Android Hubs, Part 2: The Music Hub
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The Music Hub app, which comes pre-installed with Android 4 on your Galaxy Tab, is the one place to shop for music online, download and listen to your music, and also listen to audio files that are already stored on your Galaxy Tab. Samsung has partnered with 7digital to provide music tracks for the Music Hub app, and in this article you’ll learn to shop the 7digital online catalog from within the app.
Tap the Music Hub icon at the bottom of the home screen as shown in Figure 1. Read the disclaimer and then tap Confirm. Note that you can skip viewing the message for ninety days from the date you view the disclaimer by tapping the Skip this message for 90 days checkbox.
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Figure 1 The Music Hub icon appears at the far left of a row of icons at the bottom of the home screen.
After a few seconds, the Music Hub screen displays the Featured page as shown in Figure 2. Top-selling albums appear in the Top Albums section and new album releases appear in the New Releases section. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the Featured Albums section title bar.
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Figure 2 The opening Music Hub screen displays the top-selling albums, new album releases, and the Featured Albums section title bar.
You can swipe down the page to view the featured album in the Featured Albums section and also view the top ten tracks being downloaded by fellow Music Hub users in the Top Tracks section shown in Figure 3. If you want to see more songs and albums in the section, tap More at the right side of the section title bar. For example, tap More at the right side of the Top Albums title bar to open a new page and view a list the twenty most popular albums within the Top Albums section. Return to the Featured page by tapping the Music Hub icon at the left end of the menu bar at the top of the screen.
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Figure 3 Play thirty second snippets of all the songs in the Top Tracks section by tapping Play All to the right of the Top Tracks section title bar.
If you want to view tracks within a track within the Top Albums, New Releases, or Featured Albums section, tap the album cover to open the album and then view the tracks within the album as shown in Figure 4. Tap a song in the list to open the song window (also shown in Figure 4) and listen to a thirty second snippet of the song.
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Figure 4 A series of blue lines appears to the right of the track name when you're listening to the track in the song window.
At the top of the window, you can increase or decrease the volume by holding your finger down and dragging on the dot within the volume slider bar. Pause playback by tapping the Pause button, which is the large button with the two parallel lines. When you tap the Pause button, the icon in the button changes to Play (a triangle that points to the right) so you can resume playing the song. On the left side of the Pause button, tap the Rewind button to start playing the song from the beginning. Skip ahead to the end of the song by tapping the Fast Forward button to the right of the Pause button.
Tap another song in the list to listen to the song. In the song window you’ll see the song you’re listening to in the list underneath the Rewind, Play, and Fast Forward buttons. Tap another song in the list to play it. At the left side of the window you’ll see a bar with a small triangle pointing to the right. Tap this bar or swipe the bar to the right to close the window.
After you close the window, the bar appears along the right edge of the screen with a small triangle pointing to the left. Tap the bar or swipe the bar from right to left to open the song window again. This bar will remain on the Music Hub app screen no matter what page you’re in so you can go back to playing songs in the window when you feel like it.
If the entire album is available for purchase, the price for the album appears to the right of the album name. You can add the entire album or a specific song to a playlist by tapping the plus button to the right of the artist name at the top of the album list or by tapping the plus button to the right of the song name. You’ll learn how to create a playlist later in this article. If you want to purchase the song or album, tap the shopping cart button to the right of the artist name or the song. The Music Hub adds the album or song to your basket without taking you away from the song list screen. You’ll learn how to purchase items in your basket later in this article.
You can continue to shop by genre by tapping Genres in the menu bar. The Genres list shown in Figure 5 displays a list of music genre categories on the left side of the screen with the Pop category selected by default. The right side of the screen displays current album covers for 7digital’s best-selling albums in the Bestsellers section at the top of the page and new album releases in the New Releases section that appears below the Bestsellers section.
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Figure 5 The newest release in the New Releases list appears at the top of the list.
