• FREE SPEECH SOCIAL MEDIA

    If you're looking for a Free Speech Social Media site, check out Blabbook.com

    - NO FACT CHECKING - NO SHADOW BANNING - NO POINT OF VIEW CENSORSHIP

Need a better way to operate Amazon MP3 via Entune

PaleoMama

Well-Known Member
Staff member
TTC Chicks
100 Posts
Community Leader
I'm a computer nerd/gear head, and I'm loving being able to cruise around, streaming Bluetooth audio in my new 2014 4Runner Trail.

What's been driving me batty is having to wait until I can safely reach for my phone to change songs. I'm an Amazon MP3 die-hard, and thanks to an unlimited data plan, I just stream all my music via Amazon Cloud Player.

My questions are:

#1 - Why doesn't Toyota have an Amazon MP3 app for Entune? Is it forthcoming?

#2 - Without having to actually download all my music from the Amazon Cloud to my Galaxy S4 phone, how can I enable playback controls in Entune, and not have to reach for my phone? I have a ton of music, and unfortunately, the Amazon MP3 Android app stores music in the phone's main memory (with no option to move/switch to the micro SD card). I used to download music to my old Galaxy S3, so I know it'll take up too much space.

Hopefully somebody's come up with a homemade hack for this.

Much appreciated!
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Glad that you like your 4Runner ... let me see about these questions.

#1 - Not sure. Amazon has been doing some amazing things with cloud-supported apps and all that, but they've got their own platform, so maybe they're hesitant to allow for that? I dunno, just a guess.

#2 - So, the music is not really on your device ... it's on the Amazon cloud. I assume that you have no problem connecting your S4 to the Entune system, but you just can't get Entune to grab music from the web. If that's the case, I have a contact at Toyota PR that I can reach out to chat with about this.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
also, you may have mentioned this before, but what type of Entune do you have?

Entune Audio Plus
Entune Premium Audio
Entune Premium JBL Audio
 

PaleoMama

Well-Known Member
Staff member
TTC Chicks
100 Posts
Community Leader
Very much appreciated!

To clarify, yes I can play the cloud-based music just fine. But it's almost like just a wireless version of hooking up music via AUX; I still have to reach for the phone, anytime I want to change songs, skip, etc.

And this is Entune Premium Audio on a 2014 4Runner Trail.

Thank you so much :D
 

PaleoMama

Well-Known Member
Staff member
TTC Chicks
100 Posts
Community Leader
And just food for thought: Amazon MP3 app is available in the equivalent system for Ford vehicles.
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Yeah, I have done this before using the Google Play tool ... that's different because it's Google and they own the Android platform, so it was very easy to get the music pushed through on my Samsung Note II phone, with AT&T which is NOT unlimited, but it should be ...

I sure hope that Amazon wouldn't ONLY made an app for Ford ... someone should be able to make it work. ??? Anyone?
 

MuddyTacoma

Mechanic
1000 Posts
What are the options for connecting something that's not entune? That is, can't you just connect via bluetooth? granted, you might lose your interface in your nav display, but it should work as a bluetooth aux connection.
 

Toyota Girl

Active Member
100 Posts
I'm never surprised when these companies get together to support x but not y and 123 but not ABC. Theres got to be someway to get this to work?
 

PaleoMama

Well-Known Member
Staff member
TTC Chicks
100 Posts
Community Leader
OK, just got home from taking the kid to her sports. I had some time to wait and was messing with the controls and various other Android music apps, cloud vs. device files, etc, to see if they made any difference (short answer, no).

A partial correction to what I stated above: I can skip whole tracks, forward and backward, via the buttons on the steering wheel or in the center stack. Duh! I was expecting on-screen controls; especially as there's an on-screen pause button (and JUST a pause button, for that matter?). But there's still no way to see playlists, in any way, shape, or form, without having to use the phone. The push-button controls have a very noticeable lag, when trying to skip tracks, too. All in all, it's still a mish-mash of controls all over the car, when it would be very simple for any programmer at Toyota to make a user-friendly stock MP3 player in Entune, with more intuitive, on-screen controls, all in one place.

Amazon MP3 Bluetooth .jpg
 
Last edited:

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Well, that's something. not a total answer but at least you have some functionality there.
 

Brad

Active Member
100 Posts
Toyotafan, do most trucks nowadays allow you to plug in MP3's and other music systems?
 

PaleoMama

Well-Known Member
Staff member
TTC Chicks
100 Posts
Community Leader
I'm not ToyotaFan, but I can tell you that it really depends on the brand, model, and trim level. Back to my response to your Highlander post, out of those CUV's I test drove, it really was varied. Some had it, and some didn't.

Even if the vehicle doesn't come with Bluetooth audio, you can still plug in your phone the old fashioned way with a $2.00 3.5 mm audio cable and play your music via AUX. That's how I did it in my old car.
 

MuddyTacoma

Mechanic
1000 Posts
I have also seen that some manufacturers have gotten into bed with certain technology and/or subscription services and that's it. It used to be that one mfg would use XM satellite and another would use Sirius. It just happens that they merged together, but it's the same point. I think Toyota (or was it Honda) had a satellite service for VIDEO on their minivans with the full boat entertainment/infotainment system. But it was only for certain versions of their systems and then it was only for like 5 channels that were mostly kid-focused, so you couldn't get CNN or FoxNews, just Disney Channel, etc.

However, i'm a big believer that people want plug-and-play. They expect to have some certain primary limitations with a service and technology, but they expect to have secondary connectivity that is much more open. So they get that you need to run Entune to have all of the full controls, but they expect that you should be able to connect bluetooth up to just about any modern iphone or android and then get access to the music that's on that device.

It's the hop-scotch from the NAV -> Entune / Bluetooth -> Phone -> Amazon MP3. ... it's that last stage that I think is the hold up for bringing connectivity into the OSD from the controls that you find in Amazon MP3.

Either way, it's a good problem to have when the only complaint is that you can't connect perfectly to your Bluetooth music control system. :)
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
I'm a computer nerd/gear head, and I'm loving being able to cruise around, streaming Bluetooth audio in my new 2014 4Runner Trail.

What's been driving me batty is having to wait until I can safely reach for my phone to change songs. I'm an Amazon MP3 die-hard, and thanks to an unlimited data plan, I just stream all my music via Amazon Cloud Player.

My questions are:

#1 - Why doesn't Toyota have an Amazon MP3 app for Entune? Is it forthcoming?

#2 - Without having to actually download all my music from the Amazon Cloud to my Galaxy S4 phone, how can I enable playback controls in Entune, and not have to reach for my phone? I have a ton of music, and unfortunately, the Amazon MP3 Android app stores music in the phone's main memory (with no option to move/switch to the micro SD card). I used to download music to my old Galaxy S3, so I know it'll take up too much space.

Hopefully somebody's come up with a homemade hack for this.

Much appreciated!
I can appreciate this thread more now. ;-)
 

toyotafan

Toyota Truck Club Founder
Staff member
1000 Posts
Entune is a system that could have been so much better. Right everyone?
 

tibadoe

Moderator
Staff member
1000 Posts
Community Leader
Correct. Kinda seems like they started designing it and then just walked away. The wife gives Entune a thumbs down.
 

Related Content You Might Like:

Top