Questions about MusicFab

[Chameleon]

They absolutely track the machine ID, e-mail, and other things like IP addresses to hide your identity are useless.

[StPeterOrding2015]

Hi supine,
do you have multiple email addresses?

If so, try the following:
- Sign in to the free Spotify site with an email address that is not yet registered with Spotify
- then try to play tracks

Is that possible or are you also blocked with the new login?

Greetings

[Chameleon]

Atmos rendering devices are going up in price not down, a good one can cost up to 24,000€ to set up, I am not that kind of audiophile, as a matter of fact this program is so good with my 5 speaker system, and soundbar I am totally happy with it. The music is as wonderful as it always was.

[supine]

I have Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, and Spotify and I have never had an issue. For me this is the best program I have ever used, I have a ton of great music now, and I have never even had a download that failed.

Chameleon ,Thank you for your reply. Since you are not having an issue with the "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, the problem must be on my end (somehow). Now if I could just get a little help figuring out why this is happening to me, that would be good. I have supplied .log files, and have not gotten any negative feedback from them. I have checked my settings, and cannot find anything obviously amiss. As of this morning, I am still totally locked out, and cannot use MusicFab at all.

mlknez , Although the advertising has defiantly stated that the software supports Atmos, someone in another thread said that Atmos from the Apple site may still not be supported. I HAVE downloaded files in FLAC and gotten wonderful Dolby 5.1 (six speaker) channel surround from the decoder in my receiver. Although my receiver supports up to eight channels, I only have six speakers hooked up, so I can't comment on the sound quality past 5.1. I know it's not Atmos, but the coding for 5.1 is still imbedded in the file. If you have a good Atmos decoder. your speakers are set up correctly and you are still not getting the immersive separation or channel breakout you believe you should have, I guess that's as good as it gets for now. I do know that Atmos is an immersive object oriented surround, and not 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1. That said, I believe that if the streaming site is touting Atmos, the M4a, FLAC, MKV or MKA files that you download from their site (that are stated Atmos tracks), should have the coding for Atmos already imbedded in the file. Your Atmos Decoder should be able to decode them. You will still need to break out the "height channels" to hear the difference. Since I have only done minimal reading concerning Atmos, I have to admit that I'm still clueless on how to do this. As mentioned by Chameleon once I found out about the cost to set up an Atmos system, my exuberance to try and set it up in my Livingroom was severely curtailed.

Embedded Atmos coding in the downloaded files (although it seems reasonable) is just another one of my theory's. If you find out for sure, please let me know. I'm interested in what you find out.

Special Note: Apple has been also touting "Spatial Audio". If you look closely, it's "Powered by Atmos", and requires HomePod or Dolby Atmos supported speakers. I'm not sure if it has to be played through an Apple device to decode it. Spatial Audio also works with Beats Headphones or AirPods. Sonos has confirmed that it will work with some of their sound bars, and the ERA300 speaker, but at $400.00+ U.S. per speaker, I think I'll pass for now. Apple has also been building in special speakers into their more recent products to play spatial audio (including phones and iPads). If the Spatial Audio is really what you're after, you are asking the wrong question. Spatial Audio is a different animal. For now it remains a predominantly Apple feature and may not be supported in MusicFab. In the future, devices featuring Spatial Audio prices may come down, and the number of compatible devices may climb. Who knows? It may take off and become ubiquitous (Like the MP4 format). Until then, (even though it does sound good) I guess I'm going to have to wait. The only thing I can think of for you to try until then, (if that's what you're after), is to download a (designated) spatial audio track (M4a (Apple Standard), FLAC, MP3, MKV or MKA) and play it through your Apple device with compatible speaker(s), pods or headphones, and see if it sounds right. "Good luck Mr. Phelps".

[Chameleon]

A high-end ATMOS processor alone can cost several thousand dollars, I am not interested, I get great quality sound from my SoundBar and I am really happy. I love all types of music, and I enjoy this program.

[mlknez]

I have Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, and Spotify and I have never had an issue. For me this is the best program I have ever used, I have a ton of great music now, and I have never even had a download that failed.

How do you use this program to get Atmos files from Amazon Prime?

[Chameleon]

I have Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, and Spotify and I have never had an issue. For me this is the best program I have ever used, I have a ton of great music now, and I have never even had a download that failed.

[supine]

Hello everyone, I went out on the MusicFab side of the forum and did a search for anything related to what I'm going through. After reading quite a few of the threads, it's no wonder everyone knew ord1117. My heavens we are a small community! I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't getting caught up in my own little world. It turns out that the whole world is smaller than I thought.

