Owners of the iPad have a reason to rejoice today, as they are finally able to join their music-loving brethren on Mac and iPhone in the phenomenon that is Spotify. After a less-than-satisfying release of an iPhone app that wouldn't run natively on iPad, the music streaming giant sat down and built an app from the ground up to give Apple's tablet crowd access to 17 million streaming songs. While the wait was lengthy, the app appears to be worth it.
Building off of the existing functionality of the iPhone app, Spotify for the iPad takes full advantage of its new platform. The sizable and pixel-perfect display of the iPad inspired a Retina-optimized interface and a new full-screen "now playing" view that presents cover art in beautiful high definition. The iPad version also boasts some extra settings that until now have been desktop-specific, including the ability to set the length of crossfading between songs -- between zero and twelve seconds -- and gapless playback. Songs will also come through better than ever if you so choose, thanks to the ability to pick the download quality -- the highest being "extreme," at 320Kbps.
While there are a handful of new features that are absent in the iPhone version, Spotify still delivers the familiar layout and functionality that have made it such a hit on other platforms. Delving further into the never-ending pit of music that Spotify possesses is just as easy as it was on the iPhone, if not even easier. You'll start each session with the "What's New" tab, which presents all of the best offerings from trending artists and worthwhile playlists. One tap will take you into a band's discography, while another sends you off to one of their main collaborators' projects, and then to the solo album their drummer released -- it really goes as far as you're willing to take it. Luckily, swiping back allows you to climb out of the hole just as easily as you fell into it.
The social features that have carried the service's popularity since it first launched for Mac and PC are still ever present. Sharing songs across social networks is as easy as making two taps, or you can send songs to individual Spotify users within the People list. If you've got friends over and want to save the effort of sharing in the device, just stream the songs over your speaker system with Apple's AirPlay.
Like the other versions of the Spotify app, you'll be required to subscribe to the premium service after the 30 day free trial. It'll run you $9.99 a month, but with how slick the app is and how much you can conceivably pull from it, that might be well worth it. The free universal Spotify app is available now from the App Store.
