One of the greatest things about smartphones and tablets is that they’ve made it possible for our lives to consistently have a soundtrack. It used to be that our music listening was limited to the CDs, tapes, or vinyl records in our collections; then, it was all about MP3 players and which tracks you could fit on an iPod; now, the sky is the limit on what you can listen to and where you can listen to it, with mobile devices making it possible to take entire music libraries on the go, or to access huge catalogs of music via subscription music hub services like Spotify. Long story short, if you’re a music fanatic, you’re living in the golden age of listener freedom, and mobile technology is a big part of the reason why.
Some of the Best Music Hub Apps for Your Mobile Device
Because of this, it’s not surprising that there are countless mobile apps out there designed to turn your smartphone or tablet into the ultimate jukebox or even into a hub for music creation. Most people already have a number of music apps on their phones, from the radio services of Pandora, to the streaming functionality of Spotify, but there is a whole world of other music-related apps out there worth checking out. Here are just a few of them.
Rdio: Spotify may be the king of subscription-based music streaming services, but Rdio is nearly as good for full-album playback and new artist discovery. The big feature with this app, though, is Rdio’s surprisingly deep membership base of musicians and celebrities. With this service, you will be able to keep track of what a lot of your favorite artists are listening to, hopefully discovering some new tunes along the way.
My DJ: It’s a frustrating and inexplicable fact that, while iTunes on your PC or Mac is perfectly capable of crossfading songs and building playlists with non-stop flow, the music players on iPhones don’t have the same capability. If you absolutely need a gapless, crossfaded playlist – whether you’re DJing your own wedding and need to avoid any awkward moments of silence or are simply OCD about the way you experience music – My DJ is a free app that can provide just that.
JamBase: Few things are worse than realizing too late that one of your favorite artists is playing in your area. JamBase helps correct that issue, offering a simple interface for you to type in your zip code and keep track of all the concerts that will be taking place locally in the coming days and weeks. From unknown club acts to global arena-fillers, this app will help you manage your concert schedule for the summer and beyond.
Traktor DJ: A completely different kind of DJ app than “My DJ” listed above, Traktor DJ lets you pick songs from your iOS device’s music library and manipulate them with professional DJ tools, from beats to reverb and beyond. If you’ve ever wanted to create your own personal remix of a favorite pop tune, but didn’t want to pay for expensive DJ equipment to do it, this app is essential.
As you can imagine, these four music hub programs are merely the tip of the iceberg as far as mobile music apps are concerned, but once you get started, you may find yourself discovering more and more interesting tools. Got any essential music apps that we might have missed? Share them in the replies!