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

MediaMonkey for Android has a few different versions available:

1. MediaMonkey (free): This is the free version of the application that has some feature limitations.
2. MediaMonkey Beta: This is the same as the free version, except that it includes the latest and greatest (and sometimes unstable) features
3. MediaMonkey Upgrades/Pro: These are upgrades to the free/beta versions that unlock individual or all features.
   

The free/beta versions of MediaMonkey have 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

The following upgrades are available:

• Wi-Fi Sync addon: Unlocks unlimited wireless synchronization. Available as an in-app purchase.
• UPnP/DLNA addon: Unlocks unlimited UPnP/DLNA usage. Available as an in-app purchase.
• Advanced Media Management addon: Unlocks home screen customization, folder browser. Available as an in-app purchase.
• MediaMonkey Pro: Unlocks all functionality, and provides all of the addon features described above in one bundle. Available in the App Store.

MediaMonkey Beta includes the latest, but often untested features that have been developed, and should only be used by experienced testers.  To access the beta, install the latest version of 'MediaMonkey'' then register in Google Play for the beta program. After a period of time, your MediaMonkey build will automatically be updated to the latest beta version (and will continue to be automatically updated with the latest beta builds unless you de-register from the beta program).

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).