VOLUMIO 3.3 UNIVERSAL IS HERE

What does it mean by ALL music lovers? We thought that the values audiophiles believe in, can be of great enjoyment also to a wider music community.  This is why we are introducing our newest release, Volumio 3.3, as Volumio UNIVERSAL. We added new features that give the ability to use our music player in many new playback devices available in the market, both increasing convenience of Volumio as the central hub for music playback that can be appealing for both audiophiles and for music listeners in general.

So, without further ado, let’s see what Volumio Universal brings:

MANIFEST USER INTERFACE FOR EVERYONE!

The Manifest User, who we introduced in the launch of Volumio 3 only for Premium users, will now be available for ALL, both Free and Premium Users. We believe the Manifest UI is the best in terms of aesthetics and music presentation, so we decided everyone should have it. Old UIs are still available but will be decommissioned (maybe becoming optional plugins) soon.

In addition to have it available for all, we worked on making improvements to be more user-friendly, especially on the mobile version. We also redesigned the main menu and designed a new output menu that gives new and improved functionalities which you will learn more about in the next paragraphs.

NEW OUTPUT MENU

In the manifest UI, there is a new output menu with new and improved functionalities:

• Volume control
• Remote Control: the Remote control option on any Volumio device
• Multiroom Control Management with improvements.

And the newest features of Volumio 3.3. Available for Premium users:

• Play Here Function
• Sonos and Chromecast outputs

PLAY HERE FUNCTION

The Play Here function, allows you to stream the audio from Volumio to your mobile device, your computer and also your smart TV. Pretty much everywhere the UI is displayed. For example, if you open Volumio on your computer browser, you can click on the Play Here button found on the output menu and the sound will come out from your computer.

This means that you can enjoy Volumio as a normal music player app when you work on your PC, or via Bluetooth headphones connected to your mobile phone. Since Volumio is a powerful music aggregator, it’s a convenient way to integrate your music from different sources and leave it playing when cooking, working, gardening or having a party. Where audio quality is not needed, and good background music is preferred.

CASTING TO CHROMECAST AND SONOS

With the Casting option on the output menu, you can cast whatever you are playing in Volumio to any Chromecast and Sonos device. Now Volumio is compatible with different endpoints from the single app. As the title says, output whatever audio you are playing on Volumio to your Chromecast-enabled devices (Google Home, Chromecast-enabled Soundbar, Chromecast Audio, etc.) and SONOS devices.

The stream happens thanks to a low-latency HLS encoding which can be sent to any of the above devices. Please note that synchronization is not possible between Chromecast devices and SONOS devices, but you can play to a Sonos Group to have audio synchronized to that group.

This, in a nutshell, it the latest round of features that you will see in Volumio 3.3. In short, those features will make Volumio YOUR UNIVERSAL MUSIC PLAYER.

How to get Volumio 3.3?

If you are a first time Volumio user, you can download it directly here. If you already have Volumio installed on your device, go to System Updates and click on Check Updates. You are looking for v3.378.

What do you think? Do you like what you see?

Let us know in the comments and enjoy!

The post Introducing Volumio UNIVERSAL appeared first on Volumio.

The Music and Artists Credit Discovery feature will allow you to answer all the questions above and more by exploring the behind the scenes of the music you listen on MyVolumio.

You can see on the video above a quick overview of how this new feature works.

The new released is available to all MyVolumio Superstar subscribers. We believe is an important addition for the audiophile, letting you find out detailed information about songs, artists or albums.

You can read the biography of your favorite artists.

From the biography of an artist to the story of the studio where an album was recorded, all this information will be easily accessed on the User Interface. You can access to all this data on the browse menu, or in the playback page.

Want to know who play what? Now you can!

The Music and Artists Credit Discovery feature gives you the opportunity to learn the story of each album, the credits list, or even the instruments that were used to record from all the music on your local files. And not only for your local files, but also for MyVolumio compatible services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, and more.

The feature comes in different languages (French Version)

Adding to all these capabilities, the data can be available in the current language you use on the software, but if that’s not the case, the will appear in English.

You can also enjoy it on the mobile version.

And this is where we say thank you to all the contributors that made this release possible. This new addition to MyVolumio would not have been possible without the help of Jo, his creative mind came up with the idea, worked on the cloud side of it and the design, making this vision a reality.

Another important contribution we must acknowledge is to Agnes & Bence of Ollala Design Studio. For all Volumio users, this great team worked on the usability of the Volumio UI, releasing a refreshed web user interface, with many fixes. The Ollalla Design Studio team explained “In this release we designed and implemented the newest iteration of the music browser. The main goal was to provide a flatter and more content rich music experience for the users while maintaining consistency with the existing UI. This project was definitely a good start to get to know Volumio and the team. Stay tuned for the leap of developments that are coming! Volumio has a bright future and we’ll make sure to polish the UI this pearl.”

A big thanks goes as well to Chris for his great insights, code contributions and suggestions, Gkkpch, Balbuze, Ash, Giacomo, Monica, Stefano, Massimiliano and all Volumio team members which do awesome things for this project.

Last but not least, we have to thank Wikipedia and Music Brainz (to which we are proud to be Supporters) for their amazing collective work over the years. The contribution of those 2 projects to mankind wisdom and access to information is invaluable. Without them, the work we’ve done on this feature would not simply be possible. If you appreciate freedom of information, think about the fact that those 2 projects have huge operational costs to be run, so consider making a donation to keep them making the world a better place ( Wikimedia foundation Donation Link, Metabrainz Foundation Donation Link).

