Android Apps - Music

Shazam 

 FREE

Shazam is one of those slightly oddball ideas that just works. It's a free music-recognition service that requires only a few seconds' burst of a track in order to pinpoint the artist and title.

Unlike sticking a CD into your laptop and having the track listing and album art pop up in Windows Media Player or iTunes, Shazam doesn't rely on existing info, but uses rhythm and audio characteristics to identify what's playing. So if you're listening to the FM radio on your Android phone, you don't have to wait for the DJ to announce what they've played - Shazam will tell you first.

NAME THAT TUNE

When we first heard about this system some years ago, we were sceptical. But then we had the opportunity to try it oxit in the high-pressure environment of a pub quiz and we found it came up trumps every time. Shazam even correctly identified live music tracks and concert footage featuring cover versions. Surely some kind of voodoo is at play here?

Another cool element is tagging. You can tag a track and share it with friends or find out who else is tagging songs. A live tag stream can be displayed within Shazam. If you buy the Encore version you can tag as many tracks as you like
and pull other people's tagged tracks in to your playlists. The free version limits you to tagging five tunes a month, which is only a limitation if you get a taste for it.

The makers are also working to link Shazam with other ways of experiencing music. Tagging an artist causes information about their upcoming gigs and music releases to be pushed in your direction. And now that Android supports PayPal and mobile payments, the ability to buy concert tickets for your favourite artists will also come into its own.

Spotify
FREE 

 

Spotify has quickly become one of the most popular music-streaming services around. It comes in a free, ad-supported version, one free of advertising interruptions, and a mobile version that allows you to download playlists from the desktop application and play them on your smartphone in offline mode. The latter service costs £9.99 a month, so you'd need to be a fairly committed music fan and make extensive use of its library.

Spotify also suggests that this is a useful option if you're travelling abroad and want to be able to access your favourite Spotify albums: just download them to your Android device before you go. A similar principle to Napster's streaming service applies to accessing your stored Spotify tracks: you have a full month to listen to a downloaded track before the service checks that your subscription is still active. You can also synchronise your library with up to three PCs or Macs.

STREAMING HOT

Sensibly, playlists and albums download only when you have a Wi-Fi connection, saving your 3G data allowance and battery life. Music can be streamed over a cell network connection as well as Wi-Fi.

Another advantage of signing up for a Spotify subscription is that you can access new albums before they become available to users of the free service. As with Shazam, sharing is a big element;
you can create a playlist and share it on Facebook or Twitter, via email and so on.

Spotify's music catalogue is broader than some, so you're not stuck with Katy Perry and Take That, but can rediscover alternative gems from your youth. The only real issue we have with the Android version is that support for hardware is more limited that we'd have expected.

Of the eight Android devices we had to hand when we came to try out Spotify for Android, only three - the LG GW620 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia models

proved to be compatible with it As of April 2011, 28 Android devices were supported in total.







   

Last.fm
FREE

 
Music geeks and Android lovers unite! Last.fm is an across-the-board great application. Boasting 'the world's largest online music catalogue', the service itself probably needs no introduction; it's already used by more than 40 million music lovers worldwide. The Android app brings it within reach of even more.

If you already have a Last.fm account, you can simply sign in to jump to the service's homepage. If you don't yet have one, setting up an account takes only a minute within the app. The homepage has tabs for Artist, Tag and User along with a search bar. We tried a search for Pixies, and almost immediately Frank Black's voice started singing from the speakers.

STALK THE STARS

When Last.fm plays a song by an artist who's currently touring, the upper right corner of the album artwork displays a banner that says 'On Tour'. Clicking this leads to an artist bio, a 'similar artists' tab, tags, fans and events. The information on events includes a listing of all nearby shows that this artist is playing along with their dates and venues.

The Radio tab holds all the stations that you've recently listened to, as well as a list of recommended artists and popular artists in your local area. The Profile tab will show your top artists, top albums, top tracks, recently played music, events, friends and tags.
We enjoyed playing around with this app, which performed nearly flawlessly, and kept finding pleasant surprises in each new feature. For instance, Last.fm has background streaming, so you can listen continuously while using other features of your smartphone, very handy if you need to quickly send an email. We were also pleased to find that you can purchase songs direct from the Amazon music store from within the app.

Though we did miss a pause button, we could probably have kept Last.fm running all day if only the speakers on our Android smartphone weren't so tinny.

