In what has seemingly become the norm for App Store approval, Spotify recently aired their frustration at Apple's unpredictable process, noting the extended time their iPhone app has been through the pipeline.  Shortly after airing the complaint, an App Store rep has now confirmed that the mobile streaming application has been approved and will be rolled out across iTunes stores in countries where the service is available.

Much of the issue with Spotify (along with similar services like Rhapsody, who also has an app undergoing approval) has been centered along the level of threat it represents to iTunes, Apple's own music download service.  For $10 a month, Spotify users can enjoy unlimited music streaming, with some amount of leeway for offline caching, allowing users to listen to songs even without a live internet connection.

Currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Britain, France and Spain, the service is expected to roll out in the US before the end of the year, providing a litmus test to see what kind of effect it will have on the online music market.  The Spotify app will allow iPhone owners to listen to their playlists on their mobile handset, along with performing regular functions, such as searching songs, editing playlists and more.

With an inventory of over six million tunes, all of which can be accessed over the web anytime users want to, it definitely sounds like a more attractive deal compared to paying for every song that you download.  With Rhapsody (and, undoubtedly, a few more) also coming to the iPhone, expect this space to be particularly competitive, with potential repercussions to some of Apple's business.

[via Wired]

RealNetworks is making a play to directly challenge iTunes' 99-cent-per-song dominance on the iPhone. The company has submitted an app to allow the use of its Rhapsody subscription music service to Apple and are now awaiting approval.

Intended for availability as a free download, the app offers iPhone users music streaming on their handsets.  That means all the songs you want at a fixed monthly price of $15 a month - a tempting offer that can potentially affect iTunes sales.  Given all the heat that Apple is now getting for the App Store's approval process, Rhapsody for iPhone becomes an interesting case study as to how the company will handle potential competition looking to enter their smartphone platform.

Existing Rhapsody subscribers who are on $13/month accounts won't get in on the action, as iPhone support will only be available for the new $15 To Go package.  Regardless, a library of over 8 million songs you can stream to your iPhone makes a good case for paying that extra $2, as well as attracting new subscribers.

According to Rhapsody, offline playback of songs is not currently available for the first version of the app, but will be added shortly thereafter.  Streaming will be supported over all types of internet connection, including Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE.

Whether Rhapsody gets approved or not will likely determine the eventual fate for Spotify, as well, who are now in the process of readying their own iPhone app.  According to RealNetworks, the Rhapsody service will also be coming soon to other mobile platforms, including Android and Windows Mobile.

[via PC World]

How capable of a music-making gadget can the iPhone become?  Between BeBot, 8BitOne and the just-released Star6, apparently, very good.

The new app from Agile Software turns the iPhone into a performance-grade sample instrument, able to take music from your handset and turn it into an entirely new sound.  Designed for both dabblers and professionals alike, it offers a fun interface that plays host to a powerful music-creation mechanism lying under it.

Ditching creative presentation for something more straightforward, Star6's UI consists of a simple display, with spaces for loading samples (up to six at a time), sound control (put your finger on corresponding pads, such as the gate and the sample size, and use the accelerometer to alter it) and various buttons.  It's not the most impressive thing to look at, but the quality of audio it produces is quite impressive, with plenty of effects, dual audio modes and a proprietary granular-based audio engine.

What's even better is the app's flexibility, something you can't say too much about a lot of music apps on the iPhone.  While it comes with a default set of samples, users can easily extend it by uploading their own or downloading additional ones from the developers' site.  Even better, you can record all of your resulting creations and then download it from the web.

While I might have to see someone with more musical  experience to see how well this can be used, I'm very inclined to think that Star6 could turn out better and more impressive tunes than BeBot.  It's now available from the App Store for $6.99.

Star6

The iPhone is surprisingly becoming a great platform for music-making apps of all sorts.  8Bitone, an audio sequencer for the platform, is proving to be another serious gem.

Developed by Japanese company Yudo, the software impressively mimics an 8-bit synthesizer, allowing you to fashion unique electronic sounds, the way you imagine an actual retro analog unit (e.g. Roland SH-201) will do.  For the most part, the tunes you end up with sound like compositions out of an 8-bit computer or a Nintendo title from back in the 80s.

It offers three main modes, a piano roll screen, a sequencer and a full synthesizer (with a complete set of controls for almost every aspect of the sound, including oscillator, envelope and arpeggio). If you're familiar working with synthesizers (even really old ones), you should know how each of these should work - and the app does a flawless job of porting everything (you're limited to four tracks, though) to the software.

In case you're a non-musician looking for something to play with, you'll likely have a difficult time, as 8Bitone is designed to work as an actual synthesizer hardware.  Yudo does offer plenty of tutorials, however, so you can get up to speed on the basics, if you wish to learn the trade.

For the most part, 8Bitone is a serious tool for actual musicians.  Composing a full song will likely require a couple of hours - more, if you're downright adamant about getting everything right.  You can save and load songs onto the iPhone, but it doesn't offer a native export function.  Alternatively, you can connect the audio to the PC and record it from there.

Overall, 8Bitone is one of the most impressive music-making apps on the iPhone, packing a full old-school synthesizer into the handset.  It's not the cheapest app at $8.99, but it's one cost serious musicians will probably find to be a bargain.  Where else can you find a full-fledged four-track, 8-bit synthesizer that you can carry in your pocket?

Yudo

Once available exclusively for jailbroken handsets, Simplify Media has evolved into a legitimate iPhone app, with a very cool social component to boot. While it's a media streamer at its core, it piles on to the value by allowing you to share your entire music collection with up to 30 other computers at a time over the internet.

