Duets.fm Blog

Search syntax is keyword: value. Multiple keyword: value pairs should be separated by a space. Search results show matched songs in the songs tab and matched singers in the singers tab. Search results are further filtered by the dropdown options. [!] sung: (yyyy/mm/dd|any) - (yyyy/mm/dd|any) songs between the dates [!] sung: 2(y | m | w | d | h) songs within the last 2 years, months, weeks, days, hours. [!] Favorite: song | singers | both   Songs or singers marked as favorites [!] unfavorite:  song | singers | both   Songs or singers marked as unfavorites  [!] type: join | other | solo | group | invite | unknown | other Song types [!] State: playable | downloaded | played | requested | ready | error | deleted Playable state of the song  [!] playlist: PlaylistName   Playlists [!] media: audio | video | animation   Song media [!] follow: follower | following | both | onlyi   Singers that follow or followed [!] joins: (n1|any) - (n2|any)...

Duets.fm allows users to download thousands of songs to their device. Please see this article for information about downloading songs.   If you have an Android device there is an additional option called 'Download location' that allows the user to pick the location where the songs are stored. This option is available when you pick the downloads option under 'Song types' from the 'Songs' tab.  The default option under 'Download location' is 'Internal storage'. With this option, the downloaded songs are stored in an app specific area that is not visible to the user.  If you change this location to 'Downloads' you would be able to access and play the songs directly. Open up 'Files' app on your phone/device and look under 'Download'. You will see a folder called duetsfm/songs. Under this folder, you would see the downloaded song under the sub-folder year/date/day on which that song was sung. Any song that you already downloa...

 There are many ways to play your songs from this app. Here is a complete list: Tap on the Play button on each tab My FM  Explained here Songs Plays the top 200 playable songs from the songs selected.  Playlists Singers Plays the top 200  playable  songs sung with all the singers selected.  Tap on a song Regular song Plays the song, if it is  playable . An invite Shows the top 500 songs and the invite. If some of the songs are not  playable , you can tap on individual joins or you can play all the playable songs.  A repeat Shows all your joins or invites of that song. It does not include others' joining your invites. If some of the songs are not  playable , you can tap on individual joins or you can play all the playable songs.  Tap on a singer  Shows the top 500 songs that you sang with that singer. If some of the songs are not  playable , you can tap on individual joins or you can play all the playable songs....

Anytime you play a song in this app, using any of the methods described here , it opens the media player player. The media player itself is the central part of the page, where it shows the song that is playing.  The media player is mostly modeled after the YouTube player.  While playing the songs, if the app sees that a song is not ready to play from Smule, it changes the state of the song and skips to the next one. This is explained in song states .  The media player itself provides many controls Tap once on the player Tapping on the player shows the play/pause buttons and the prev/next buttons Double tap on the player Toggles between play and pause Swipe up/down on the player Moves to next or previous song Swipe left/right on the player or drag horizontally Fast forward or rewinds the song When the device switches to the landscape mode, only the media player is...

Songs can also be classified based on the format you chose to record them.  The second icon on top of a song's cover image shows its media type. It can be one of: Audio audiotrack Video videocam Animation animation Audio and Video have obvious meanings. Animation is the new Smule type where you can choose to record an audio song with some animation and lyrics flying around. You can filter your searches based on the media type, like  media: audio

A song can be in four different states in terms of its availability to play. Ready to play  download_2 Not ready to play  downloading Downloaded download_done Cannot be played device_unknown The third icon on top of a song's cover image shows its state. When the app is first installed, or when you click on refresh to fetch new joins, each song is in 'Ready to play'  download_2 state or 'Not ready to play' downloading state. The state of the song decides whether it is playable .  When you play a song that is 'Ready to play' Assuming your device is online, most of the times, the song would play. If it is played for 10 seconds, it would be marked as having been 'played'. You can search for such songs with  state: played   If the song is downloaded based on your download options, its state would change to 'Downloaded'. You will see the third icon on the cover image change to   download_done.  You can see it under ...

Improvements in version 1.5.6, released on Aug 2, 2024 Songs can now be downloaded automatically. Just choose a set of songs, allocate enough storage on your device and the songs would be downloaded to your device. See  this  article for more information.  Downloaded songs are now in a public folder that can be accessed from outside the app. See this article for more information.  Android users with SD card support can store the downloaded songs directly to the SD card. See this article for more details. 

In the 'Singers' tab, the second dropdown shows the join type.  It classifies singers as those that have joined you, those who you have joined and those where both have joined each other. You can see the counts of each type of singers.  You can drill down this number further. These counts change on other options and search terms you enter.  For example, you can see which singers that you joined in the last six months have not joined you back. Search for within: 6m and select "Only I joined" in this dropdown. 

When you click on the refresh icon at the top of the app refresh , it gets the latest songs from your Smule account. There are a few caveats to this. It will get only the public songs from your Smule profile  This app does not ask for your Smule credentials, It accesses only the public information from your profile. So, any song that is not public will not be fetched by this app.  It will only refresh the invites from the last seven days Smule allows people to join your invites in the last seven days, but it has changed this rule from time to time. When you click on the refresh button at the top, it downloads only the joins on your invites from the last seven days.  To get the joins from any invite that is older than seven days, go to that song in the songs tab and tap on the refresh icon refresh that is under it. This will get any newer joins on that invite. But, what if you made a private song public? It will be got it, if is a join within the last seven days.  Sa...