In the Bestsellers list, swipe to the left and right to view all the albums in the list, or you can tap the left and right arrows at the right side of the Bestsellers section title bar. You can also swipe up and down the list of new albums in New Releases section and then tap the album in the list to view the list of tracks to the right of the category list. From here you can purchase a track, the entire album, and/or add songs (or the entire album) to your playlist.
Swipe up and down the list of genres in the list from Pop through Classical and tap the genre you want to view. The bestsellers and new releases for that category appear to the right of the list.
Tap Playlists in the menu bar to view all your downloaded music. If you want to create a new playlist so you can access your favorite songs in one place, tap New Playlist as shown in Figure 6. The New Playlist window opens so you can type the new playlist name and then tap OK.
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Figure 6 The New playlist button appears in the category list on the left side of the screen.
After you tap OK the new playlist appears at the top of the category list. If there are no tracks, tap Add tracks at the right side of the screen to open the Add Tracks page shown in Figure 7. Select the category from the category list on the left side of the screen and then scroll down the list to view the tracks in the section. Add all album tracks to the playlist by tapping the green plus button to the right of the album name.
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Figure 7 You can add all albums in the list by tapping the green plus button to the right of the Add All header at the top of the album list.
If you only want to add one or more tracks within an album to the playlist, tap the album name in the list and then tap the green plus button to the right of the track name in the list. As you add tracks, they appear in the playlist at the right side of the window. If you add an entire album then you’ll see all tracks in the playlist. Remove a track from the playlist by tapping the red minus button to the right of the track name.
When you finish adding tracks, tap Done at the right side of the menu bar. The Playlists page reappears and your tracks appear in your playlist on the right side of the screen. At the top of the list shown in Figure 8, you’ll see the aggregated cost of all the tracks in your playlist. Tap Buy to purchase all tracks in the playlist. You can add individual tracks in your playlist to your cart by tapping the shopping cart button to the right of the track name.
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Figure 8 Tap Buy to the right of the playlist name to purchase all tracks in your playlist.
- Search opens the search box in the menu bar so you can type your search term(s) in the Search box. After you type your term(s) in the box and then tap the Search button in the keyboard, you’ll see all tracks that match your terms so you can view more information about the track, purchase the track, or add it to your playlist.
- The 7digital icon opens the 7digital website in the Browser app shown in Figure 9 so you can shop for over 20 million tracks in the store. You need to sign up on the 7digital website so you can download music from the website. (You’ll learn how to sign up to download music within the Music Hub a little later.) After you download the tracks, you can switch to the Music Hub and view the songs on your device by opening the Playlists page and then tapping Downloaded music in the category list on the left side of the screen.
- The Menu icon opens the menu for the page so you can make changes to the page you’re in. The page you’re in determines the options in the Settings menu. For example, if you’re viewing a playlist in the Playlists page, you’ll see options for adding and removing tracks, deleting and renaming your playlist, and changing the order of tracks in your playlist.
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Figure 9 Sign up for the 7digital service by tapping the Sign up link in the upper right corner of the website page.
One or more of these icons may be hidden depending on the page you’re on. For example, you’ll see all three icons on the Playlists page but you won’t see the Settings icon in the Featured page.
When you’re ready to purchase items in your basket, tap My Page in the menu bar. The app highlights the Basket category on the left side of the screen and items in your basket appear to the right of the category list. Tap Sign In as shown in Figure 10 so you can sign into the 7digital service. If you signed up on the 7digital website, type the email address and password in the Sign In window and then tap the Sign In button. If you need to create an account, tap Create account and then sign up in the Create Account window.
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Figure 10 Tap the Sign in button to sign into or sign up for the 7digital service so you can purchase tracks and albums.
After you sign in, your email address appears above the Sign Out button. You can view your list of purchases on 7digital by tapping Purchase List in the category list, or you can view your payment information by tapping Payment Information in the list. When you tap Payment Information, your stored payment information appears in the list on the right side of the screen. Add a new credit card by tapping Add Card.
That wraps up our quick tour of the Music Hub. Now you can start shopping for and listening to your favorite music.