My questions are: Is anyone else experiencing what I'm going through with Spotify and the browser not being recognized by both Spotify and Amazon?
Can anyone else not access content on Spotify, or is it just me that's locked out?
Does anyone else out there have an opinion on the theory that addresses in known ranges could be blocked by the Streaming services based on incoming browser versions and/or some other identifiable Browser trait? I know it's possible to glean incoming addresses to a site through the browser. My own I.P. address has been displayed back to me by sites wanting to sell me a VPN. If MusicFab services go back through their own servers, well...
Might there be some trait or version number in the baked in Chromium browser that would give the streaming services a clue that it's associated with MusicFab (or another program like it)?
Yes, not being able to use a paid program for it's intended function is more than a little inconvenience. Am I the only one experiencing this, and if not, can the developers rapidly find a way around the problem?
If I am the only one experiencing this, is there someone that can offer support and guide me through fixing this?

I have stated before, that I believe in this project, and the people in it. I understand that the lifetime all in one version runs around $300.00 U.S.. Even though Spotify is the only paid subscription that I have; if the Team can pull me/Us through this (Perceived) crisis and stabilize the program enough to fulfill its function again; I will pledge to support this project by purchasing an all in one lifetime subscription. Hopefully my "Big Four" will be addressed somewhere down the line.

[supine]

Since I'm listening to Spotify on my account, in a browser window outside of MusicFab; I know I haven't been kicked off for violating their TOS. Of course, that doesn't help with "offline" listening. I still suspect that they (Spotify and other streamers) have a bead on the baked in MusicFab Browser. Either that, or (even more likely) the MusicFab service pings back to one of their servers, and earlier, I could restart until I hit an address that pinged back to something that wasn't locked out. Either way, I'm locked out now, and dead in the water.

If this is a global failure, NOW is when the developers really need to step up and shine. How fast can you people develop a work-around? The easy (and I use the term easy loosely) part is over. It's time to gather yourselves, roll up your sleeves and start the hard work that justifies yourselves to all of us that paid license fees. GO TIGERS!

Edit: The MusicFab Member Portal for ticket submission is down. Although this is a bad sign, it's a pretty common thing to do, to stem a flood of reports on a known issue. Please team, I have had faith in you all from the beginning. All I ask now, is that you don't fold and let us all down.

Edit to the Edit: My LINK to the portal is down. I was able to log in through MusicFab.org and submit a ticket. I will leave my previous edit comment up for continuity reasons.

[supine]

Update: I totally uninstalled and reinstalled MusicFab. As soon as I logged back into Spotify, I was immediately locked out by the "Protected Content" screen. I have no other licenses, and cannot use the program. Se Murio.

Does anyone in the community have any other ideas? Help?

[supine]

I cannot get to the Spotify content screen in MusicFab. Since that's the only license that I have, MusicFab is essentially dead. The "Protected Content" screen will not go away, and is locking me out. I am also a prime member, but I don't have that MusicFab License. When I try to access Amazon just to see what's available, I get a "This Version Of Edge Is No Longer Supported" screen, and am directed to a site to download the Desktop App. (Useless for MusicFab.)

I have,
1. Cleared the Cache and Cookies on the computer. (Including "Forever Cookies")
2. Cleared the Cache in MusicFab.
3. Deleted the MusicFab temp and log folders and let MusicFab rebuild everything
4. Flushed the Computer DNS Cache

When I hit the Spotify home screen, things looked pretty normal and I got excited... until I noticed that I wasn't logged in. As soon as I logged back into Spotify, the "Protected Content" screen appeared and locked me out. Short of totally uninstalling MusicFab and reinstalling (and I'm about to try that.) I have tried everything I know of. Is anyone else out there experiencing this?

[supine]

I promised to report back on the crash issue. I'm sorry to say it still exists. I've been away for a few days, and shut down MusicFab while I was away. When I returned, I brought up MusicFab, and resumed a short download list. Before I could go to the Spotify home page, MusicFab crashed in my face. When I brought MusicFab back up, the opening page said everything except Spotify had expired. This is not normal, so I shut down MusicFab and rebooted the computer. When I restarted, MusicFab came back normally. I restarted the down load list and everything proceeded normally. When I tried to access the Spotify home page however, the "Protected Content" screen came up again. I wanted to verify (again) that this was not a Spotify issue. To do this, I had to pause the downloads. (I can't be streaming from Spotify from two different locations.) When I tabbed into my browser, the Spotify home page came up normally, and I was able to stream music. When I returned to MusicFab, it had crashed off the screen again. I should note, that I stay logged into Spotify In MusicFab, My Livingroom and bedroom mini PC's attached to the TV's, My truck, and my phone. As long as I only am streaming from one location, I have never had an issue with this before. I don't think one more log on in Spotify was the cause of the MusicFab Crash.

