[News] Spotify To Add Apps: Including Last.fm, Rolling Stone, Lyrics, Other Third-Party Apps

In their quest for music world domination, music streaming service Spotify just announced that they will be integrating apps into the popular player soon. The service will kick off the apps launch with content partners such as Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Last.fm, TuneWiki, and Songkick, with more on the way.

The apps will be customizable and will show up in the left bar of the player along with your playlists, local libraries, etc.This is a smart move for Spotify. Why waste time trying to integrate these kinds of features on your own when there are plenty of companies already killing it in these respective fields? Want suggestions from news sources you already know and trust? There's an app for that. Want to be able to read (or sing) along with the lyrics to a song? There's an app for that. Want to know when an artist is rolling through your town? Well, you guessed it. There's an app for that, too. These new features should be rolling out sometime this week and will be available to both free and premium accounts.

It will be interesting to see how services like Rdio, MOG, Pandora, etc. respond to this new feature. Either way it will be better for us music junkies in the long run to have these services fighting over us by upping their features and enlarging their music libraries.

You Guys, Turntable.FM Is The Site We've All Been Waiting For

Okay so, if I find myself this impressed with something that's still in ALPHA testing, this must be a pretty huge freaking deal. I've been waiting for something like this to come along for quite awhile now and I am happy to report that it's not just here, but here in a big, beautiful, well thought out and equipped way.

Turntable.fm is going to become your music discovery crack. You start by creating or joining a room where there are 5 glowing DJ "decks" in a room. You have the option to either DJ or just hang out. Depending on how many DJs are up on the decks dictates how often you get to spin your own tracks. If you're into a song someone else is playing and want it for yourself, you can scroll over the name of the song on the deck and select which service you would like to add it to (iTunes, Last.fm, Spotify, etc.). People are constantly coming and going in the room, but as long as your beats are dope, you can start to fill the room.

There's also an option to vote whether a song is Lame or Awesome, which helps to keep the room on a particular vibe. If something is voted Lame too often, the song is skipped. I haven't figured out what happens if something gets a ton of Awesome votes, but I know that the once you vote something Awesome your avatar starts to bob its head around to the beat. It's interesting to watch the meter when a new song comes on. There's a sense of anticipation for a second and if you're DJing you feel anxious as to whether or not your song will be voted off. When a song is vibing with everyone, the chatroom within the room is buzzing with a song lovefest.

If you're like me at all, when something music related like this comes along, you try to "break it" so to speak. You want to see if you can outsmart their library and have something that they don't have. Short of obscure quirky 90s bands that barely sold anything and songs that aren't out yet, I have to say their library is pretty thorough. Plus, if they don't have what you want to play, you have the option to upload tracks, which only stick with you. So if you wanted to, for example, play something to a bunch of people that isn't out yet, you don't have to worry about anyone else getting their hands on it.

Everything about this service is just so well thought out. The attention to detail is incredibly impressive, all the way down to how they auto-detect which OS you're using so you're little DJ avatar is rocking the right laptop.

As of now, Turntable.fm is in private alpha, but if you want to head over to the site and take a chance on getting in, if you have a friend that has gotten in, you will automatically be let in as well. I strongly suggest you check this out. You are in for musical treats.

Expect to see more of Turntable.fm from us. I am almost positive I will not be shutting up about this for awhile.