Spotify for iPad Finally a User Interface for the Bigger Screen

When Spotify was released for the iPhone it was greeted fairly well being easy to use and as long as you had a membership it gave you access to all of the music you would ever need.  When used with the iPad though there were problems, especially with the difference in screen size and buttons designed for the smaller screen.

The designers of Spotify have listened though and finally created a version specifically for the iPad that aims to relieve all of the problems that users have been having.  Now that Spotify are getting competition for the iPhone/iPad music market is it enough to keep the users interested or is there better out there?

Interface

The good news is that Spotify have definitely listened to its users with the user interface.  Gone are the upscaled graphics and in is an interface that makes full use of the new space that is being provided to the application.  No more struggling to get to your favourite song.

Categories on the left hand side of the interface are now set as Search, What’s New, Inbox, Playlists and People (See what your friends are listening to).  A tabbed interface now also provides better access to the music pages to allow you to get to where you want quicker.  The Application also keeps a history of where you have viewed so you can swipe the screen back to previous pages (skipping from Katy Perry to Adele at ease for example).

The interface (as tested on the iPad 2) is fast with no visible lag.  The more pages you load though there is a visible pause at times as images are downloaded for your viewing pleasure.  This will of course depend on the speed of your internet connection and connectivity of your iPad.  On comparisons with other apps such as Rdio and Deezer HD the new User Interface for Spotify is said to be better than the other two, which of course it will need to be as these are the two main contenders for the Spotify crown.

Features

The main feature for Apps such of this will of course be the range of music that is made available to the users.  Spotify give access to around 17 million tracks so there are plenty of choices for the music fan.  There are options such as seeing what your friends are listening to (or their music lists at least) to view these you have to check out their profiles though which is slower than having a simplistic list approach which would have been faster.

Playback

If you are subscribed to the correct membership plan you will be able to download music for offline use.  This will be important of course if you are somewhere you want to listen to your music without being connected to either a wi-fi or 3G connection (be aware that because of size of music files it’s best to use wi-fi connections to download the music).  The tracks are 320kbps quality which is in fact better than what the iTunes service provides meaning you will get a better quality of sound.

Verdict

The Spotify App works perfectly with Airplay so you’ll be listening to your favourite songs on your external speakers with ease.  It may have taken a while for Spotify to finally move onto a true iPad Interface but it’s arguably worth the wait now that we finally have it.  The user interface now looks stylish and is very easy to use, no longer having that upscaled feel from the iPhone version.  Some users will have moved onto Deezer and Rdio and will tend to stick with those options but for people who have not moved yet Spotify have finally given them a reason to stay.

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