SoundCloud App Review

About

SoundCloud is one of the world’s leading social sound platform where anyone can create sounds and share them everywhere. The site allows people to easily share their sounds privately with their friends or publicly to blogs, sites and social networks. People can easily link their SoundCloud to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Foursquare.

Features

SoundCloud is available around the world and is free for anyone to sign up and use.

It allows you to record, upload and share originally created sounds. Recently, Soundcloud has introduced SoundCloud Go, which is the premium version. Members of the premium version are offered the promise of an expanded musical catalogue provided by recent licensing deals with Warner, Universal and Sony as well as tracks from 20,000 independent labels represented by global music rights agency Merlin.

The interface for Go on the SoundCloud app is easy to use and extremely fast on an iPhone 6S, and rather than weigh down the app with options, SoundCloud has wisely opted to strip things back.

SoundCloud Go has an option to make all current and future likes and playlists available offline, something that’s arguably simpler than the way Spotify and Apple Music’s apps add it on as an extra step. The search function also seems solid, and always retrieved what was searched for quickly. The music library isn’t quite as elegantly organised as Spotify or Apple Music, though it seems SoundCloud Go is aiming more at streamlining music discovery than its rivals.

Download Links

SoundCloud is available for download on iTunes for iPhone users GooglePlay for Android users.

The Verdict

SoundCloud is great for anyone interested In creating, distributing and sharing audio content and finding new artists. Those looking to simply stream mainstream music will like sites like Pandora or Spotify better. However, anyone with an interest in uploading their own work (or hearing others' work) will find SoundCloud the go-to place for audio on the web. Less creation tool and more sharing platform, SoundCloud would do well to offer users some basic production tools while recording.

Reviewed by Grace

★★★★☆

Spotify Smartphone App Review

About

Spotify, originating in Sweden in 2008 is an internationally accessed free music streaming service. Music by your favourite artist can be searched for within a database of up to 30 million songs.

Although being a free to use service, Spotify also has a ‘premium’ feature which enables users to save their favourite tracks offline. This ‘premium’ feature as of March 2016 had over 28 million subscribers.

Features

As mentioned above Spotify is a free to use music streaming service, as well as this there is ‘premium’ or ‘offline’ feature which not only removes ads from the service but this feature allows the ability to go offline which enables the user to cache their songs and playlists offline granting them access to listen data or internet free.

The extensive Spotify library lets users curate playlists catered to suite their listening needs. Accompanying your own playlists Spotify also has various recommendation playlists which is curated by them dependent on what you have been listening too.

Lastly the multi device synchronization. Dependent on whether you are on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone Spotify synchronizers all your playlists. This synchronization feature can also act as a controller for entertainment purposes allowing the user to use the Spotify application on your phone to control the service to change tracks.

Download Links

Spotify is available for download on iTunes store for iPhone users and Google Play for Android users.

The Verdict

If you, like myself are a music buff Spotify is the app for you. With curated playlists both by Spotify and yourself, it makes discovering music easy and exciting. The level of ease in which Spotify enables its users to browse through an endless supply of music makes it the #1 music streaming application on the market. It is a must.

Reviewed by Jackson

★★★★★

Pandora Smartphone App Review

About

For music explorers who are keen on discovering new tunes, Pandora has you covered. Pandora is an online music streaming application that creates custom radio stations based on music genres, artists, albums and songs. Pandora is not your typical music streaming app, however, and while it does have a unique purpose and an innovative idea, the service is not without its incapabilities and therefore isn't for everyone.

Features

Pandora allows you to create personalised radio stations that adapt based on your preferences. To begin, all you need to do is select a genre, artist, album or song and Pandora will start to play you tracks. Like what it plays? Hit thumbs up to hear more similar music. Don't like it? Hit thumbs down so the next suggestions aren't similar. Simple stuff.

Pandora is all about exploring new music, and it does it very well. Swiping up on a track reveals a concise artist biography for users to learn about new artists they have discovered. It also shows a list of similar artists which can be explored as well.

Users can then pull up more information about new artists by tapping on them. They are then able to create new stations as well.

Pandora also allows users to leave comments on artists' pages for each other to see. Here we can learn more about the artists and their music from a fan perspective as well.

Users can also use Pandora to listen to popular stations that are already created. These are available through the 'Browse' menu in the app. In addition to the previously noted types of stations, through Browse we can choose stations based on moods, activities, time periods and current popularity.

Where Pandora doesn't appeal to listeners is its inability to play a specific song on demand. Unlike other music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music, Pandora is only for streaming stations. While this is intended, it suggests that the app may not be for everyone, and may not be able to serve as a complete solution for listening to music.
In addition, the free version of Pandora is overloaded with a plethora of advertisements. Understandably, it is a free app and ads are the price consumers have to pay for using it, however they can tend to be annoying. Popup ads are easily dismissed, and generally do not interrupt the listening experience. However, audio and video ads are very intrusive, and are sometimes played between or even during songs.

For $4.99 per month, users can subscribe to Pandora One, which essentially is the same service with no ads. Pandora One also removes the skip limitation, and enables high quality audio. However where Spotify Premium allows for a bitrate of 320Kbps, Pandora One will not satisfy audiophiles with its inferior bitrate of 192Kbps.

Download Links

Pandora is available for free on Android through the Google Play Store and on iPhone through the iTunes App Store. Pandora One runs through the same app, however needs to be purchased online first.

The Verdict

Pandora is a great app for discovering new music, however for most it cannot serve as a substitute for a more fully featured music app. It's intelligent algorithms and rating systems deliver a personalised experience for exploring new music that is arguably better than other similar features in other apps such as Spotify Radio and Beats Radio 1 on Apple Music. However in terms of the magnitude of other features that these competitor apps entail, Pandora just will not cut it as a complete, go-to smartphone music app.

Rating

★★★☆☆

Reviewed by Juzan

Foursquare Smartphone App Review

About

Foursquare is a location-based restaurant and bar finder which allows users to search for new and local restaurants and presents the user with search-results. Each result has its own page which consists of store details (i.e. operating hours, address, telephone and website) user submitted reviews and an overall rating, thus allowing users to read the experiences of past customers. After launching in 2009 and undertaking a redesign in 2012, Foursquare currently boasts over 50 million registered users and 10 billion check-ins, as of September 2016

Features

Upon opening the app you are greeted with a clean, organised and well-designed search page which allows users to input specific keywords. Below the search bar is a grid of six categories which allows users to filter what type of meal they would like to have (e.g. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner). This also includes the options “coffee & tea”, “Nightlife” and “Things to do”, thus providing more options outside traditional meal times.

Foursquare is divided into four main sections through the use of tabs located at the bottom of the screen: “Search”, “Lists”, “History” and “Me”. “Lists” allows users to view the locations that have been saved and liked as well as enabling users to create categorised lists of restaurants. “History” allows users to view locations that have been visited in the past. After signing in through Facebook or creating an account via email, “Me” allows the user to view what they have reviewed in addition to being able to see what places their friends have visited and liked.

Download Links

Foursquare is available to download on iPhone through the iTunes App Store and Android via the Google Play Store.

The Verdict

Foursquare aims to ‘help you discover new places, with recommendations from a community you trust’ and delivers.
The app is extremely simple to use allowing it to appeal to a wide range of users. Foursquare sports an advantage over other apps of a similar nature through its “Nightlife” and “Things to do” filters.
Where it falls apart slightly is the absence of menus and ordering from the app which could be achieved through store interaction within the app.

Score

★★★☆☆

Reviewed by Ryan