You can mark a song as a favorite  thumb_up or unfavorite  thumb_down . If you do not mark a song as a favorite or unfavorite (that is, you do not tap on  thumb_up or  thumb_down) , the song is considered as neutral. Additionally, you can also mark a singer as a favorite or unfavorite.  Favorite songs A song is a favorite if either the song is marked as a favorite or the song is neutral and the singer is marked as a favorite.  You might have a few singers with who you like all the joins, whether they joined you or you joined them. Just mark them as your favorites. All their songs would be automatically considered a favorite. If on a rare occasion, they were not up to the mark on a join, just mark that song as an unfavorite.  See the article on the My FM tab to see how you can play just your favorite songs.  Unfavorite songs A song is an unfavorite if either you mark the song as an unfavorite or the s...

Playlists are a way for you to group a few songs and play them repeatedly.  This app makes playlists easier to use: You can add and remove songs from a playlist with a single tap.  You can add a list of songs that you see anywhere in the app to a playlist, with a single tap.  Creating a new playlist You can add and remove playlists from the Songs tab - Playlists option. Playlist names can contain English letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens. They can be up to 16 characters long.  "Current" playlist The app always knows the "current" playlist, whichever tab you are on. You can set the 'current' playlist from Songs tab - Playlist page.  The app creates a playlist called 'Default' that cannot be removed. This would be the current playlist, by default. Adding/Removing individual songs to a playlist Just tap on   playlist_add  under any song. This would add that song to the current playlist. The icon would change t...

Beyond the  basic use cases , you can search for any set of songs or singers using the syntax  keyword: value The songs tab shows the matched songs and the singers tab shows the singers who sang those matched songs.  You can enter any number of keyword: value pairs.  You can also add a exclamation ! in front of a keyword: value pair to negate that criteria.  Each search is further filtered by the options you choose in the dropdowns. So, please make sure that you select the right options in the dropdowns .    Search by date sung Search songs by when they were sung. Use 'any' to ignore one side of the date range.  sung: 2021/2/1 - 2021/3/1  Songs from Feb 2021 sung: 2021/2/1 -  any Songs on or after Feb 1, 2021 sung: any - 2021/3/1  Songs before Mar 1, 2021 sung: 2021/2/1 - 2021/3/1  sung: 2021/10/1 - 2021/11/1  Songs from Feb or Oct, 2021 sung: 2y   Songs within the last two years.  Use the suffix y for years, m...

My FM tab is what you see when you open the app. Its aim is to create a FM station like experience for you in listening to your own Smule songs.  Here is the algorithm that the app follows to give you this experience: Picks from all your joins Picks one join from each invite   Doesn't repeat the same song, even if you sang it many times Picks only playable songs Never plays an invite or an unfavorite song Picks 200 songs randomly based on the above rules You can customize this algorithm per your taste: Pick only your duets and not solos and group songs On your invites, pick only the joins from your  favorites  singers.  Choose a timeframe for the songs - recent or old  Choose just audio or all songs, depending on whether you have a slow internet connection You can customize this algorithm once and the app remembers it. Every day you can enjoy a new set of songs from your Smule collection, by ...

What songs are "playable" depends on whether your device is online or offline.  When your device is online When your device is online, a song is playable if it has been already downloaded download_done to your device or if it is ready to play download_2 from Smule.  You will notice that when you tap on some songs in Smule, it keeps spinning for a minute and then plays the song. These songs are not ready to play downloading from Smule. When you tap on these songs in this app, it will show you a message asking you to wait. Once the song is available, you would notice that the third icon on the song cover image changes from downloading to download_2 . This song is now "ready to play". You can play it immediately.  Songs which are not ready to play are not included when you click the play button on any of the three tabs as explained here . In the 'My FM' tab, you will not even see these songs in the song list. In the Songs tab, y...

Search follows the same rules on both the songs and singers tabs. While songs tab shows the songs that match your search, singers tab shows the singers with who you sang those songs.  To search for a song, just type a part of the song title. Use letters and numbers only. All the words you type are considered part of the same song. To search for multiple songs, separate them with a comma. To search for a singer, prefix a word with the @ symbol. The word matches Smule ID, first name or last name.  Search for songs Year Matches 'Reeling In The Years', 'Ten Years Gone'. Years gone Matches 'Ten Years Gone' Years gone,  numb Matches ' Ten Years Gone', 'Comfortably Numb',  'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' Search for singers @elv @mi Matches Smule ID elvis123, users with names Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus Search for songs sung with singers Years gone, numb   @roger   @david Matches 'Ten Years Gone', 'Rikki Don't L...

 This article covers what happens in Duets.fm when you or another singer makes changes to their profile.  If you make changes to your Smule profile, it would be shown the next time you restart the app. Since there are only a few places in this app where you see your own profile details (like, from the setting icon), you may not notice this change immediately.  When one of the singers that you sang with makes a change to their profile, it takes some time to be seen in the app.  If the singer changed their name or profile picture, it would  be seen in the app only after a long time (currently set to six months). As we usually sing with a lot of singers in Smule, this has been deliberately set to be a rare activity. But, if you know that a singer changed their profile, you can click on the refresh icon under their name in the Songs tab, to update immediately.  If a singer changes their Smule ID, it would be updated after they or you join a song. The songs that...

Duets.fm allows you to download songs to your device.  By default, the app does not download any song. You can ask the app to download songs from the Songs tab - Downloads option.  When a song has been downloaded to your device, you will see download_done on top of the song's cover image. Downloaded songs can be played, even when your device is offline.  Setting up downloads and storage used You can control how much storage is used on your device for downloaded songs. From Songs tab - downloaded songs - 'Maximum space for downloaded songs', choose the appropriate setting.  The default setting for 'Maximum storage for downloaded' is to not store any song on your device. This option will use the least amount of space on your device for this app. You have to change it to another option for any song to be stored on your device. Once this storage limit is reached, the songs you played earliest will be removed from your device to make space fo...