Welcome to Apps & Accessories, the weekly column in which we explore applications – mobile or otherwise – and mobile accessories. This week I’m taking a looking at Spotify, a music app for iOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, and Palm devices. The app is a mobile translation of the PC app, which we reviewed last week, and which allows users to stream millions of tracks from artists all around the world. But how does the mobile version of the app fair? Read on.
Spotify
Earlier this week, we reviewed Spotify, a Swedish music streaming service that took Europe by storm in 2008. The service was made available to US customers for the first time last week. Users can stream tracks from a catalog of, according to the website, over 15 million tracks, with over 10,000 tracks added every day. That’s nearly two million songs more than the iTunes Store.
We really enjoyed Spotify for PC. But does Spotify for mobile devices capture the same excitement as the PC app?
Functionality
Spotify allows users to wirelessly sync music to their mobile devices
Yes. It does.
First, to use Spotify for mobile devices, be aware that you’ll need a Spotify Premium account ($9.99/month). Now that that’s out of the way:
It’s one thing to have a PC app with nearly every song in the world available for streaming. but to bring this to mobile devices is beyond incredible. Like the PC app, Spotify for mobile includes the ability to stream songs, create playlists, browse new releases and top tracks, and much more. The app is full-featured as well. I can’t think of a single feature the PC version has that the mobile iteration lacks.
Spotify mobile is lightning fast. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Spotify is just as fast – if not, faster - than Music on my iPod. There are no delays, no buffering, no loading times, no waiting between you and an all-your-can-listen-to music buffet. The speed impressed my friends as well: they named an artist, and, within seconds, Spotify has the entire discography available.
One feature of the Premium service is to sync playlists and tracks to your mobile device. Syncing will allow the tracks to be listened to any time, including while offline. Simply designate a playlist as “Available offline” on either Spotify PC or Spotify Mobile and the app will do the rest: songs will take a second to sync, and then be available even when WiFi, 3G, or other wireless internet services are not. The whole process takes one click.
Speaking of syncing, it’s wireless. Connect your mobile device and PC to the same network and you can sync files completely wirelessly. That’s right: Spotify implemented wireless iPod sync before Apple. The process takes a few minutes, perhaps a few seconds longer per track than wired syncing with iTunes. However, you won’t need to go digging for your charging cable just to put a few new songs on your device.
Drawbacks
Greyed out songs are unavailable for streaming through Spotify
So are there any drawbacks to this near-miraculous service? Just two.
If you have a playlist that hasn’t been synced up, Spotify will stream it, not from your computer’s local files, but from their servers. There are two issues with this.
First, songs that are not tagged appropriately, or which are not available on Spotify, will not be available for streaming. One of my favorite playlists is very Beatles-heavy, and the Fab Four are not yet available on Spotify. I also have a song by band “Blink-182″ on the playlist. Spotify thinks the artist should be “Blink 182,” with no hyphen (the band’s official website disagrees), so the song is not available.
The second issue with streaming local playlists from Spotify is that the songs are not always the same versions. If you’ve got an edited or censored version of a song, Spotify may play the explicit version, and vice-versa. If you’ve got a remix, Spotify may play the original, and vice-versa. I tried to listen to the album version of the song “Not in Love” by Canadian electronic band Crystal Castles, and Spotify streamed a version I had never heard featuring The Cure vocalist Robert Smith.
(Side note: this issue is not present in other services such as ZumoCast, which sync music from the user’s local hard drive without using mobile hard drive space, but which cannot stream songs the user does not own. Both varieties have advantages and disadvantages.)
I also had trouble syncing my Starred playlist. I designated it as Offline on both mobile device and PC, but the playlist gave me a “loading” circle for minutes with no activity. This continued even after logging out, closing the app, and restarting my device. I did a quick Google search on the subject to find that other users had experienced the same issue as me, as last as six months ago, indicating the issue has been around since before the US app was even developed. The playlist arbitrarily synced later that same day.
Overall
For once, the gushing, front-page reviews are correct: as Wired said, Spotify really is “like a magical version of iTunes in which you’ve already bought every song in the world.” As Billboard said, Spotify really does “make music fun again, just like the iPod did nearly 10 years ago.”
My only concern is the issue with syncing the Starred playlist. If I have to shell out ten bucks per month for a premium service, I expect all the features to work. It may be wise to stick with the $5 Unlimited subscription until the initial bugs are knocked out.
However, Spotify mobile remains the single best way to listen to music on your mobile iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Palm, or Symbian device. Stop wasting precious hard drive space on songs you never listen to, and start streaming with Spotify mobile.
Spotify is available for free on iOS devices through iTunes, on Android devices through the Android Market, on Palm devices through the Palm App Catalogue, on Windows Phone devices through the Marketplace, and on Symbian devices.
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