Intro plus Apple Music

[WedmoreMonty]

I have just joined the forum, having been a MoOde user for a couple if months, following a period with its best knon competitor.  I use MoOde primarily for streaming and am very impresed with sound quality.  My kit is a Pi4, with ifi Power X Psu, and HiFiBerry Dig card feedin g a a Quad Artera Play+, which has a DAC. I use optical cables.
My first post is as follows:

Now that the classical music specialist PRIMEPHONIC has announced a merger with Apple Music and given that a high proportion of classical listeners are fussy about sound quality, plus the fact that all Primephonic subscribers have been given 6 months free sub to Apple’s service, isn’t this the time to agree terms with Apple for an integrated offering along the same lines as those with Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal?  

I realise that dealing with Apple wouldn’t be easy but it could well be now or never.  Apple Music dies not gave a broad appeal among classical listeners whose natural designation would, I think, be one if the three above.  This is especially true among MoOde users, so MoOde Audio has domething Apple should want.

[TheOldPresbyope]

I have just joined the forum,

Welcome.

Now that the classical music specialist PRIMEPHONIC has announced a merger with Apple Music and given that a high proportion of classical listeners are fussy about sound quality, plus the fact that all Primephonic subscribers have been given 6 months free sub to Apple’s service, isn’t this the time to agree terms with Apple for an integrated offering along the same lines as those with Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal?  

I realise that dealing with Apple wouldn’t be easy but it could well be now or never.  Apple Music dies not gave a broad appeal among classical listeners whose natural designation would, I think, be one if the three above.  This is especially true among MoOde users, so MoOde Audio has domething Apple should want.

From my personal perspective, there's no terms to agree with Apple for a FOSS project like moOde. The other streaming services you refer to are available to moOde only because of work by other, third-party developers.

As for Primephonic, I was an early and loyal subscriber but I have no interest whatsoever in becoming an Apple Music subscriber. Thankfully, the recent email to me from Primephonic promises "A refund will be issued for the remaining days in your paid subscription."

Regards,
Kent

[WedmoreMonty]

I have just joined the forum,

Welcome.

Now that the classical music specialist PRIMEPHONIC has announced a merger with Apple Music and given that a high proportion of classical listeners are fussy about sound quality, plus the fact that all Primephonic subscribers have been given 6 months free sub to Apple’s service, isn’t this the time to agree terms with Apple for an integrated offering along the same lines as those with Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal?  

I realise that dealing with Apple wouldn’t be easy but it could well be now or never.  Apple Music dies not gave a broad appeal among classical listeners whose natural designation would, I think, be one if the three above.  This is especially true among MoOde users, so MoOde Audio has domething Apple should want.

From my personal perspective, there's no terms to agree with Apple for a FOSS project like moOde. The other streaming services you refer to are available to moOde only because of work by other, third-party developers.

As for Primephonic, I was an early and loyal subscriber but I have no interest whatsoever in becoming an Apple Music subscriber. Thankfully, the recent email to me from Primephonic promises "A refund will be issued for the remaining days in your paid subscription."

Regards,
Kent

[WedmoreMonty]

I have just joined the forum,

Welcome.

Now that the classical music specialist PRIMEPHONIC has announced a merger with Apple Music and given that a high proportion of classical listeners are fussy about sound quality, plus the fact that all Primephonic subscribers have been given 6 months free sub to Apple’s service, isn’t this the time to agree terms with Apple for an integrated offering along the same lines as with Spotify

I realise that dealing with Apple wouldn’t be easy but it could well be now or never.  Apple Music dies not gave a broad appeal among classical listeners whose natural designation would, I think, be one if the three above.  This is especially true among MoOde users, so MoOde Audio has domething Apple should want.

From my personal perspective, there's no terms to agree with Apple for a FOSS project like moOde. The other streaming services you refer to are available to moOde only because of work by other, third-party developers.

As for Primephonic, I was an early and loyal subscriber but I have no interest whatsoever in becoming an Apple Music subscriber. Thankfully, the recent email to me from Primephonic promises "A refund will be issued for the remaining days in your paid subscription."

Regards,
Kent

Thanks for the Welcome and for explaining the situation.  I am with you re Apple Music. I was being polite in my post.. they are just about the last outfit I’d have chosen. The oromise of good things to come in 6 months sounds like kicking the can down the road, into the ling gras irbany dimilar expression.  Now, what was my Qubuz id…?
PS i have not got the hang of this forum; sorry if I‘ve put everything in the erong place.

