Spotify is a free music streaming app for the iPad. After a recent update, which added a Radio feature similar to Pandora, Spotify is now the fastest growing music app in the App Store. The Spotify app features a great user interface, support for the new iPad Retina display, a “Now Playing” screen with search support, swiping gestures, Facebook integration, AirPlay integration and other features similar to those found on the iPhone/iPod touch version of the app.
Towards the end of May, Spotify for iPad gained another new feature: push notifications. The push notifications were implemented for the purpose of informing users when a playlist is updated and when new subscribers are added. Other fixes that launched in the same update include Retina album art being synced while offline, improvements to the Facebook login, and a fix for unresponsiveness when scrolling and navigating at the same time.
Recently, Spotify received yet another update (this time for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad). The major new feature that debuted in this update is a radio service, similar to what’s offered by competitor Pandora. The Spotify radio service, like Pandora, is only available to US residents and also functions almost exactly like Pandora, allowing users to create playlists based on their interests in certain songs, albums, playlists and artists. Also mimicking Pandora, the Spotify radio allows for unlimited skips for premium users and offers limited skips and ads for free users.
Two features that Spotify added and that Pandora lacks are the ability to skim through tracks and to switch iDevices and continue listening where the user left off on the first iDevice. A few additional features that this Spotify update added are the ability to long-press on any track in order to display an improved context menu, smoother people view scrolling, and stability improvements.
Spotify is truly a great music streaming service to try out as long as you live in the United States or the few European countries where Spotify is supported. Spotify literally puts millions of songs into your hands for easy streaming, offline syncing, and so much more. If you’re looking for a good subscription-based or even free (with limitations) music streaming service, Spotify is surely one to consider.
