Discover new music you’ll love with Spotify [50 Essential iOS Apps #39]

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Spotify app now playing screen
Spotify and Siri are finally a team.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Spotify Streaming music has revolutionized the way we listen to music on the go. Starting with streaming radio, and quickly evolving to carrying millions of songs in your pocket (thanks to cellular data), streaming services have enabled incredible access and discovery of great music.

With Spotify, you can experience your favorites and discover great new music better than ever, thanks to algorithmic intelligence and some genius features.

What is Spotify?

Spotify is a streaming music platform that lets users play more than 35 million songs without saving them to a device. There’s a free, advertising-supported tier as well as a paid, ad-free service called Spotify Premium.

The pioneering music-streaming service provides a superior social listening experience. Spotify lets users share playlists and see what their friends are listening to. You can also follow individual artists to stay on top of your favorite acts’ latest music or inspirations. Plus, Spotify’s personalized music discovery features prove great for expanding your musical horizons.

Why Spotify is great: Music discovery

Spotify offers incredible music discovery features that make it the best music streaming service.

The first way to find new music is the personalized Discover Weekly playlist. For paying customers (and coming soon to free users), Spotify creates a weekly playlist of music customized for each individual listener. What makes Discover Weekly great is that it is generated based on the music you listen to and save. Compared to the playlists made for you on another streaming service, Discover Weekly typically feels more personal and accurate to your preferences.

Spotify discover weekly, daily mix, playlists, and sharing features
Daily mixes, hundreds of playlists, Discover Weekly and social features make Spotify the best streaming music app.
Screenshots: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

The second great music discovery feature of Spotify is the Daily Mix. These personalized radio stations (six in total) offer artist- or genre-specific music based on your taste. Unlike the 30-song Discover Weekly playlist, Daily Mixes work more like a radio station, stringing together tracks based on genre or artists. The Daily Mixes are great for enjoying both new and old music, giving you a listening experience that’s unmatched by competitors.

Much like iTunes and the Apple Music app, you can save tracks you find across Spotify to your account, allowing you to build a library of your favorites. This works to train the service’s algorithm for your tastes, and also makes finding music easier.

Once in your library, music can be viewed by artist, album or song. Playlists and music in your library can also be saved for offline listening, making the Spotify app great for listening to music on flights or when you’re running low on data for the month.

Who Spotify streaming is for

If you enjoy music, but want to save storage space, Spotify is a great way to stream your favorite music. Anyone that enjoys discovering new music, but also has discerning taste, will appreciate the personalization features that make Spotify special.

Bottom line: Spotify is the best streaming music app

The music-discovery features in the app (and the service as a whole) are arguably the best of any streaming service. If you love listening to music, you’ll love Spotify. With a massive library of music and top-notch personalization, it’s the best streaming music service around.

Price: Free (get Spotify Premium for $9.99 per month).

Download from: App Store

See more of our 50 Essential iOS Apps

Want more essential iOS app reviews? Check out our ongoing series, 50 Essential iOS Apps.

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