Spotify for Android is a streaming radio service largely famous for its massive library of artists, albums, and songs, which is one of the big reasons it makes our collection. The free, ad-supported radio service is nice, but the premium service (for a monthly fee), reveals the app's true value.
In addition to streaming and storing almost any song imaginable, Spotify supports high-quality, gapless playback and selective integration with Facebook. Spotify also has a stellar application on the desktop, but once you've experienced its universal library of music and customized playlists on the go, it's very difficult to give it up (which is probably why Spotify provides a 30-day free trial of its premium service.)
Installation
Spotify's free mobile app is a cinch to set up. Provided you're signed up for a Spotify Premium account ($10 a month), all you need to do is type in your log-in and password, and your favorite music and playlists automatically populate the screen. Spotify users without Premium accounts may log in to the app and look around, but are prevented from streaming or syncing music.
InterfaceSpotify Mobile's user interface is simple and unobtrusive. Your starred tracks and playlists are listed, along with your inbox and local music collection. Dive into a playlist and you'll see options to take the listed music offline, shuffle playback, edit the playlist order, share the playlist with others, or open the playlist up for collaboration.
The four persistent tabs running across the bottom of the screen let you quickly jump between playlists (the default view), song search, What's New (new and top songs), and settings. Any currently playing song is shown with full-screen album art, with basic track controls and buttons for "hide" and "more info."
Features and support
Just like the desktop software, Spotify Mobile's big trick is its search box, which points you to full song streams of almost any reasonably popular artist, song, or album in existence. You can't get The Beatles, but we had no problem finding greats like The Rolling Stones and David Bowie, as well as obscure indies such as The Ghastly Ones or Four Tet.
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