 

SoundHound
FREE

 
Few things are as annoying as hearing a song on the radio or the TV and not being able to recall the track's title or the artist. And SoundHound aims to answer these nagging questions.

Although similar to Shazam, SoundHound packs in a few extra tools. Using the Sound2Sound search engine to accurately identify music, SoundHound can listen to a scng being played on the radio and recognise it. like Shazam. But SoundHound can also identify songs that you sing or hum. In addition, you can also just speak a song's title or an artist's name into your device's built-in mic and SoundHound will find it.

No internet connection? No problem - your search will be saved and marked as pending under the history tab until you connect with a network again. SoundHound lets you bookmark your searches and share the songs you find through Twitter, Facebook, or email.

Once SoundHound has identified a song, it brings up a plethora of information. The song title and artist name appears at the top of the screen, along with a 30-second preview and a link to download it through Amazon. Below that, you'll find several
links to YouTube, where you can watch music videos. SoundHound's results page also features a tab that will launch a Google search for the song's lyrics, which is a great way to settle arguments. If you're still hungry for more info, there's even artist and album info tabs, which bring up album reviews, photos, top songs, a discography, similar artists, and even a biography.

SIMPLE AND ATTRACTIVE

SoundHound has a simple and attractive interface, making the app easy to use right out of the box. The accuracy with which it identifies sor.gs is impressive. Even with relatively obscure songs, SoundHound nailed it every time.

More than just a way to identify songs, SoundHound puts a wealth of musical information at your fingertips.

Cherry Rplayer
FREE

 
You don't have to be a jet-setter to groove to Santa Monica's KCF.W in the morning, bop with BBC Radio 1 through the day and bounce to J-pop all night long on Colombia's TokyoNext radio. You just need Cherry Rplayer. This app can play Shoutcast, Icecast, AAC, MP3, M3U, PLS, AACP and other internet radio streams, and will download track, artist and song lyrics on demand.

Despite the odd name, it's far superior to its closest rival, StreamFurious. Four tabs help music fans navigate through the options, which include the ability to drill down through radio stations by city and search or browse through stations promoted via Shoutcast or Icecast. When you find a station you like, click the heart icon near the foot of the screen to add it to your Favorites, which appear under a tab of that name. If you forget a station's name, you can view a history of streams you've visited before.
it s not tne players fault, but the packed US radio market isn't as well represented as we would have hoped in the US Radio tab, and the listings are cluttered with AM talk radio stations. If you know of a station and it isn't listed under its city, try the search function on the World/Live tab; you can usually find it there by its call sign.

We7 Radio Plus
 

We7 is a rival service to Spotify, enabling desktop users to stream from more than 6.5 million tracks for free (like Spotify, Android users have to pay for premium accounts, however).

We7 also has this rather nifty free radio app. The idea is that you 'charge' up your phone with music as you charge it
up with power. You can choose music by track, artists, or theme and the We7 app creates personalised radio stations based upon those choices. It's an interesting way to listen to your favourite type of music, and while you don't get the same level of control as you do on the desktop application, it's a good way to discover new music. Worth checking out.

NPR News
FREE
 

The radio isn't just about music, it can also be a good source for keeping up with current affairs when you're on the move. The NPR News app taps into the wealth of content offered by the National Public Radio media organisation, which creates and distributes news, information and music programming to a network of 900 independent radio stations in the US. If you have already come across the NPR website in your trawls for news stories, then this app will be familiar territory for you, just in a slightly more convenient package.

The prominent feature of NPR News is, surprisingly enough, news. The main screen presents multiple news categories that allow you to browse the current news, view news photos, and listen to audio clips from the related broadcast, as well as the hourly newscast. If you'd like to tune into your local news, you can also find the live stream for any public radio station in the country that supports it and even set a list of favourite stations for quick access.

If you're a fan of the regular programs that NPR broadcasts, this app has got you covered. Much like the online NPR experience, the NPR News app gives full
access to the broadcaster's podcast archive; you can listen to podcasts individually or add them to a playlist that can handle all of the audio content in the app.

SPREAD THE NEWS

What really sets NPR News apart from other news and radio apps is its sharing abilities. Once configured, you can share any news story that has caught your eye with friends using email, Twitter, or Facebook with a single click.

Simply put, if you like NPR and find yourself with a craving for great public radio on the go, albeit with a US slant, this app is a great solution. There are drawbacks in lack of textual local news and push notification of breaking stories. And since it's a free app, you'll have to contend with ads. Still, that's a small trade-off to make for a great app.