The Spotify iPad app has just been released, bringing Spotify back into the headlines once more.
The company has just launched the new Spotify Play button, allowing you to embed their player anywhere there's a website, and Daniel Ek, their 29-year-old founder has recently made The Sunday Times' rich list for music with a worth of £190 million.
The app, much like Ek's £190 million lolly I imagine, is much anticipated, so was it worth the wait?
If you were sick of using the scaled-up iPhone app on your iPad, then it hasn't come soon enough. Until this new app was released, your £9.99 Spotify Premium subscription was showing up as a rather inadequate website alternative.
If you have the new iPad, the app is rich and beautiful, designed as it is for the Retina screen. The record art gets pride of place, which, if you're a vinyl or design fan, is well past due.
Prettiness aside, is it useable? Yes and yes. The intuitive new sliding screens swipe in from the right to choose an artist, playlist, album. The only thing we'd like to see here that Spotify haven't thought of, is a way to see all the album art for each artist, like a virtual CD rack.
The app features the famous 18 million available songs, trending song lists and gapless playback and cross fade.
Crucially, the player sits at the base of the screen no matter where you've navigated off to.
Any criticism should be weighted by the fact that this app comes to you for free. One slight one is that there's no forgotten password function, and considering I personally have a hard time remembering the approx. 1 billion passwords required in 2012, is a right pain.
To use Spotify for iPad you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription, free trial of premium is available to those yet to subscribe.