CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidmedia-player
neowinston
neowinston

Reputation: 7764

How to play streamed audio in background on Android?

I have an Android application that plays streamed audio from the Internet using the MediaPlayer class.

How do I let it continue to play the audio on the background when the user hits the home button to run other applications?

While running other apps, I'd like it to continue to play the audio.

Upvotes: 15

Views: 26693

Answers (3)

Jorgesys
Jorgesys

Reputation: 126563

The key is define Service.START_STICKY to continue playing in background:

   public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        myMediaPlayer.start();
        return Service.START_STICKY;
    }

Service.START_STICKY : if this service's process is killed while it is started the system will try to re-create the service.

This is an example of to do this:

import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.os.IBinder;
import android.util.Log;
import android.widget.Toast;

/**
 * Created by jorgesys.
 */

/* Add declaration of this service into the AndroidManifest.xml inside application tag*/

public class BackgroundSoundService extends Service {

    private static final String TAG = "BackgroundSoundService";
    MediaPlayer player;

    public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
        Log.i(TAG, "onBind()" );
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        player = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.jorgesys_song);
        player.setLooping(true); // Set looping
        player.setVolume(100,100);
        Toast.makeText(this, "Service started...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        Log.i(TAG, "onCreate() , service started...");

    }
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        player.start();
        return Service.START_STICKY;
    }

    public IBinder onUnBind(Intent arg0) {
        Log.i(TAG, "onUnBind()");
        return null;
    }

    public void onStop() {
        Log.i(TAG, "onStop()");
    }
    public void onPause() {
        Log.i(TAG, "onPause()");
    }
    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        player.stop();
        player.release();
        Toast.makeText(this, "Service stopped...", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        Log.i(TAG, "onCreate() , service stopped...");
    }

    @Override
    public void onLowMemory() {
        Log.i(TAG, "onLowMemory()");
    }
}

Start service:

Intent myService = new Intent(MainActivity.this, BackgroundSoundService.class);
startService(myService);

Stop service:

Intent myService = new Intent(MainActivity.this, BackgroundSoundService.class);
stopService(myService);

Complete code of this example.

Upvotes: 2

Aldryd
Aldryd

Reputation: 1466

You'll need to implement a Service in order to play media in the background without it being tied to the Activity that started playback. Have a look at this example.

Upvotes: 4

Anup Cowkur
Anup Cowkur

Reputation: 20563

You have to use something called Android Services.

From the docs:

"A Service is an application component representing either an application's desire to perform a longer-running operation while not interacting with the user or to supply functionality for other applications to use."

Here's the excellent official guide to using services to get you started: http://developer.android.com/guide/components/services.html

Here's a good tutorial on building an audio player: http://www.androidhive.info/2012/03/android-building-audio-player-tutorial/

Here's a video tutorial for building a streaming music player: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKL-efbiIAM

Upvotes: 14

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