I should also note, that my lengthy descriptions have been remarked about before. Although my posts ARE for public knowledge; it is also my hope that my somewhat (slightly) detailed observations may help the "Fab Team" in some way. It is a small hope, but perhaps one of my offhanded remarks, may provide the team a clue to solve an issue. (even though I DO sometimes tend to "beat a dead horse".)

Edit: I got the attached error when I tried to go back into MusicFab after restarting again. Another restart got rid of this screen, but I cannot get back into Spotify through MusicFab. It seems that the "Protected Content" screen is being especially troublesome today, and refuses to go away. Rebooting the computer and restarting MusicFab (several times) doesn't work. Nor does closing the Spotify tab, and sampling another streamer. These are usually reliable ways to get back into Spotify so that I am actually able to use MusicFab. MusicFab is dead for now. I'll give it a few hours and try again later.

[supine]

Sylvia , Thank you for your reply. Yes, I do understand some of these problems take time and I do believe the team is working to make the program better.

In the mean time, 1.0.1.6 is out. For the information of everyone, I have also been turning in "Tickets" through the member portal. When I updated, a change log was not offered, so I can't say what was or wasn't worked on. I have only been "Playing" with it a short time, but this is what I noticed.

The Whine List:

1, The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This Version Of Edge Is Not Supported" in Amazon are still there and a major issue. When the "Protected Content" screen is up in the Spotify section, MusicFab is essentially unless. Although, through rebooting and restarting MusicFab (often many times), the "Protected Content" screen can be bypassed, this is still a serious issue. Nobody wants to have to struggle to use a program.
Note: As long as I'm not logged in, Spotify seems to come up normally. As soon as I try to log in through the "Fab Browser" however, the "Protected Content screen immediately appears. This does not happen going through my regular browsers outside of MusicFab.

2. After finally getting past the "Protected content" screen and when I finish downloading several tracks, the track selection screen did not show up to select new tracks after pulling up a new artist and album. This forced me to restart MusicFab, and deal with the "Protected Content" screen all over again. If I am unable to select tracks, MusicFab is (again) useless while the issue is happening.

3 MusicFab is still dumping all of the tracks from multiple disc albums into single directory. The album I chose to test this problem was a five disc album. MusicFab dumped all the songs from all five discs into a single directory making a tangled mess that will take a huge amount of time to unravel. (if I can at all)

I haven't had time to see if the "Crash" issue is still there. Nor some of the more (to me) minor issues. I can report back on those later as I have the time to investigate.

The Issues I mentioned above are part of what I have privately refer to as the "Big Four". Although there are more minor issues that I didn't address, those are the (current) major issues that (I feel) most severely impact functionality, usability and the serviceability of the program as a whole. While I'm sure that the Team is concerned, is working on them, and will eventually solve them; finding the cause of, and a way to solve "The Big Four" issues seems to have eluded the "Fab Team" for a while. When the major issues are solved, I will start recommending MusicFab to my friends and Family, and start endorsing it far and wide. I am very much looking forward to the next update.

[Sylvia]

It has occurred to me, that I got side tracked and other than a brief comment, never really said much about the latest update.

The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This version of Edge is not supported" screen in Amazon are still a crippling issue. When these screens are up no content can be selected from either platform. I can log in from my computer bypassing MusicFab and the imbedded FAB Browser, and have no problems listening to content. This is leading me to believe, that there is something in the imbedded FAB browser that these platforms are identifying that may be causing these issues. Note: If there is a download list already populated, the "Protected Content" screen does not seem to hinder the download process. Downloads can be restarted after a crash and/or restart with no problems, even with the "Protected Content" screen displayed in the browser section.
I (personally) believe, that these "Lockouts" are the number one issue plaguing MusicFab as a whole. If I had to pick a priority to work on, this would be it. The Team however, will make it's own decisions about that.

Rebooting and restarting the program (sometimes several times) will eventually bypass the "Protected Content" screen, but there is never a way to tell how long these "lockouts" will last.

The Track Selection screen in Spotify fails to come up frequently when trying to add new content, making track selection for the downloader impossible. This happens most frequently while populating an unusually long selection list, or after finishing a download list, and trying to select new content. A restart of MusicFab brings it back, but it also brings back the "Protected Content" screen, making it impossible to view and select anything on Spotify.

MusicFab continues to crash and disappear off of the screen randomly, for no discernable reason. One such crash happened after a track download failure, when I attempted to pause the download to restart it and pick up the failed track. So far today, it has crashed three times in the space of forty five minutes. Other times, it will run for twenty hours or more without a hitch. Although it has crashed while idle, most crashes occur while downloading. I have previously uploaded logs from these crashes. The advice I get to delete folders, and restart does not seem to help.

Since I mentioned Failed Downloads, Although random track downloads seem to have started failing again within the last two updates, the failures are infrequent and only pose a very minor issue.

