Playing multiple songs with MediaPlayer at the same time: only one is really playing

Question

I need help with playing multiple audio tracks at the same time in Android.

I am supposed to play three audio tracks at the exact same

Answer 1

I achieved what you're looking for using a CyclicBarrier instance and an inner class implementation.

Example:

public enum MP_COMMAND {
    START,
    STOP,
    PAUSE
}

/**
 * Uses threads to execute synced commands for the current video media player and 
 * background music player in tandem.
 */
public void syncedCommand(MediaPlayer player1, MediaPlayer player2, MP_COMMAND command) {
    final CyclicBarrier commandBarrier = new CyclicBarrier(2);
    new Thread(new SyncedCommandService(commandBarrier, player1, command)).start();
    new Thread(new SyncedCommandService(commandBarrier, player2, command)).start();
}

/**
 * Inner class that starts a given media player synchronously
 * with other threads utilizing SyncedStartService
 */
private class SyncedCommandService implements Runnable {
    private final CyclicBarrier              mCommandBarrier;
    private       MediaPlayerTest.MP_COMMAND mCommand;
    private       MediaPlayer                mMediaPlayer;

    public SyncedCommandService(CyclicBarrier barrier, MediaPlayer player, MediaPlayerTest.MP_COMMAND command) {
        mCommandBarrier = barrier;
        mMediaPlayer = player;
        mCommand = command;
    }

    @Override public void run() {
        try {
            mCommandBarrier.await();
        } catch (InterruptedException | BrokenBarrierException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        switch (mCommand) {
            case START:
                mMediaPlayer.start();
                break;

            case STOP:
                mMediaPlayer.stop();
                break;

            case PAUSE:
                mMediaPlayer.pause();
                break;

            default:
                break;
        }
    }
}

You'd utilize it like so:

syncedCommand(mCurrentVideoPlayer, mBackgroundMusic, MP_COMMAND.START);

If you had the requirement that it be usable for any number of media players, you could easily implement it - my requirements just call for two.

I realize this question is old, but this page is where I found myself while searching for a solution, so I hope this helps anyone stuck on this issue in the future.