PLEASE READ: After writing this post Simplify Media has pulled Simplify Music from the app store stating that they are going in a different direction.  Read my blog post here for more info.

I have a fairly large music library and hate the process of deciding which artists and playlists to put on my iPhone. Sometimes I want to share with a friend a new (or old) music artist I have discovered but alas, I don’t have them on my iPhone. What to do? Well, I found a solution with Simplify Music 2 ($7.99) by Simplify Media which will stream my entire music collection to my iPhone.

To begin you need to download a software application from Simplified Media that runs on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu machines and is free. Then you need to set up an account. Finally you need to chose whether to share your iTunes library or music folder. The application then goes through your music library to set up for streaming.

Note, that you can share your library with up to 30 people and all they have to do is download the software application to their computer and be invited by you. Nice if you want to share music libraries for free with friends on your computers. Also, the application lets you share your photo library across computers and users as well (there is a separate iPhone/iPod Touch app for photo sharing but I am not using it).

On to the iPhone/iPod Touch application. Once you are set up on your computer you then enter your account information into the app and it will pick up your music library. If your library is large this will take time between the computer application and the iPhone application. Have patience, it’s worth it. Also, if friends are sharing their music libraries with you they will show up in your media libraries.

Once the remote library you want to connect to is loaded click on it to access artists, albums, genres, songs and playlists. I used my iTunes library so my Genius playlists appear as well. Select a choice or search remote library(ies) for artist, album or song. I chose a playlist and shuffled my songs. The first song starts to play displaying the artist and song and album artwork. There are tabs to get more information about an artist as well as lyrics.

I’ve had Simplify Music for the last 2 weeks and have had no issues. Reading the reviews on the iTunes app store it does seem that some people are experiencing issues and bugs with the newest release but I have not run into any of them. I am actually streaming my library from a connected network drive with my iTunes library then on a Windows desktop which is connected wirelessly to my home network. Lots of places for music to slow down or run into lots of buffering of my music. However, everything runs smoothly. The only time I get some buffering is when the first song plays from my selection. Other than that I go from one song to the next with no interruption.

Some things to note about Simplify Music 2.

• It will not play DRM songs bought via iTunes.
• Your computer needs to be on in order to stream the music. There is no “cloud” where music is uploaded to, it is being streamed directly from your home (or business or wherever).
• Sometimes sound quality isn’t as good as if you were listening to the song directly on your iPhone/iPod Touch. I’ve noticed this with louder tracks.
• The app must be open on your iPhone/iPod Touch to play, it doesn’t work in the background like the iPod app.

Simplify Music features include:

• Works over Wifi and Edge/3G
• Easy setup, no router configuration
• Handles MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC and Apple Lossless files
• Search by artist, album, and song title across connected computers
• Ability to create on-the-fly playlists
• Resume playback from when you quit the application last
• Scrobble songs to your last.fm profile

As I stated previously, the app has worked perfectly for me and was easy to set up. I love that I have access to my whole music library and an added bonus is I can share my music with friends either for free on their own computers or on their iPhone/iPod Touch if they bought the app. One thing I plan on doing now I have Simplify Music on my iPhone is create more playlists to have on hand. The Genius function in iTunes works well for me pulling out songs I haven’t listened to in ages and puts them into interesting playlists.

If you have $7.99 to spend and are looking for a way to have access to your entire music library on your iPhone/iPod Touch without taking space on the device then I highly recommend Simplify Music.

Do you have a different way you access your music library remotely? Do tell.

(5.0/5.0)