When selecting tracks from albums past a certain point in a Discography list, I am bounced back to the top of the list after selecting tracks from an album, forcing me to scroll back through the entire list to get back where I was after exiting from that album. The main reason this is an issue for me is, Spotify seems to put all of the Singles, Compilations and Live albums at the top of the list leaving what I call "The Meat" toward the bottom of these lists. Enough random albums seem to be scattered through the list making it unwise to head to the bottom of the list (where the bounce occurs) and working up.

Artwork imbedded .MP3 tag metadata is still not showing up in Windows. The Artwork is there in the tag, but only shows up in Windows after refreshing or replacing the artwork in the Tag/Metadata

I believe that I would be remiss in not mentioning, that I have downloaded a more than reasonable amount of content for offline listening, from my paid Spotify subscription, to make (to me) my software license fee worth while. The interface however, is still a struggle, and I don't feel that the program as a whole is "ready for prime time". For those who enjoy content, have patience and don't mind a little vexation from time to time to get that content for offline listening, you might just want to consider a license agreement to help fund this fledgling project. (Feed the Dragon so to speak.) Your financial support will help support the team to possibly overcome these "Issues". Who knows? Perhaps even nurture and further launch this thing to get it to fly!

My thanks also to the many unpaid volunteers that are donating their time to help make this project a success. I look forward to the next update.

We understand your problem, and for the stable operation of the software and user experience to pay time and effort; I believe you can understand, not immediately solve all the problems, but we are still in a step-by-step process, so we are very grateful for your patience.

In addition, our team will definitely make the software better!

[supine]

It has occurred to me, that I got side tracked and other than a brief comment, never really said much about the latest update.

The "Protected Content" screen in Spotify, and the "This version of Edge is not supported" screen in Amazon are still a crippling issue. When these screens are up no content can be selected from either platform. I can log in from my computer bypassing MusicFab and the imbedded FAB Browser, and have no problems listening to content. This is leading me to believe, that there is something in the imbedded FAB browser that these platforms are identifying that may be causing these issues. Note: If there is a download list already populated, the "Protected Content" screen does not seem to hinder the download process. Downloads can be restarted after a crash and/or restart with no problems, even with the "Protected Content" screen displayed in the browser section.
I (personally) believe, that these "Lockouts" are the number one issue plaguing MusicFab as a whole. If I had to pick a priority to work on, this would be it. The Team however, will make it's own decisions about that.

Rebooting and restarting the program (sometimes several times) will eventually bypass the "Protected Content" screen, but there is never a way to tell how long these "lockouts" will last.

The Track Selection screen in Spotify fails to come up frequently when trying to add new content, making track selection for the downloader impossible. This happens most frequently while populating an unusually long selection list, or after finishing a download list, and trying to select new content. A restart of MusicFab brings it back, but it also brings back the "Protected Content" screen, making it impossible to view and select anything on Spotify.

MusicFab continues to crash and disappear off of the screen randomly, for no discernable reason. One such crash happened after a track download failure, when I attempted to pause the download to restart it and pick up the failed track. So far today, it has crashed three times in the space of forty five minutes. Other times, it will run for twenty hours or more without a hitch. Although it has crashed while idle, most crashes occur while downloading. I have previously uploaded logs from these crashes. The advice I get to delete folders, and restart does not seem to help.

Since I mentioned Failed Downloads, Although random track downloads seem to have started failing again within the last two updates, the failures are infrequent and only pose a very minor issue.

When selecting tracks from albums past a certain point in a Discography list, I am bounced back to the top of the list after selecting tracks from an album, forcing me to scroll back through the entire list to get back where I was after exiting from that album. The main reason this is an issue for me is, Spotify seems to put all of the Singles, Compilations and Live albums at the top of the list leaving what I call "The Meat" toward the bottom of these lists. Enough random albums seem to be scattered through the list making it unwise to head to the bottom of the list (where the bounce occurs) and working up.

Artwork imbedded .MP3 tag metadata is still not showing up in Windows. The Artwork is there in the tag, but only shows up in Windows after refreshing or replacing the artwork in the Tag/Metadata

I believe that I would be remiss in not mentioning, that I have downloaded a more than reasonable amount of content for offline listening, from my paid Spotify subscription, to make (to me) my software license fee worth while. The interface however, is still a struggle, and I don't feel that the program as a whole is "ready for prime time". For those who enjoy content, have patience and don't mind a little vexation from time to time to get that content for offline listening, you might just want to consider a license agreement to help fund this fledgling project. (Feed the Dragon so to speak.) Your financial support will help support the team to possibly overcome these "Issues". Who knows? Perhaps even nurture and further launch this thing to get it to fly!

My thanks also to the many unpaid volunteers that are donating their time to help make this project a success. I look forward to the next update.