Good
Shazam – Free
You’re out at a hot new club and the DJ is working his magic on the turntables. You hear a song that you are really feeling and ask, “What’s the name of that song?” Instead of bothering your friends and forgetting the name of the song the next day, you can pull out your iPhone and use the Shazam.
Simply press the “tag now” button and then hold your phone out to listen to the music. Shazam listens to the tune for a few seconds and it tags the artist, song title and much more. Once you tag your song, you have the option to buy the song from the iTunes music store with just one click.
Better
Thumbplay – Free ($9.99 after trial)
Similar to Pandora with
unlimited streaming of on-demand songs, albums and playlist, Thumbplay
will help any music lover create music euphoria. This app gives you the ability to access songs that you may
have forgotten about or albums that may not have survived your massive CD collection from the ’90s. You can customize playlist with offline
content from iTunes and with songs in Thumbplay’s extensive library.
Don’t
feel like doing all the work? Swipe your finger across your favorite
song and let the playlist genie come up with a new playlist. With a
song library of more than eight million songs, it’s not hard to find songs
that range from Jay-Z to Marvin Gaye.
Best
Pandora – Free ($30.00 upgrade)
If you haven’t heard about Pandora Internet radio, then you must have been under a rock for the last 10 years. Pandora has successfully taken their already popular Web-based music program and created a very useful music app. Do you like Trey Songz, Jill Scott or Drake’s music? Enter any artist’s name or song to create your own personal radio station.
You can improve your station likes and dislikes by rating songs with a thumb up or thumb down to indicate your preference. It’s a clever way to discover new music and new artists. Recommendation: Upgrade to the Pandora One version, which eliminates ads between streams and lifts the free listening time limit.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a couple more apps that didn’t make the top three but may be worth checking out:
Fingerbeat – $3.99
Think you can make beats better than Timberland or Swizz Beatz? Well, download this app to have fun creating new beats or to play sweet melodies with your finger tips.
Remote – Free
If you are throwing a house party and you are playing songs through your iTunes library, then you need to get the Remote app. This allows you to use your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch like a remote, you can fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle an album or skip to the next track.
