It’s 2013 and those of us fortunate enough to live in mature markets have the power (and the money) to walk around with tiny computers in our pocket that are capable of downloading movies and music at over 80 megabits per second. But some people aren’t so lucky. Connectivity is often an issue. Forget about 4G LTE not being available, in some countries, mobile data is prohibitively expensive. So how do you enjoy streaming music services? The truth is, you don’t.
Services like Spotify, Rdio, and more recently Google Play Music, all offer the ability to store tracks on your phone so you don’t have to use your data to listen to the new Gesaffelstein album, but most budget handsets come with just 8 GB of storage. Some actually ship with half that! So how do you get around the issue? There are hacks out there to make your music service use your phone’s microSD card, but Google said screw that, they’re just going to add official support for the feature in their newest update to the Play Music application. Yes, you read that right, you can now set Google Play Music to store your tracks on a microSD card instead of your phone’s internal memory. Why do other services force you to use the internet memory in the first place? Because of DRM. Record companies don’t want people archiving tracks on a microSD card, ripping said tracks off said card, and then enjoying “free” music without having to pay for it. Sad, I know, but that’s how the music industry thinks.
