Streaming music, and streaming “radio†apps like Pandora and Spotify, were the topics of this week's App Smart column. They let you listen to music you do not necessarily have in your own collection. They can also be an excellent way to break out of a musical rut and discover new sounds.
Here is another app that you may like: ooTunes ($5 on iOS). It behaves like a very clever access point to a huge list of online radio stations, among which you may well find music you would like to hear. I love the Radio RooLette function, which takes you to a random selection of tracks. The Lyrics option is nice too, because I bet that you, like me, often wonder what the heck a singer just said.
The app's “Similar†function also does a surprisingly good job of suggesting similar music; clicking on this while listening to some holiday tunes by Andy Williams led me to Bobby Vee's “Christmas Vacation,†for example. But from the point it delivers the list, it's a bit o f potluck to see if those tracks are being played somewhere on the radio now, or can be found on YouTube. Unfortunately this app had flaky audio quality for me several times, even though I'm on a superfast Wi-Fi broadband connection. Also, its interface is far from being highly polished. But at least it's not expensive, and it comes with bonus powers to record the tracks and act as a radio alarm clock.
Don't forget that these kinds of apps can also help you identify music you haven't heard before when listening from a more conventional source, like over a store's speaker system, or on a friend's radio. Shazam (free on iTunes and Android) is my favorite app for doing this; you simply run it and let it “listen†to the music. It then does a clever pattern-matching to identify the song, and presents you with a page crammed with data like the name of the artist, information about tours, a link to YouTube and, in the iOS edition, the “artist's popular songs†on iTune s. Clicking on this last option is, of course, a great way to listen to more of the music that has just attracted your ear. Finally, the app's “Discover†tab helps you find new music by showing the popular tracks people are listening to and identifying with Shazam.
Quick Call
The popular social music app maker Smule has a new, free iOS app out, Strum. It is a little like Instagram, but is all about sharing video clips on a social network. Unlike other, similar apps, Strum applies both video and audio filters - to the extent of composing new music for you, or editing the audio and video of your clips to make them look and sound as if you're rapping.
