How to download and listen to offline mixes with MixRadio

By Mark Guim
last updated

We absolutely love MixRadio, even after the recent removal of the Nokia branding{.nofollow}. If you haven't heard of it by now, it's a streaming music service that brings you free, personalized music with no advertising. There are hundreds of handcrafted mixes available, so you might even find new favorite artists.

One of MixRadio's key features is offline mixes. You can save your favorite mixes for offline playback so you can listen even without an internet connection. Want to know how to do it? Head past the break to watch the tutorial.

When you open MixRadio, you'll see the 'play me' button and recently played mixes. When you swipe over to the right, you can see more mixes. You can view featured mixes or browse through the categories and genres. To make any of them available for offline listening, follow these simple steps:

  1. Press and hold on a mix
  2. Click 'take mix online.'

That's it! MixRadio starts downloading and then you can access it in the offline mixes folder when you need to. They can be played without an Internet connection.

An offline mix will automatically refresh every 20 days. That's good to know since you don't want to listen to the same songs all the time. MixRadio needs to be open and connected to Wi-Fi for the refresh to happen. If you want to manually refresh, tap and hold on an offline mix.

Want to know another great tip? You can take the 'play me' mix offline, too. This mix always changes based on the music you like. Use Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down to make the mix better each time you play. The same steps above apply. Press and hold on the 'play me' button and click 'take mix offline.'

Having offline mixes with MixRadio is really useful. It's great for long road trips and flights. What are your offline mixes? When do you listen to them? Let us know in the comments!

Note: MixRadio feature availability varies by country, which is determined from your SIM.

Mark Guim
Mark Guim

Mark Guim is Video Editor at Windows Central. He switched to Windows because the MacBook Pro isn't Pro enough. You can follow him on Twitter at @markguim.

