Music-streaming service Spotify has finally released their native app for Apple’s iPad so get it while it’s hot. It packs in Retina graphics and high-definition album art to really take advantage of the new iPad’s gorgeous display.
It also does AirPlay, features the brand new full-screen view and lets you search for playlists, users and music, all from the same view. The interface looks great in both portrait and landscape, especially high-res cover artwork in full screen.
Put simply, it’s been worth the long wait: Spotify for iPad is a must-have and a prime example of an iPad music app done right…
Billed as “the lean, green, music machine”, Spotify for iPad requires a paid Spotiy Premium subscription, just like its iPhone counterpart. There are over three million Spotify Premium subscribers out there.
A Spotify Premium account gets you ad-free, 320Kbps unlimited streaming and a couple advanced features, such as playing streams through your music system, offline mode on mobile, exclusive content and more.
If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up for a 30-day Spotify Premium free trial here.
The Spotify team boasted the app’s AirPlay integration in a blog post:
With the brand new full-screen view and AirPlay integration, Spotify and your iPad are perfect for each other, both as your pumped-up living room stereo and your lean, green music machine when you’re on the move.
Check out the promo clip.
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Hands-on and video reviews posted by CNET, The Verge, Engadget, AllThingsD, TechCrunch and other outlets seem to agree that Spotify nailed it. Some, however, made a point of warning about the missing features.
For example, the app is lacking Collection view, there’s no artist radio or live feed of what friends are listening to and Spotify apps are not supported. Hopefully these popular features will get added to Spotify for iOS in future releases.
The Verge summed it up nicely, saying it’s “exactly what we expected and nothing more”.
The user interface looks stunning and works in both portrait and landscape.
Here, a quick screenshot gallery.
Your release notes for Spotify 0.5.0
• Retina graphics for iPad – dazzling display, razor sharp images, richer colours
• Even easier to browse and explore Spotify’s entire 18 million* song catalogue
• New ‘Now Playing’ full-screen view with high-definition cover art
• Search for playlists, users and music – all from the same view
• Check out what’s hot and find trending playlists & songs amongst your friends
• Inbox grouped by user for easy searching
• New: Gapless playback and crossfade
• AirPlay integration
• Fixed: Offline synced playlists can no longer be removed by the system.
• Fixed: Crashes related to updating playlists or starring tracks.
Feel free to share your own impressions on Spotify for iPad down in the comments.