[Tim Curtis]

Couple of challenges with the new Apple Music is that at least on Big Sur the app does not connect to Airplay 1 receivers i.e. shairport-sync. Big Sur OS X itself though does via its volume options. Very odd. Maybe the app only supports Airplay 2 or possibly it will only enable Airplay connections if one subscribes to the music service ??

There are some devs working on reverse engineering Airplay 2 but its experimental and will prolly take a fair bit of time before it can be used reliably. https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/issues/535

Here's the shairport-sync log when attempting to connect from the app.

Code:

64.528839395 "rtsp.c:2982" Connection 1: new connection from 192.168.1.125:59438 to self at 192.168.1.139:5000.
0.029079804 "rtsp.c:2597" Connection 1: terminated.

Here's the log when connecting from Big Sur itself.

Code:

112.988299353 "rtsp.c:2982" Connection 2: new connection from 192.168.1.125:59480 to self at 192.168.1.139:5000.
0.292795736 "rtsp.c:2663" Connection 2: Received an RTSP Packet of type "ANNOUNCE":
.
.
.
success

[MikeyFresh]

Couple of challenges with the new Apple Music is that at least on Big Sur the app does not connect to Airplay 1 receivers i.e. shairport-sync. Big Sur OS X itself though does via its volume options. Very odd. Maybe the app only supports Airplay 2 or possibly it will only enable Airplay connections if one subscribes to the music service ??

There are some devs working on reverse engineering Airplay 2 but its experimental and will prolly take a fair bit of time before it can be used reliably. https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/issues/535

Here's the shairport-sync log when attempting to connect from the app.

Code:

64.528839395 "rtsp.c:2982" Connection 1: new connection from 192.168.1.125:59438 to self at 192.168.1.139:5000.
0.029079804 "rtsp.c:2597" Connection 1: terminated.

Here's the log when connecting from Big Sur itself.

Code:

112.988299353 "rtsp.c:2982" Connection 2: new connection from 192.168.1.125:59480 to self at 192.168.1.139:5000.
0.292795736 "rtsp.c:2663" Connection 2: Received an RTSP Packet of type "ANNOUNCE":
.
.
.
success

On my MacBook Air running Big Sur 11.5.2 I can connect to a Moode Airplay instance either directly, or through System Preferences - Sound - Output.

In the case of a direct in-app Airplay connection, for whatever reason the Apple Music desktop app will only output the AAC lossy version of the file as evidenced in Get Info for that track. However if I connect using System Preferences - Sound to Moode Airplay, the high resolution version of the file will play, again confirmed by Get Info about that track, or for that matter my ears.

EDIT: I can make the high resolution tracks play through a straight in-app Airplay connection, it must have been the Arcade Fire album I selected originally is not currently part of their high-res library so it gave me the AAC.

[Tim Curtis]

Do you have an Apple Music subscription?

[MikeyFresh]

Do you have an Apple Music subscription?

Yes I took their 90-day free trial, it ends sometime in September.

[Tim Curtis]

Right. That would suggest a sub might be needed to "unlock" Airplay capabilities from the app.

Are you able to play a > 44.1K Apple Music track to moOde's Airplay 1 (shairport-sync) renderer?

[MikeyFresh]

Right. That would suggest a sub might be needed to "unlock" Airplay capabilities from the app.

Are you able to play a > 44.1K Apple Music track to moOde's Airplay 1 (shairport-sync) renderer?

Yes, thats what I was using last night when I tested it, an RPi 4B running Moode 7.3.0, but they are no doubt being re-sampled, if I'm not mistaken that happens on the Mac/transmit side of things with Airplay.

Even years ago when I first ripped my DVD-Audio discs and found that iTunes would readily accept them and output them over Airplay to the Airport Express, the tracks play just fine, but they are re-sampled to 16/44.1 prior to transmission to the AEx.

One thing to note about that instance of Moode 7.3.0 and Shariport-Sync is that RPi is connected to my network via Ethernet, not WiFi, so my test did not involve the RPi connected via WiFi, only Ethernet. The MacBook Air on the transmit side is connected to the network via WiFi however.