UPDATE 11/9/2015 IS IT HAPPENING?!

Tomorrow you’ll be able to stream @umphreysmcgee on android. And a whole lot more. — Kevin Browning (@Soundcaresser) November 10, 2015

9:31pm Umphreak’s Anonymous has Kangfirmed UMLive Android drops tomorrow!

Original Article

By Joshua Colky In September of 2013, Umphrey’s McGee unleashed unto the world the UMLive Streaming Service and it was glorious to all who could behold it…those who were iPhone users. Truly, our initial review of the desktop service showed that it had its fair share of bugs and problems: the interface was clunky, the Queue feature did not work properly and was not intuitive, the social function did not work correctly. A year and a half later, some of that has been improved on while other pieces remain exactly the same – you can now “Click the Rhino” to get back to the UMLive homepage, but the Social features and Queue have not been altered whatsoever since inception, but our major gripe has been, and still remains, that UMLive does not offer any support for Android whatsoever. No mobile web access through your browser, no native Android application in the Google Play store. Robot World remains in ruins! Yesterday we were reminded of this painful fact when we could not access the brand new Raw Stewage 2015 without either buying it outright off the site (for the cost of a subscription) or subscribe to UMLive’s streaming service, which we cannot access on our phones. It was quite the conundrum and that is one of the reasons we have no Raw Stewage review for you this morning. While Umphrey’s has almost always been in tune with the needs of their fanbase and simultaneously making smart business decisions, this one has us scratching our heads. Almost everything that Umphrey’s does is of the highest caliber, vetted to the point of maximum satisfaction, yet this tool has slipped through the cracks. For UMLive to be a success, it is going to need some reconfiguration, starting with offering Android support. In response to our 2014 Year in Review Survey, over 200 people (35% of our respondents) indicated that they would sign up for the UMLive Streaming Service if the bugs were fixed and Android support made available. If those 200 people sign up for atleast a month of UMLive, we’d be looking at $2000 increased income for the service, and that’s just based on our respondents. Think of the investment for the future! Right now, half of the United States smartphone population are Robot World members, with the other half (w)Appley Sprayberry (both fight for US dominance, but it’s close to neck and neck). Worldwide, Android far outpaces Apple in ownership. Many applications launch on iOS, the bugs are removed and the issues regarding fragmentation resolved, and then it is ported over to Android, and Android users are used to this. 18 months, however, is a very long period of time, and that’s over $180 they could have gotten from this user alone in the past year if they offered Android support. For anyone watching their Google Analytics, we know that mobile users make up a HUGE portion of the spectrum when it comes to online presence. This type of move would ALSO help prevent the rampant piracy of live shows that exists online currently, allowing more individuals to hear the offerings without stealing them from the band they love. This seems like it should be easy money, so what’s up?

@nlutesguitar sorry to report that last I heard we still don’t have an affordable developer so it’s currently on hold. — Joel Cummins (@goldlikejoel) April 3, 2015

According to this tweet from Joel, the cost to develop the app is currently unreasonable, but we just think they haven’t found an Umphreaky developer yet willing to take on the work for an affordable rate and to better the cause of his/her fellow man/woman. When UMLive launched in 2013, Android still had a terrible developer studio and we believe this may be why Android was initially overlooked. However, in the past two years, Androids development enviroment has been replaced with the magnificent Android Studio. Problems that arose due to fragmentation and security among Android devices have been minimized. We believe a rageface Umphreak could do this for the band at a reasonable rate and help out others in their community. Think of it: possibly hundreds of new Umphreaks being able to access the service that allows unlimited access to UM’s entire SBD catalog post 2005, all from the glory of any mobile device. To this effect, they could even reasonably go with a “Mobile Responsive” website (like the awesome mobile version of Allthings.Umphreys), allowing anyone to be able to use the tool from their mobile web browser with ease while stroking the fires of this addiction. All we want is to be able to blast shows from Jam in The Dam 2006 through our mobile phones while cruising down the highway, is that so much to ask?

Until then, we’ll have to settle for purchasing Raw Stewage 2015, though we’d rather just give Umphrey’s the same amount of money monthly and romp around their large collection, reliving the moments we have shared together limitless. Lets hope the future has something brighter for the Robot owners out there.

Show Umphrey’s your interest in UMLive coming to Android by signing this petition – if the band is aware of the demand, they may feel the development costs are more worth the undertaking! Show them how it will be an investment in the future by telling them “I would sign up for UMLive if it comes to Android!” https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bring-umlive-to-android