Abandon All Hope: RocketPlayer and JRT Studios are GONE

[Mr. Win Stonechurch Hill]

JRT Studios sold RocketPlayer etc to Zipo Apps which in turn likely owns Muma Studios.  They've sent all of JRT Studios apps into the shredder.  There is no more support.  Stop wasting your time, time to move on to another music player.

[Ken Kyler]

The only online reference to that is Reddit and that post started over a year ago.  If you have an authoritative source, please share otherwise this is pure BS.

[Mr. Win Stonechurch Hill]

hmmm, ok, rando internet dude, my post is pure bs, fine.  Now how about you address all the people having all the problems with rocket player.  All I'm saying is follow the details on the google play store, look who the owner is,  and follow the leads.  Here, read this.  And if you don't like it, so what.  Keep trying to contact the Rocket Player creator, see how far that gets you. He sold it and moved on.   Probably because people didn't monetarily support him enough. Read JRT Studio's blog.

============================================

So rocketplayer used to be a mom and pop shop in TX, then got bought out by Muma Studios in Tel-Aviv, and they let this app sh*t the bed. Can't log into my RocketPlayer account anymore, thus can't backup settings to the cloud.

Here's a nice summary:

"UPDATE: 5 August 2022: At some point there have been changes with the team that works on iSyncr and Rocket Player. All enquiries are handled by “Muma Studios Support”. I’m not sure when this changed happened and how the whole operation works, but the end result has been a noticeable drop in quality of the app and service. For those of us who have used the apps for many years, the responses to problems from the Muma Studios Support people are often more basic and less useful than what I already know. While they claim that for the issues that they cannot solve, the developers will be contacted – I am not sure that this actually happens and I have not seen any positive results from it. The latest release of Rocket Player (at least on my phone) has so many problems, with the most annoying being that Live Lists disappear and the Google login is not working, so there is no way to backup or restore the lists (if it weren’t for the fact that I started my subscription that ties to this, in March, I would cancel it now… for now, I will give them a few months to get it sorted). The time may be coming to ditch these apps."

(https://hoodcp.wordpress.com/2021/03/10/rocket-player-the-best-music-player-on-android/)

Muma Studios:

"Dispute ResolutionThese EULA shall be governed solely by the laws of the State of Israel, without giving effect to any conflicts of law. Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of, connected with, or otherwise relating to these EULA and your use of the App or Services will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent court in Tel-Aviv, Israel. The limitation in respect to any claim to these EULA, the App and Services shall be limited to twelve (12) months as of the relevant claim, and will be permanently barred afterwards."

And still more info:

https://groups.google.com/g/rocket-player?pli=1

And info on the creator, Justin of JRT Studios:

"About JRT StudioFounded by Justin Tipton (@Tiptopdrop) in 2009Independent Android development focused on innovative music applicationsLocated in Austin, TXThe JRT Studio story:Download(Founder/CEO/Developer)Justin Richard Tipton (JRT): I'm one of the lucky people who get to do their dream job. After several years of coding for a big software company, I jumped on the Android bandwagon when the Nexus One was released. The thought of a much lower priced phone that could still sync play counts with iTunes was enough to drive me to create iSyncr, the first Android app to sync with iTunes.I didn't know if anyone would buy it, so I put it out on the Android Market (Pre-Play Store). A few months later, and many sleepless nights, I submitted my resignation and started work for JRT Studio full time. Was it scary? Heck yeah! Do I regret it? No way! This is still a job, but how lucky am I that I get to wake up everyday and do something I love?"Honestly, we're not sure it gets much simpler than this if you use iTunes, (iSyncr) is a must-have." - Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker"Rocket Player's Android interface is top notch. . . clean, minimal, and efficient . . . all of that while maintaining a polished feel" - Joel Lee, MakeUseOfDownload(Mascot)Winston is the JRT Studio mascot. Born in the early 00's. A lover of food, hands, and slobber. Winston works hard to bring positive vibes to the lab and continues to improve his begging ability.Address:JRT Studio LLC5501-A Balcones Dr #167Austin, TX 78731Hours: 7 day/week email support"

one last item: MUMA studios is probably a shell co owned by Zipo Apps, a monetizing firm also out of Tel-Aviv. Here's their website: https://zipoapps.com/

And here's a site about zipo apps and how they buy up previously good apps and then kill them: https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/07/29/mi-control-center-and-other-treydev-apps-have-a-new-owner-and-customers-are-pissed/

"We are ZipoApps, we acquire the best apps and take them to the next level.
We are a vibrant mobile apps technology company, with
elegant solutions built on proven methodologies.
Our mission is to find, evaluate, purchase and
grow mobile apps.
Growing valuable mobile apps is our
passion, we unleash the potential
and elevate any mobile app."

[Ken Kyler]

Great speculation but no hard evidence that JRT sold to Muma.  Time will tell.  

[Ken Kyler]

I did some more digging and found sources I trust more.  

https://www.google.com/ads/publisher/stories/jrt-studio/#:~:text=JRT%20Studio%20is%20a%20music,and%20are%20pursuing%20new%20opportunities.

"JRT Studio is a music app development company founded by Justin and Caroline Tipton. In 2022, Justin and Caroline were able to successfully sell their business and are pursuing new opportunities."

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-tipton-41835424

He says he's looking for new work

https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/

does show some ownership change

JRT STUDIO LLC
Texas Taxpayer Number
32041088215
Mailing Address
2133 WILLOW CREEK LN KNOXVILLE, TN 37909-1090
 Right to Transact Business in Texas
FRANCHISE TAX ENDED

This is the kind of research folks need to do versus speculation.  

[Ken Kyler]

and the final proof is here.  The next issue is whether or not the doom and gloom of killing the app is true.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jrtstudio.AnotherMusicPlayer

Developer contact

expand_less

language

Website

https://mumastudios.com/rocketplayer

email

Email

support.ro...@mumastudios.com

place

Address

8 The Green Suite #4184 Dover, DE 19901

verified_user

Privacy policy

https://mumastudios.com/rocketplayer/privacy

[Daniel Faigin]

I've basically given up on Rocket Player. I've switched over (for my phone) to the GoneMad Player ( http://gonemadmusicplayer.blogspot.com/ , https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gonemad.gmmp&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1 ) which supports the equivalent of live lists and such, and has few bugs.

I'm still using iSyncr, but only using the plug-in USB sync (which is working for now). Eventually, I need to find a replacement for that, but I'm worried that would mean having to delete and reload my 53,000 song library to my phone. iSyncr USB is still working ... and I'm open to replacement suggestions there. Once a month, I do an iSyncr run (which takes an hour or so), then reboot the phone and have GMMP rescan for new files.

In terms of syncing playcounts and such, I've developed a perl script that can go through the iTunes XML and bring the information into GMMP. So I save stats in GMMP, move over that stats file to my PC, export the iTunes library as XML, run the perl script, move the stats files back, and then restore stats. 

I don't have any way to move the stats back from my phone into iTunes. Sigh.

I've essentially given up on JRT. 

[Kevin Palm]

Yep, I switched to Poweramp after the new owners refused to fix the damn thing!  It does everything I need it to do, and then some, so Muma Studios can go pound salt!

[Ken Kyler]

I must be the sole user with no issues.  

[Kevin Palm]

No, you're not, but the overwhelming majority of the reviews on Google Play are from people with the same issues, constant scanning for new songs, spontaneous minimization, etc.).

[Mr. Win Stonechurch Hill]

hahahhaahahahah  great investigative journalism.  what the hell...
scratching my head.