Simplify Media involves two main components, a desktop client to index and manage your collection of songs (AAC, WMA, MP3 and Apple Lossless), as well as an iPhone app to facilitate the playback of those tunes  on the handset. You can stream songs directly from your computer over either Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE.

It works much like iTunes' library sharing feature, except it takes the ability way further than your local network. Using the web, other users that you invite can access the same music files that the desktop software indexes on your PC for playback.  Similarly, you can access those of your friends'.

The iPhone interface is similar to the iPod application on the handset, allowing you to see your iTunes playlists, as well as numerous other browsing options. Tapping on a title will begin buffering the song, after which it automatically plays. Speed is pretty good, taking just a couple of seconds over 3G and Wi-Fi, with EDGE running at around 15 seconds.

Interface is pretty boring, but it handles intuitively with good control response. I wouldn't mind seeing it get refreshed for later versions, as it's really too bland at the moment. Note that like all other non-native iPhone apps, Simplify Media cannot run in the background. As such, your music stream stops as soon as you close the screen. Despite that, I find it to be a very useful tool at a slightly expensive (but justifiable) $5.99 price.

Simplify Media

If you still like playing around with ringtones and want to keep to keep your acquisition legal, there are a number of options available for fashioning them out of your own music collection.  Sharetones just released a beta version of its ringtone-sharing app for Android handsets, allowing you to take snippets of tunes from your library of songs for use as your ringer.

Instead of trading ringtones with other users (even copies of songs you already own can be deemed illegal), the app creates a workaround process that keeps the whole thing within your rights of ownership, while not making it as tedious as having to manually edit them yourself.   For songs you currently have in your collection, Sharetones can search their database of ringtones to find ones fleshed out of the same tune.

The search can turn up numerous options, such as tones clipped off the chorus or ones containing only the intro.  Once you choose which ditty you'd like to copy, the app downloads the "recipe" for that ringtone and rips an exact duplicate from your collection, saving it as an MP3.  You can then use that clip for whatever purposes may suit you.

Interface is a little sparse, although it's sufficient for the largely simple job.  When you first launch the app, it will run through your library and display the ones with matching ringtone "recipes" currently available.  You can sift through the list, where you are allowed to preview the resulting tone before deciding to actually rip it.

Sharetone's biggest downside, however, is that it limits its functionality to that - duplicating ringtones with no option to edit any part of them yourself.  As such, you're stuck with the collection they have in their database, which is currently at 65,000 (although it's growing).

The app can be downloaded for free from the Android Market and is free all through the beta period.  Once it goes live, however, it will come with a pricing scheme.  I suggest you rip through your entire collection now before Sharetones starts charging.  Price will be $1.49 for three ringtone "recipes", $2.49 for one month of unlimited use and $7.49 for an entire year.

Via DJ Nitrogen

While BeBot has the music synthesizer corner firmly covered on the iPhone, the de facto DJing app is still up for grabs. SurfaceDJ is one of the few programs attempting to take that piece of the market, allowing you to drag sound clips and mix them.

Unfortunately, Surface DJ is largely a throwaway app, more akin to being an occasional time-waster than anything a serious musician would want to fiddle with. Designed primarily for dabbling, it makes setting up tunes both fun and easy. The main gripe is it stops there, offering very few options for those who wish to take their musical craftsmanship even a tad further.

In Surface DJ, each track can hold up to 10 different elements that you can simply drag and pile onto your tune. Since it tries to keep things as simple as possible, all available elements are timed accordingly, beat for beat. Simply choose what you want to include in your track and parlay it using those 10 components in any manner you want. The result are ditties that sound great (or at least listenable) almost 100% of the time.

There are no options to add your own elements (as that can disrupt the simplicity) nor can you edit the beats. You're basically forced to stick with the default grooves the app is bundled with. Similarly, there's no option to email or upload the tunes, which sorts of defeats the "sharing aspect" that is at the core of today's connected landscape.

Overall, Surface DJ is a fine and polished product. As the cheapest DJing option on the App Store ($1.99), it's a decent time-filler, though nowhere near what a half-decent musician will be looking for.

Via iPhone Kung Fu

Normalware's BeBot, on first glance, looks just like another ridiculous software that made its way into the App Store. Described as a "part robot, part synthesizer," it's one of the most interesting offerings I've seen in a while, all while looking as banal as a 99-cent fart app.

In BeBot, you control a retro-style robot, who dances, sings and produces some really nifty sounds as you run your fingers through the multi-touch interface. While that alone may be enough to offer some amount of entertainment value, it really belies a more complex system underneath the surface.

What you'll find out soon enough is that BeBot is a very powerful polymorphic musical synthesizer that can create a wide range of sounds for musicians and tinkerers alike. Double-tap the icon on the lower right corner and you'll see controls for a number of presets, allowing you to manage synthesizing details such as effects and scale. Features include four simultaneous notes, analog-like filters, crazy effects (looping, overdrive, etc), autotune and user-programmable scales.

There is literally an infinite number of sounds you can produce on this thing, all accessible within a few finger touches, that it's downright mind-blowing. If you're a musician, you'll literally be in awe at what you can craft with an iPhone and this software in tow. If you're a tinkerer, you'll have more fun with this than a MIDI rig - trust me.

All BeBot really lacks right now is an ability to save your creations and it will be perfect. It's so good, in fact, that I know at least a couple of folks who decided on an iPhone over another handset just because of it. It's as unique and as useful as a mobile app can get, bar none.

Check out the sample video of Dream Theater's keyboard player using BeBot below.

[ Youtube ]