Everyone is privy to the joys of mobile music — the intersection of
phones and MP3 players has afforded consumers the opportunity to carry
around audible entertainment with more ease than ever before. But beyond
the standard, owner-loaded music playing apps and the glitzy marquee
streaming serves, there exists a level of essential music applications
that are polished, functional, and most importantly, free. These five
apps offer auxiliary features to foster discovery and incentivize use.
If you’re a casual listener, or you just like to discover new things
with minimal effort, these apps are an essential addition to your
collection.
1. Shazam
Available on: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Nokia
Have you ever been in the car or at a bar or a club and absolutely
LOVED the song on the radio, with no way of finding out what it’s called
and remembering it for later? You need what is perhaps the most popular
free music discovery tool — Shazam — the program that listens to any
song in the immediate ambient space and identifies it for the user.
Shazam listens, identifies, and even stores your tags for later. Shazam
is available for every major mobile platform, so there’s no excuse to be
left in the dark next time. Certain television commercials even feature
deals on products accessible only by Shazaming.
2. Pandora
Available on: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Kindle, Nook
Pandora started the Music Genome Project back in 2000 — since then,
their algorithmic categorization has blossomed into a full-fledged music
recommendation platform, based on the user’s specifications. It’s no
wonder Pandora’s radio app is one of the most popular free mobile tools
for discovering music; it’s the most scientifically accurate
recommendation system based on your input and years of research. A vital
tool for any music lover.
3. Last.fm
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Many music fans are probably familiar with the word “scrobbling”
being applied to a variety of purposes, but Last.fm were the ones who
invented the term. It refers to their app’s unique ability to chronicle
your music choices across a variety of platforms and recommend more
tunes and live concerts in your area. “Scrobbling” can track your song
selection across things like the Amazon Cloud player, Spotify, and
certain desktop audio players, and base its radio and concert
recommendations on playlists from all of them.
4. TuneWiki
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Nokia
TuneWiki is an app that attempts to make a specific component of a
song — namely, the lyrics — into a social experience. It’s a social
network built on lyrics. Listen to any music on your device with synced
lyrics, share those lyrics with friends, and comment and discuss the
meaning of them with anyone. It also translate the lyrics into 40+
languages. It also syncs with a desktop application.
5. iHeartRadio
Available on: iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Kindle Fire
All this cold dead robot-DJ stuff kind of ruining your musical
journey? For those itching to keep the experience of terrestrial radio
(with disc jockeys and morning talk shows) as well as their own curated
tastes, fret not. IHeartRadio seeks to fill the void of live personality
radio with its streaming app, which brings over 1,000 live stations to
your mobile device as well as customizable stations like Pandora. You
can even save those stations to access offline. The app is operated by
Clear Channel Broadcasting, the largest terrestrial radio organization
in the country.
Did we miss any of your favorites? Is there something
else you’d like your essential music app to do? Let us know in the
comments.
