QuickAdvice: Take Your Tunes With You On Grooveshark
Grooveshark (Free) by Grooveshark is the official app for users of the streaming music service.
Grooveshark joins the ranks of Pandora and Last.fm as its official app hit the App Store recently. It allows users of the service to login with their accounts in order to access playlists and favorites, although you can create an account when using the app for the first time. This starts a 30-day trial of the premium 'VIP' account, which gives mobile access. The VIP accounts go for about $3/mo.
From here on, you can search for your favorite artists or songs, and it seems that Grooveshark has some stuff that you would not find normally on other sites. Once you start finding songs, you can play them, add them to the queue, favorite them, add to a playlist, and even download it locally so you don't need a data connection to play it.
The audio quality of the app is decent, since it automatically adjusts the bitrate according to the current speed of the data connection (highest quality is with WiFi, of course). But there's a setting that will allow you to opt for the highest quality available, though this may cause the audio to sputter occasionally, so use that setting with caution.
Once you're playing a song, it will by default be on 'Radio' setting, which will begin playing similar songs to the one you initially chose once it's done playing. If you choose to not use the Radio mode, you can manually add songs to a playlist or queue to get what you really want. The next song can be seen [when in Radio] mode by visiting the Queue section. You can also delete or play stuff out of the queue.
I notice that the iPhone app doesn't really allow you to add or play an entire album like on the web; currently it seems to only be song-by-song. This could be a nuisance, so perhaps it would be better off to build your playlists on the web first.
Despite having a polished interface, I have experienced a numerous amount of crashes in the current version. It seems that when you are trying to do a lot in a short amount of time, it'll be more than likely that the app will crash. It also does not support multitasking with iOS 4. Yes, you heard right - no multitasking. This means you can only listen to music when the app is open, much like those good old days with Pandora back pre-iOS 4.
I'd also like the ability to search for albums and add them to the queue or a playlist rather than just individual songs. I mean, it's on the web version, why not the app?
Currently, if you're a Grooveshark user, it's worth taking a quick look. But don't complain about these things - you've been warned.
