Devloper: Spotify Ltd.
Category: Music
Price: Free (with monthly subscription)

It may be a small sum, but splashing out 79p for every track you buy on iTunes soon adds up. That’s why Spotify became such a smash hit when it arrived on the Mac and PC, allowing music lovers to listen to tunes for free as long as they could put up with adverts every 30 minutes. Now Spotify is available on the iPhone but you have to be a premium subscriber to use it. So is this an iTunes killer – and is it worth the monthly cost? David Crookes checked it out.

The first thing which sprung to our minds when we used Spotify on our computers earlier this year was the question of when it was going to make it to mobile devices. Being able to stream music on your Mac or PC is all well and good but the wonder of Apple’s iPod means we’re now used to taking our growing music collection around with us – so it just had to be Spotify’s next step.
And so it has finally come to the iPhone. We’ve had a chance to play around with this much-awaited app for a short while now, allowing ourselves to become au fait with its inner workings, foibles and all. It hasn’t been an easy ride for Spotify to get to this point – there was talk that the application was set to be rejected by Apple – but the good news is that it works well. And the bad news? You have to be a premium subscriber to Spotify and it costs £9.99 a month.
But then a service like this was never going to be free. To do so would have put it directly at odds with Apple’s own iTunes and, given the quality of Spotify’s service, it would have most likely caused some major damage. It may well be that Apple and Spotify work more closely together in the months and years to come (maybe Apple will even buy Spotify?) but until then, you can add the £9.99 to the many other monthly payments you undoubtedly shell out for entertainment.

Playback

So is it worth it? The most important aspect of a streaming music service such as this is obviously the quality of the playback. Using Wi-Fi, Spotify streams music within a second or two and there is no lag. There really is no difference between Spotify’s sound and that which results from iTunes either. Songs play at a bitrate of around 160kps and best of all, it’s so impressive that using the app in view of non-iPhone users gives you a rather smug feeling.
Streaming audio over 3G is also faultless. The delay in playing a song is ever so slightly longer than with Wi-Fi but we’re still only talking mere seconds. When the song is underway, there is absolutely no stop-start frustration and it’s a seamless experience that will have you dancing with joy (even if, like some of us, your choice of music is decidedly ropey).
Spotify is let down when using an Edge connection, however. It was always inevitable but it makes the app almost unusable whenever there is a lack of 3G or Wi-Fi to tap into. Improved Edge buffering would most likely make this an iTunes killer. As it is, the hesitant nature of the streaming jars and damages the Spotify experience in some respects.

Offline

The saving grace is that you needn’t suffer if you are in an area with poor – or indeed no – reception. The app has the ability to save music to your iPhone, allowing you to listen to songs offline, perfect for when you’re travelling by air or Tube or, perhaps more rarely, sitting atop a mountain and in need of some stirring music to accompany the views.
The offline playlists are accessed via the chunky grey “Offline playlists” link at the top of the Playlist screen. Tap it and you can select the playlists you want to make available offline. You simply tap the required playlist and it immediately starts to download. It can take a little while, though – seven Michael Jackson songs took us five minutes so if you’re intending to have a couple of thousand tracks available offline, be prepared to wait.
Downloading is only available via Wi-Fi and you are “limited” to 3,333 tracks for offline playback although that’s more than enough for even the heaviest of users. Syncing between the iPhone and the Mac or PC application is dynamic too. When you add a playlist on your computer, it immediately appears on the iPhone.

Interface

Another plus point in Spotify’s favour is the interface. Apple-esque in nature, it’s a breeze to navigate and you’ll be familiar with it in minutes. It’s not without its faults, though. Everything within Spotify is displayed as a list and this could prove a problem when scrolling through them – maybe a future version could make organisation a little better. It’s okay when you have a few songs on the phone but get thousands on there and you are likely to run into problems. When offline, there’s no way to search your tracks, for instance.
Searching online, however, is fast and simple. One tap of the Search icon on the bottom of the screen and you can use the prominent search box at the top. Results are listed under tabs for Tracks, Albums and Artists. With Wi-Fi, we did a search for the Pulp B-side Mile End and it came up instantly, top of 12 results, which shows some depth to the Spotify catalogue. It was just as quick with 3G but Edge took slightly longer and yet in all cases, we just hit the title and the album cover immediately showed. The song began to play, either straight away or after a hardly noticeable delay depending on the connection.

Worth buying?

This is only the first version of the Spotify app and it’s fair to say that it’s extremely promising. Overall, there’s a mix of excitement and disappointment. It’s good to see that songs still play when the iPhone is locked but annoying that you can’t control the settings without unlocking the phone first (although you can adjust the volume using the iPhone’s controls). We wish the radio function was available and bemoan the lack of Play Queue and a simple way of setting up Playlists but we adore that offline mode, like the fact we have millions of songs at our fingertips and that songs pick up where you left off if you quit the app and then resume it.
Spotify has promised to continuing improving the iPhone app so we may well see the app saving searches and a spelling correction facility when tapping in track, artist or album names. We’d also like to be able to use the headphones to play or stop songs and some way of ensuring that battery doesn’t drain half as much as it should. And are our moans justified? They are, given that you’re shelling out close to £120 a year for the service. If it was cheaper, we’d brush much of them aside as mere annoyances.

