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Solving the Puzzles of Music

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Android Apps for Musicians/Creatives

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In 2012 I had just gotten my first real smartphone. No more Symbian or other proprietary OS. I was excited to dive in and discover the world of apps. After lots of experiments and discoveries I shared my findings in an article appropriately called “12 Android Apps for Musicians”.

The post didn’t go viral (meaning millions of visitors) but pulled in a decent amount of traffic. I’ve received lots of comments and messages and subsequently wrote a follow-up featuring more apps.

Even today there are still people discovering AdvancingMusician via Google for the first time landing on those 2012 articles. I’m not complaining about that, but 9 years later – obviously a lot has changed and it’s high time for an update.

  • some apps have been discontinued (I had to remove quite a few broken links in the original articles 🙁 )
  • some are outdated
  • some don’t get maintained anymore
  • there are better options available
  • I’ve developed a more restrained use of my phone
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Hackers, Viagra and Christmas Greetings

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My site got hacked, that means I’ve made it, right? Because only important, high-traffic sites get hacked.

Uhm, no. Of course not.

red and blue pills
Want some pills? Just visit AdvancingMusician 🙂
photo credit: wintersixfour

Forget that dramatic way of thinking. Because it’s false thinking. Sure, certain sites get specifically targeted for political or economic reasons – or for prestige like a hacking rite of passage – but AdvancingMusician does not fall into this category.

In general, hackers go for the low hanging fruit instead. They target smaller sites. The idea is to get them infected and divert resources towards sending SPAM mails, getting link juice for improved Google rankings or for installing malware like phishing scripts.

On December 11th, I got an e-mail from my hosting company. They had to take my site offline because their security mechanisms caught some malware script getting activated from one of my sub-folders.

So, despite running the latest versions of everything (WordPress, framework, theme and all plug-ins) my site was unreachable. No reason to panic. Just a quick install of a fresh WordPress instance followed by porting the database and everything is alright again.

Yes, in general that’s the procedure. But not in my case. And no, don’t think that I didn’t back-up my site.

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More Great Android Apps for Musicians

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2021-05-13 – Initially, this article was posted way back in 2013. Since that time some of the apps unfortunately went the way of the Dodo. I had planned to simply delete this article, but decided to keep it for nostalgic reasons. It’s somewhat cool to see what has changed/stayed the same in Android app land.

However, I’ve (finally) removed all dead links as well as the cheesy app thumbnail graphics. For my current “phone policy” check out How to (Not) Use Your Phone as a Musician/Creative and for all the apps I use and recommend: Android Apps for Musicians/Creatives!

Picture of Android mascot
Photo credit: JD Hancock

According to my statistics my 12 Great Android Apps for Musicians article has been my most popular post so far.

Obviously, I can’t know every app that’s out there. But fortunately I have you. 🙂 I’ve received lots of e-mails as well as suggestions in the comment section of the initial post letting me know about additional useful and cool apps.

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12 Great Android Apps for Musicians

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2021-05-13 – I’ve updated the links and made minor edits to this text from 2012 – fixing outdated information, prices etc. A new up-to-date version with current Android apps for musicians just went live: Android Apps for Musicians/Creatives

My phone contract expired and as a part of renewing the contract with a 2GB/month data plan, I got a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (link removed) Android device. It might not be the top of the line smart phone, but I’m really happy with it so far.

I’ve spent some time in the Google Play market, installing and checking out a ton of Android apps and want to present some of my favorites so far.

From helping you:

  • to organize your time
  • to staying on track with your musical goals
  • to having more fun practicing
  • to inspiring your students (and yourself)

Hopefully, there’ll be some useful Android apps for you included in this list.

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Shopping for an Audio Production PC?

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20-30 years ago, a recording studio was something to dream about. A “real” personal studio that enabled you to do decent recordings was way out of reach for regular budgets. Basically, you were limited to 4-track tape/cassette recorders, microphones, maybe some synth modules and some outboard multi-fx processor. The plan (actually more of a fantasy) for most was to hand out their self-produced demo tapes, get “discovered” and then record their music in one of those big studios for real.

picture of recording studio
Recording studio – photo credit: rollingroscoe

Today, things look way better. For a fraction of the cost you can get equipment that’s powerful and lets you record in more than decent sounding quality. There’s a ton of options available to you. Maybe too many and it’s easy to get confused in the sea of options.

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