Learn all the credits in the Credit Section

Now that we’ve shown you what the Music and Artists Credit Discovery features does, the facts you can read and learn about your favorite music, and the refreshed Volumio web UI; we want to invite you to see it for yourself and try it out!

The feature is available to MyVolumio Superstar users, just update Volumio to the latest version and enjoy the feature, in the event you still cannot see it, simply refresh your browser page.

This new release brings also many improvements for the free Volumio system (as you know, the financial boost coming out from MyVolumio is reinvested in the whole platform, no just the freemium part). All users are getting a reworked Album and Artist overview pages (with a more informative readout of the item, such as genre and file type), and a whole bunch of minor fixes. Next on our roadmap is to further improve the “customizability” of the browse page to allow you to “PIN” your favorite items for faster access and extra convenience.

Last but not least, we want your feedback! What do you think about this new addition to MyVolumio? Do you find it useful and interesting? Are there other credits information about your music you would like see? Give us your opinion or write down any questions you may have in the comment section!

Enjoy!

The post Discover Your Music With MyVolumio Latest Credits Feature! appeared first on Volumio.

This updated Volumio version, or what we like to call it, the Contemporary Volumio UI is released with an elegant design, both for the desktop and mobile version, that will give the users a more clean and organized layout. We’ve been working these past few month to improve the main concept of Volumio in this new version, giving the user an easy-to-use software. Many thanks to Christopher, Bence, Agnes, John and Jackie for the awesome contribution, this UI is the result of their joint effort.

Let see how the Contemporary Volumio User Interface looks like: 

The bottom bar is the main feature of the new version, while browsing through every page on your Volumio, you can see the current audio playing and control it from there without having to go to the main page.

The new design is simple and clean, giving your Volumio a more organized design while browsing through the menu.

The left menu can display the integrations or plug-ins you use, becoming an easier way to access it.

In the playback zone column bar, you can easily change and control the devices in just one click.

Keeping the existing structure of the classic Volumio version but adding a few features to keep it an easy-to-use and intuitive design.  

And now let’s take a look at the mobile version…

Bottom bar available while browsing in your music library

Clean look while going through the menu

Elegant design on the playback page

And the playback zones view…

How do you like it so far?

This new version is available to ALL Volumio users. It’s free for all, just update it and you’ll get it right away.

To enable the Contemporary version of Volumio It’s super easy, just update to the latest version (Volumio 2.712) and by default the contemporary design will be applied on the UI.

Take a look around and see all the new perks of using the Contemporary Volumio UI, and if for whatever reason it does not work for you, do not worry because you can change back to the Classic version, just go on settings, appearance, and on the bottom of the page you can change the User Interface Layout Design.

Your opinion matter to us! Give us a feedback about it, we want to know what works for you, what doesn’t and needs to be improved. Just let us know here in the comments!

And last but not least, be on the lookout for more news, we are currently working on new features and improvement so prepare for more surprises, this new update is just a glimpse of all the things coming out soon!

Enjoy!

The post The Contemporary Volumio User Interface is Out! appeared first on Volumio.

We at Volumio think that an User Interface refresh is the way! So please welcome: the new Volumio3 User Interface Beta!

We’ve been working hard in those months to improve usability and look of our beloved user interface, following all the great feedbacks from our Community and OEM partners.
The priciples we followed are:

• Re-use existing (and common) User Experience logics from mainstream music players. So, let’s not reinvent the wheel and let’s take what’s good in other music players out there. So you’ll notice that the structure might look familiar… We’ve taken pieces of UI from our favourite Music Players and combined them together to offer an easy and intuitive environment, without loosing the uniqueness of Volumio’s distinctive look.
• Allow for more expansion in the future: the new Ui is the first milestone in a bigger overhaul project (codenamed Volumio3). We want to allow advanced navigation capabilities (interlinking and semantic browsing) and providing credits, lyrics and additional informations in an easy and convenient way. This will take place by the end of this year, and we designed the user interface to be ready to adopt those new changes.
• Great focus on mobile: Mobile use is where we focused the most, with adaptive and dynamic menus.

Let’s see some screenshots:

Notice the left bar and bottom bar? Needless to say: this layout works…

An easier placement for settings…

Queue, for those who can’t live without…

And a great news… We are seriously preparing for multiroom…

The mobile playback view, in all its glory…

Browsing on mobile…

Album view on Mobile…

Multiroom view on mobile…

HOW TO ENABLE THE VOLUMIO3 UI BETA

Super easy:

• Update to latest version (the new UI is available starting from version 2.598)
• Head to Settings, Appearance and scroll to the bottom
• Enable The experimental Volumio3 UI
• Click save, and restart Volumio
• Once restarted, refresh your browser page
• Enjoy!

Since this is a major overhaul, we are keen to receive your feedbacks. So make sure that you let us know what you think, what does not work, what you would like to be improved in the dedicated forum thread.

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

As you might have understood, the contribution of MyVolumio are providing us with a great boost, which we are re-investing heavily in both the Free and Premium side of Volumio. And yes, we have many many new features and updates coming:

• Multiroom synced playback
• Advanced Browsing Capabilities
• Hiresaudio.com integration
• Deezer Integration
• Bluetooth integration
• Credits and Lyrics
• Analog Input playback

Those great improvements are to be gradually released from here to the end of the year. So, if you needed one more reason to try MyVolumio, now you have it: this will help us bring to you those functionalities as soon as possible!

Enjoy and have a great summer!

The post A summer (UI) Refresh for Volumio appeared first on Volumio.