Verdict

So is it worth the cost? It really depends on how heavy a music lover you are and we guess that by reading this far, you most probably are. In many respects, it’s like having a subscription to an online DVD rental service – you are, in a sense, renting these songs for use on your iPhone and, as soon as you stop paying, you don’t get to listen. The bonus is, you don’t lose all the hard work you’ve put into building up your playlists because you still get to listen to them for free on your computer should you quit the Premium service, albeit it with ads.
On the iPhone, though, It’s not quite a substitute for iTunes just yet but it’s certainly on its way. When you think about it, £10 is the price of three pints nowadays and for that you’re going to get drunk on quite a lot of music. If it was a little cheaper, particularly to compensate for some of the failings, we’d obviously award it a higher mark. As it is, it’s still a worthwhile purchase, the future of music in many ways, and we reckon Apple will tweak iTunes sometime soon in order to match it.
David Crookes

Pros
Fast streaming via Wi-Fi and 3G
The offline mode is a killer feature
You can take your music with you

Cons
Spotify can’t run in the background
Edge connection is poor
Some will find £10-a-month just a tad too much

Longevity: 9.0
Fun Factor: 9.0

Practicality: 8.0
Value For Money: 7.0

Kung Fu Verdict: 8.25

Our suggestions for Spotify 2.0
Although we are loathe to over-complicate our apps, some greater depth is called for with Spotify.
-Artist biographies
-Suggestions of similar artists we may like
-A list of recently played thus avoiding the need to add all of our music to playlists

I know it’s old, old news now, the new Genius feature in iTunes and on iPods and iPhones. I just don’t feel I gave it as much applause as I should have done in the magazine or on this here blog. That’s why, after a six months of use, I feel it’s time to recount my experience…

The thing is, the premise of Genius sounds like so many “advancements” to a piece of software that end up being ignored after some initial fiddling. I hate to say it, especially here, but Apple is sometimes guilty of slightly over egging new features that are A. Not all that. or B. Should have been included in the first place. I thought Genius displayed all the traits of an omelette but, fortunately, it’s is not worthy of a beating (Note: All egg-based yolks jokes are now oeuf limits).

Analyse This
The first thing to put me off about Genius was the extraordinary amount of time it took to “analyse” my iTunes Library. Any scrutiny of songs on my Mac usually makes me uneasy, I don’t want people to spot the Will Smith back catalogue nor do I want the origin of certain tracks to be queried. I’m assured the process is all about configuration rather than snooping and, once it finally completes, it’s worth the risk.

Sidebar Blues
The Genius Sidebar is a clever way to convince you to spend more money on the iTunes Store but likely something you’ll want to turn off. It does suggest some well judged songs based on your currently playing tracks but, like the bloody annoying iTunes Mini Store before it, is more of a hindrance than a help. To further emphasise the sidebar’s role as a sales tool for Apple more than a feature of iTunes, I recently noticed a message that read as follows:

“Genius is temporarily unable to show related music, but here are the
Top Songs and Albums in the iTunes Store.”

It may as well say:

“Don’t think you’re the one making the decisions, buddy. Buy this music now!”

Enter Genius
The star of the Genius show is the small button you now find at the bottom right of the iTunes interface. This is the real genius behind Genius. Say you, like I did, stick on The Beach Boys’ California Girls, to celebrate the break in snow and rain and a fleeting return of blue skies. The lift from such a tune was enough to make me think “I want more like this”. Your previous option was to play the album through to maintain your happy fix but that would mean inevitably reaching the moping harmonies of In My Room and bang – grey skies are back again. Genius makes this a thing of the past. Clicking the Genius button automatically builds you a custom playlist of 25 tracks (you can have up to 100) related to the currently playing tune. Suddenly, alongside the most famous non-surfing band in history I have The Eagles, Third Eye Blind and John Mayer among others (Hanson!?) fighting for a place in my sun-soaked selection.

It’s not just a simple genre-matching either, there’s some very clever analysis going on behind the scenes here, so much so that the earlier probing of my music collection has become a distant memory if this is the result.

Love the result of a Genius playlist? Tell it to add more tunes with the “Limit to:” menu, bring up a new list with the Refresh button or save it for later use with the Save Playlist button above your custom selection.

Available Everywhere
The fun doesn’t have to stop when you leave your computer. There’s a Genius button on iPods and iPhones too plus the option to save the playlist, as in iTunes. As few as two or three taps are all you need on an iPhone to be enjoying a Genius playlist while you’re out and about and, of course, you can sync saved Genius playlists to your iPod or iPhone too.

New Best Friend
I use Genius every day now. Marlena Shaw’s California Soul (I’ve been thinking about LA a lot recently) brought about a fantastic journey through Mark Ronson and Motown, rounded off with a crescendo of Daft Punk recently. Aerosmith have mingled with Elvis and Elton John held hands with U2. I actually get so excited about Genius playlists that I immediately minimise iTunes as soon as one starts so I’m surprised by the selections.

The further beauty of Genius is that this is YOUR music collection being played. These are songs you own crafted into a playlist to suit your mood. The analysis is constant so your freshly purchased tracks stand just as much of a chance of being played as any of the others and the matching of tracks is genuinely intelligent.

You’ll hear album tracks you’ve previously skipped or forgotten, find new favourites in your library and be amazed that iTunes even recognizes some of the songs it throws up. You’ll even find yourself question selections only to be corrected as you pick out subtle nuances and similarities between songs.

Just Do It
If you haven’t tried Genius yet, do it today. It’s available as part of the free iTunes 8, available HERE and is just about the best damn addition to iTunes I can think of in recent years. As much as the Genius sidebar attempts to lure you to spend more, I think Genius actually curbs my iTunes shopping (sorry Steve) by alerting me to some of the hidden gems I already own. Like a good partner, Genius is always there for me, it understands my mood, it soothes me and it shuts up when I want it to. I was going to buy a pet, but you don’t need to take Genius for walks or clean up after it either.

Forget diamonds and dogs, iTunes 8′s Genius should be everyone’s best friend.

Ben Harvell is the editor of iCreate magazine and iPhoneKungFu.com. He enjoys music, Twitter and rugby and spends too much time talking about wine. His iPhone is his most prized posession.