96 Comments
  • Is there any way to stream a particular song or album?
  • No. Try Rdio. Unlike Spotify the app works very well with a free account on WP. Link here: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=aab4252d-a0e0-df11-a844-00237de2db9e
  • Kinda rude Jack. This story is about MixRadio. Some of us don't care for Rdio on WP. I know I don't.
  • Is there any way to bypass the SIM restriction?  If not, what are some good alternatives, that are: 1. free like mix radio 2. offers offline mixes
  • Try this http://www.mixrad.io/us/en
  • Here is a way to use Nokia MixRadio (MixRadio now) outside of supported countries like New Zealand e.t.c
    1: Change your region to US by going to Settings > region > US > Restart your phone.
    2: After Restarting, go to App Store and Download MixRadio.
    3: Now open Internet Explorer & create a new Nokia Mail account from here;
    https://www.nokiamail.com/
    4: Open the link and then 'tap' Create a new account.
    5: Now type in your email address, Date of birth & password.
    6: Now the most important step Change the region to UNITED STATES (This is very important).
    7: Now hit enter, you'll get a confirmation email on your email ID that you gave earlier, confirm your account.
    8: After that set a Username & Password for your Nokia Mail.
    9: Congrats now you have your own Nokia Mail ID.
    10: Make sure you write your username somewhere.
    11: Open MixRadio, and untick the 'Use my location option' after that hit continue.
    12: Wait it will say 'Finding your music ID' and after that it will say 'Sorry MixRadio not available in your region'
    13: Now open settings by tapping the ellipse '...' in lower right corner.
    14: Now go to settings > account > sing in.
    15: Enter your Nokia Mail username e.g username@ovi.com (always enter @ovi.com after username) enter your password & hit 'Login'
    16: If successfully login hit the back button and you will see that you can now use MixRadio regardless if it supports your country or not ;)
    Enjoy.
    Pro tips:
    • You can setup your Nokia Mail account on your phone by going to Settings > email+accounts > Nokia, login and save.
    • You can easily change your Phone's region back once you've got MixRadio working.
    • To get Transparent MixRadio Tile download an app called Transparency Tiles'
  • Wow thanks man!! It's working now!! :D
  • Epic tip. Big thanks.
  • Does anybody know how to change the region settings on a nokia XL, i only have the location option, which is either 'on' or 'off''.   
  • Thank you very very much bro....  
  • Thanks! But i Already knew this! ;)
  • I believe we cannot do this unless we have a subscription, right...?
  • yes you can .. limit = 4 mixes
  • Without a subscription, there's a limit of 4 offline mixes
  • That's amazing, but when I click on mix from this artist(eg.-Lana del ray) it plays other artists songs too... :/ , any fix? Or this is what mix is... ??
  • Man...it is mix radio! It plays lana and artist similar to her...
  • This is what mix is all about! :)
  • Copy that!
  • That's the way it is set up, the mix will play artists similar to Lana Del Ray as well as one of her tracks. It's a way to help people discovery new music they may be interested in.
  • That's right. And that's the way I discovered dozens of artists I was never aware they existed. It works great! 
  • No subscription need to takes upto 4 mixes offline. If you buy the subscription, you can take unlimited number of mixes offline(limited by your device/sdcard capacity). Another advantage of subscription is unlimited skips (in on-line or off-line mode). The no-subscription level gives you a limited number of skips (6-7 IIRC) per hour.
  • Subscription or no subscription you can skip only 6 per hour
  • No you can skip unlimited amount of time in subscription..
  • Hmm.. What would my music collection be without Nokia MixRadio. :D
  • Not available here
  • Nokia MixRadio services are available in: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, UK, USA, Vietnam.
  • New Zealand :'(
  • Just set your Nokia account to US region, and use it to log in to MixRadio. I'm from the Philippines and been using MR for 6mos now. Works like a charm!
  • Kudos for you!
    Now I can use MixRadio!
    Thank you very much bro!
  • Thank you very much mrvhin1216
  • Thank you Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Not available in my country. The old Nokia Music is not region based so the mixradio feature is available. Ever since Nokia Mixradio the only thing the app has ever done is play my music......which kinda sucks at that too.
  • Just set your Nokia account to US region, and use it to log in to MixRadio. I'm from the Philippines and been using MR for 6mos now.
  • Where can I find this setting? Whenever I try to download MixRadio to my phone it always says that it's not available in my country. Teach me master. :))
  • First change your phone region to a supported country e.g US, then download it. Go into your Nokia account and change your settings. Shish, haven't had to open that account in a very long time so I don't even know if its still ovi.com. Lol. After which log in using that account into mixradio. It should work. And I think you can switch your phone settings back your country.
  • ovi.com migrated to yahoo. go to www.mail.yahoo.com and user name xxx@ovi.com and pwd and should be able to login
  • It's not available in my country like Here Drive. With WP7 I used Nokia Music and Nokia Drive. I don't know why those were available and the new ones aren't.
  • Even l If you change your region?
  • I changed my region to USA and NOKIA MixRadios works!
  • I hate mixradio it only came up to eliminate support from Nokia music in most countries
  • More like a mix bag of s&ht!!!
  • Linkin park
  • Just set your Nokia account to US region, and use it to log in to MixRadio. I'm from the Philippines and been using MR for 6mos now. Works like a charm!
  • Not available in Greece.
  • Just set your Nokia account to US region, and use it to log in to MixRadio. I'm from the Philippines and been using MR for 6mos now.
  • Hate how is not available on another Countries. So many post of Indian apps and nothing to world wide apps.
  • I love it.... But my subscription ended... I am not able to find out an option to renew it.
  • Try Oxigen store, they have MixRadio coupons...(I'm from India, donno about other countries)
  • I am from India too. However that website doesn't seem to work. I am getting page not found error since last week.
  • I actually found that mixradio matches my taste pretty accurately. I rarely skip tracks. I only wish that the local music player was working. Right now when I want to listen to a local playlist on my phone, it's pretty laggy, buggy and displays wrong album images. Apart from that it's free, neat and serves its purpose... What else should we ask for?
  • Doesn't it need to be plugged in for the mixes to download?
  • No... However if u leave mix radio it will pause.
  • Can anyone tell me how to extend subscription of mix radio in India. Tried the link they give but its broken.
