As a professional union musician and general lover of music, I can never seem to get enough out of the musical side of my iPhone. After meticulously searching the iTunes App Store for almost 6 months now and constantly being amazed by the capabilities of the modern smartphone, I’ve compiled a list of music apps that anyone who loves music would enjoy.
We’ve all heard of Shazam, Pandora, and Last.fm. No one cares about the typical list of music apps that everyone’s already composed. This list of five iPhone/iPod Touch apps was forged from my long and never ending pursuit of the best music apps — and I can guarantee there’s at least one here that you haven’t heard of. Let’s begin.
1. Lyrics World — $0.99
LyricsWorld adds a dimension to the iPod that everyone wishes existed naturally. The iTunes description says “you just need to launch Lyrics World and play any song you want to listen to. What it doesn’t say is the song can be playing prior to launching the app, and it will automatically find the song lyrics for you. From within the app, you can link to a related YouTube video and even post your findings to Twitter. Lyrics World supports iOS 4 multitasking and comes in a free Lite version as well.
2. Dragonfly Search — free
Dragonfly (recently renamed Dragonfly Search) is a great app to help you discover all the stuff you wanted to know, but didn’t know about your favorite artists. It’s powered by Last.fm, so it tracks the listening statistics of millions of users worldwide, such as global listening trends. I love this app for discovering new music and bands, and its ease of use and clean interface make it a great pickup in the App Store for free.
3. Vevo — free
Vevo is the incredibly annoying YouTube realm that stores thousands of ad-supported music videos. Ever searched through iPhone’s YouTube app looking for a certain music video, never found it, and ended up having to watch it on a computer instead? That was Vevo’s fault. Fortunately, they’ve rectified it (sort-of) with a stellar music video app that serves as a high quality, clean music video database that multitasks well.
4. Metronome and Cleartune — free –$3.99
I cheated on this one, but they were too simplistic for a list this epic. Metronome is a free app that serves up a solid beat, and it serves its purpose at a low cost. I love the interface; it’s an old school metronome, complete with the rocker, but it’s inside a 3.5″ screen! Cleartune is an excellent tuner for all instruments, and it also includes a pitch pipe feature and supports custom temperaments and transposition. Both Metronome and Cleartune are very useful apps for all musicians.
5. Local Concerts — free
Local Concerts is the #1 concerts app on iTunes for a reason. This app integrates with your music library, and automatically uses your location showing shows at familiar venues. It even notifies you when your favorite artists announce local shows. The simplicity is stunning for the impressive integration in Local Concerts. I have found so many amazing concerts that I would have missed otherwise had it not been for this app.
For more on cool apps, visit iPad Orchestra Sounds Like a Genuine Instrument and Top 10 Free iPhone Apps for Students
