Apps for Music Lovers

Want to know the name of a song that's playing right now? Shazam, one of the ultimate "wow" apps on iPhone, knows the name of almost any song just by listening to it. Once identified, Shazam will give you a link to buy the song in iTunes, a related Youtube video, album review, biography and discography of the artist or share it in an e-mail. You might be able to think of the name of the song on your own, but why? You have an iPhone - let it do the work.

Radio your way. Name an artist or song and Pandora creates a radio station based on the unique characteristics of that artist or song. Give songs a thumbs up and you'll hear more like it. Give songs a thumbs down and you move along. Eventually, Pandora starts to deliver new music that fits your particular tastes. Being opinionated about music never felt so good.

Similar to Pandora, Last.fm also offers a desktop app that will build its recommendation system based on the music you listen to in your own iTunes library. When listening to a song in iTunes, you let the Last.fm desktop companion app know whether you like the song or not. After a while, you can let Last.fm take control. It will stream new songs over the Internet based on your preferences. With Last.fm, you get a never-ending list of recommendations based on music you actually own and listen to.

Ever get frustrated when you realize the song you wanted to listen to wasn't synced to your iPhone? Don't worry, with Simplify Media running you have access to your entire music library on EDGE, 3G or Wifi. A free companion app runs on your computer and shares your music over the Internet. When you're out and about, simply open Simplify Music 2 on your iPhone and all your music is there. You can even search your library. You can add friends too so you have access to each other's music libraries. With this app you might even be able to free up some space on your iPhone for more apps or videos.

Want some good old fashioned radio? SHOUTcast by AOL is your answer. There are over 25,000 stations available and there's a very good search engine built in so you can find exactly what you're looking for. This isn't AOL's only radio app - there's also...AOL Radio. But SHOUTcast is much more visually pleasing and, when looking for a station, SHOUTcast tells you how many listeners there are, which gives you a good idea what stations are worth listening to.

Wunder Radio touts over 30,000 stations. While expensive by radio app standards, one feature sets Wunder Radio apart. This app streams many police, fire, air traffic and emergency response channels. You can finally fulfill that aching curiosity for what emergency personnel are up to.

Much like Shazam, SoundHound is here to help you figure out what that song is. But Soundhound tries to take it a step further. It will not only listen to a pre-recorded song but will also let you say the name of the song or try to sing or hum it. If it's successful, you can listen to a 30 second sample, buy it on iTunes, bookmark it, share it via e-mail, watch a related Youtube video, find lyrics and get artist and album information.

Like Pandora, but for everything but music. There's sports, talk, entertainment, comedy, news and more. It stitches together podcasts and radio programs into a continuous listening experience. If you're bored or want something else, just give it a thumbs down and you're onto the next program.

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could pick an artist or song you like, and then instantly...No, we are not talking about Pandora again...instantly get music videos of that artist and similar artists. It's your very own customized music channel. A great way to discover new artists you'll like and to get your video fix since MTV plays what, 2 videos a week now?

Don't mess with your phone while you are driving, let Adaptunes adjust the volume of all your iPod songs. Adaptunes senses how fast you are going and automatically turns up the music so you can hear it above the roaring engine.