Hi

I'm really struggling with music management on Android, can somebody please help me get my head around some basics, it's likely that I am coming from a different environment and can't 'get' this. Previously, I used Zune and a WinPhone.

I have about 70GB of owned music I have ripped, it's all whole albums that I have originals for that have been ripped over time, using apps like iTunes, where the full ID3 tag, Artist info, Album art, track numbers and names are correct and the music is correctly recognised by other applications and devices I have used over the years this music collection has been made. It's only whole albums, I only like to listen to whole albums in the order the songs are pressed and very rarely deviate from this.

I uploaded my music library to Google Play Music a month ago. It matched only about 60% of the music and I assume that the other 40% is stuff they don't have in their catalogue. As my phone only has a 16GB microSD, I then selected about 4GB of albums to 'save locally' by 'pinning' it in the phone interface. So far, my expectation is that those 30 or 40 albums are all I can see and listen to when I'm out and about. Some of these albums are not matched by Google as mentioned earlier. I listen to music when I work out or go walking/running etc, so I expect the music to just play as I have selected it.

Here's where it all falls apart:

1. Under 'My Library on Device' (the albums I expect are locally by my selection) I have tracks from artists and albums I have never owned, purchased or even listen to at all. They are not pinned - so I have no idea how they get to 'My Library on Device' as my understanding is that this is what it says it is.

2. The unmatched albums are being broken apart and individual tracks are being matched to other albums, for example, a various artists album that has artist1-track1, artist2-track2 etc. is being matched with another album artist2 did and I now have these items that are albums with one track floating around (not the same tracks as in #1).

3. Tracks are playing at varying volume levels across the same album. This has only been observed with albums that have been matched - for example, Green Day's American Idiot, which I ripped, which plays perfectly on my local PC copy, which is matched when uploaded, plays the first three tracks at such various volume levels, I have to stop, adjust the volume of the device and then, by track four, I get blasted out when the volume returns to normal.

4. Google "support" constantly suggests that I wipe, clear and reset my device to try again.

All I want is some albums on my device and to listen to those only as I choose. Am I asking too much, is there another way to do this? I'd prefer to not have a PC involved if I can as my desktop environment is more of a workbench and my mobile is always used as a clean work device, so the instability that my desktop environment may lend is unwelcomed. If I have to use a PC, then I would prefer an Ubuntu based music management system.

Thanks for any suggestions or help in advance, sorry for the long post, listening to music when I work is very, very important to me and I'd like to hear how others get this done or deal with Android music.


Gund