  • Go to Nokia store or u can buy the subscription online at oxigen website.
  • Oxigen website is not working. I am trying since last week.
  • change the region, download, open, and back to your region. 
  • I don't have Nokia I'd n password for 820 I use . I have purchased it second Hand and n unaware of userid n pwd that was registered . Any tip how do I download songs even if I m not registered ? Ashking2@hotmail.com . +919033786504 . WhatsApp . Plz help.
  • Did you just give your number to the whole world?
  • Yes . So what . If anybody cud help .
  • you dont need to login to download offline music.   go to setting> email+accounts you can see the email you had used to sign in. if you forgot you can always reset... or create a new id and pwd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdZn5iet-ok
  • I need to download from store not offline music . N thrz no way to register again as its subscribed only once with fone imei . So no second chance . Store is too good but I cant use . Damn y did I reset .
  • Still unable to download individual songs...even with free subscription!
  • I hope that's a joke... Because it's not supposed to work that way. What do you mean "free subscription?"
  • Welcome to the internet... Where Most people complain without knowing. As kb4000 already stated, that's not how it's supposed to work. Mixradio allows you to download mixes (playlists if you prefer) matching your taste. If you want to download single songs, you need to purchase them for on-demand purposes. The mixes can be listened to at any time but you can't skip through it or go back to a song. If you want to do that you either pay the subscription or you purchase the songs individually.
  • I'm unable to update mixradio for unknown reason. Tried reinstalling, restarting phone, using different networks. There is no error code, just "attention required" massage. Anybody having this problem?
  • switch phone to US region ;)
  • Changed region. Still not able to install.
  • Please add free unlimited downloads for lifetime
  • Great business model there.
  • Can anybody purchase individual songs? Mine showed an error then brought me back to the 'catalogue'. Arghh so frustrating
  • I can download individual song last 3 days, been listening to new song I had purchased.
  • You can save only 4 mixes with free service. If you want more, I think you have to go to MixRadio+ services.
  • MixRadio isn't a bad product, but it's not nearly as good as Slacker or Pandora for personalized radio.  No thumbs up/down for curated mixes, mixes don't seem to sync between devices, I always hear songs that are COMPLETELY unrelated to the mix I've created.. Thank goodness the price is right.
  • The only problem I have is that the Play Me mix keeps repeating the same 15-20 songs.  Won't it ever change or do I need to manually refresh it?
  • Have you done a computer scan? If you download and run the scanner on your music on your computer it will help create a mix that includes more variety that fits you. The link is in the app but here it is >> http://www.mixrad.io/us/en/scanner
  • Thanks Sekyal!  I never noticed that before!
  • When wil this app get worldwide windows phone support and not only nokia
  • Its not available for belgium Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • I am an old fart and can get a discount at Denny's and I like MixRadio the best of them all. I have discovered....front 242...cobalt 60...android lust...controlled bleeding...dope...godhead...john Foxx...leather strip...ministry...velvet acid Christ...new skin...noise unit...pig face...revolting cocks...second skin...vampire lust. anybody listen to this shit besides me ?
  • MIX RADIO ahhhhh thanks for the new article. Today I thought Microsoft has removed the whole app while I was searching through my apps and could not find it :)
  • I think there's a typo on step 2; should be "offline".
  • I love MixRadio. But it sucks that over here in Nigeria, its features are not available. Used to have them at first, until it detected through my SIM that I am in Nigeria. The features were subsequently removed.
  • by any chance, will mixradio services be available in Egypt and middle east ??
    cuz it's simply just like any music player on my phone...
  • Yes see my comment :)
  • Is there a way to list what tracks are in a mix, so you know if the mix is worth downloading before you do it?
  • It should be *take mix offline* in the article above? 
  • Here is a way to use Nokia MixRadio (MixRadio now) outside of supported countries like New Zealand e.t.c
    1: Change your region to US by going to Settings > region > US > Restart your phone.
    2: After Restarting, go to App Store and Download MixRadio.
    3: Now open Internet Explorer & create a new Nokia Mail account from here;
    https://www.nokiamail.com/
    4: Open the link and then 'tap' Create a new account.
    5: Now type in your email address, Date of birth & password.
    6: Now the most important step Change the region to UNITED STATES (This is very important).
    7: Now hit enter, you'll get a confirmation email on your email ID that you gave earlier, confirm your account.
    8: After that set a Username & Password for your Nokia Mail.
    9: Congrats now you have your own Nokia Mail ID.
    10: Make sure you write your username somewhere.
    11: Open MixRadio, and untick the 'Use my location option' after that hit continue.
    12: Wait it will say 'Finding your music ID' and after that it will say 'Sorry MixRadio not available in your region'
    13: Now open settings by tapping the ellipse '...' in lower right corner.
    14: Now go to settings > account > sing in.
    15: Enter your Nokia Mail username e.g username@ovi.com (always enter @ovi.com after username) enter your password & hit 'Login'
    16: If successfully login hit the back button and you will see that you can now use MixRadio regardless if it supports your country or not ;)
    Enjoy.
  • THANK!!!!! I think i love you Great comment mate
  • Absolutely one of my top 5 apps :D
  • Hi, I have mix radio in my lumia, but recently got win8.1 for my laptop but cant get mixradio in windows store app although it shows in windows store website....... how do I install mix radio in my laptop. I have been searching on the net for last few days but did not get any solution.    
  • I just searched the Windows 8 store (and I have Win 8.1) and the Mixradio app is there, just searched for what is in bold. I haven't used it in awhile since I didn't like it. It doesn't use artwork for my local songs and don't find the mixes as useful when listening at home.
  • This is pretty nice. Four mixes is good enough for me to get a feel of this app.  I only get standard quality which doesn't sound terrible on my 920 but what does subscriptions cost per month?  And what about a "Stop Music" button? Music apps should include this as an option but none seem to.
  • 3.99$ per month iirc
  • @master chaos5
    Thanks man, u r a,geniuuus.. how can I add my card payment info, although am not a resident of the US ?
  • Card payment info? It never ask you for your card payment info. Make sure you follow exact same steps..
  • How do u set up backgrounds on mixradio?