fields (e.g. ratings).

Requirements

MediaMonkey runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher. Some features may work with Android 2.3 (Froyo) as well, but it isn't a supported platform.

Starting and Terminating MediaMonkey

MMA can be started in a number of ways:

• By clicking the icon
• By clicking a widget (player widget or playlist widget) or lock screen player control
• By initiating playback via a bluetooth device or headset button

MMA is terminated by:

• Exiting the application (when it isn't playing), and waiting for icon in the notification tray to disappear.  The amount of time that it remains in the notifications bar is configurable via Options > 'Show in notifications bar'
• Opening the notification tray and clicking the 'Stop' button

Versions and Licensing

There are 3 versions of MediaMonkey for Android:

1. MediaMonkey (free): This is the free version of the application
2. MediaMonkey Pro: This is an unlocker that unlocks certain features that aren't available in the free version.
3. MediaMonkey Beta: This is a test version that includes all (including Pro) features, but must be re-installed/updated every 15 days or else it expires.

The free version of MediaMonkey has limitations on:

• Wi-Fi Sync - limited to 7 days
• UPnP/DLNA - limited to 30 minutes at a time
• Folder browsing
• Configurable home screen
• Lyrics lookup

MediaMonkey Beta includes the latest, but often untested features that have been developed, and should only be used by experienced testers.  It expires 15 days after the last install (but has no limitations as far as any features). If you continually update to a new MediaMonkey Beta build every 15 days, you can use it indefinitely without purchasing MMA Pro...though there's no guarantee that a beta build will be published every 15 days.

MediaMonkey Pro unlocks the limitations of both MediaMonkey and MediaMonkey Beta. It:

• Unlocks all Pro features in MediaMonkey
• Allows the MediaMonkey beta builds to be used indefinitely

Note that MediaMonkey for Windows and MediaMonkey for Android are licensed independently.  If you have a MMW Gold license it doesn't give you an MMA Pro license (or vice versa).