The great thing about the iPhone is that while it is an extraordinary phone with some extraordinary features, there are also an umpteen number of super cool third party apps available which can help you do just about anything you can imagine with your iPhone.
This list discusses some of the coolest and mind-boggling music apps that can turn your iPhone into a powerhouse of music. Ranging from apps which stream radio stations to apps which can convert your iPhone into a flute or piano, we’ve got them all covered.
1. Last.fm
Last.fm, the immensely popular social music site is on the iPhone too. The Last.fm iPhone app lets you access your Last.fm account on the iPhone and listen to your favorite tracks. You can get the music recommendations according to your taste, add tracks to your playlist, purchase tracks directly from iTunes, tag the tracks, share them with the Last.fm community and much more. Certainly offers great features at a great price – $0.
Download the Last.fm iPhone app.
2. Pandora
The Pandora iPhone app is the iPhone version of the free personalized radio which is completely integrated with your web based Pandora account. It is easy to use and offers all the Pandora features. You can create a station from the current song or artist, tap the album art to get more information, email the station to a friend, bookmark songs and artists, buy tracks from iTunes and get a nice view in the landscape mode by rotating your iPhone.
Download Pandora iPhone app.
3. Shazam
Shazam is an innovative iPhone app that cures your ” What was that song ? ” problem. It happens to all of us, isn’t it. We hear a song, love it, know we have heard it before but just can’t recall it. With Shazam you don’t need to. Just hold your iPhone near the speakers of the device playing that music. Through iPhone’s microphone Shazam gets hold of that song and identifies the album, artist and song title for you. Cool, isn’t it ? Oh, and it’s free too.
Download Shazam iPhone app.
4. Ocarina
Ocarina makes one of the most unique uses of iPhone’s and iPod touch’s touchscreen by turning it into a flute which you can play with your fingers. You can blow into the mic and tap the four virtual holes on the screen, all of which give a cool experience of playing a real flute ( atleast to those who have never touched a flute ). In fact users of the Ocarina community can hear what you are playing in the globe mode. The cost of the app – $0.99.
Download Ocarina iPhone app.
5. Slacker
Slacker gives you access to unlimited free music on your iPhone. It is easy to use and has an elegant user interface. It can stream music from millions of songs from a huge number of artists in its library. You could also listen to over 100 expert programmed radio stations or create your own custom station. The sound quality is great and it certainly emerges as a tough competitor for Pandora. It’s free to download.
Download Slacker iPhone app.
6. Tuner Internet Radio
Tuner Internet radio is another brilliant iPhone radio app which gives you access to 1000’s of radio stations from all around the world. You can bookmark your favorite stations, choose from your favorite genres, create your own streams and even get access to premium authenticated streams. Another nice feature is the OpenGL visualizer which adds more value to the app. It costs $5.99.
Download Tuner Internet Radio iPhone app.
7. Imeem
Imeem is an app aimed specifically at Imeem users so that they could access their Imeem library on the go. They can access the features of the web based Imeem which includes discovering new music, creating stations with free streaming music from their favorite artists and much more. Like most of the music apps, this also allows you to purchase songs from iTunes. And like its web version, this app is free too.
Download Imeem iPhone app.
8. Midomi Ultra
Midomi Ultra is a pretty cool iPhone app which can identify music in a snap. You just need to take your iPhone near a speaker and it can identify a song in as fast as 5 seconds. Hence it works like Shazam, identifying music through the iPhone’s microphone and naming the song, artist and other stuff. But there are some differences and as the iPhone blog points out, Midomi takes music identification to the next level. That’s why it costs $4.99.
Download Midomi iPhone app.
9. PocketGuitar
If you love playing guitar, you’d love PocketGuitar too. It turns your iPhone into a guitar, rather a virtual guitar which you can actually play like a real guitar. Yes, you could press & strum strings and get the real guitar feeling. Choose sounds from 6 different instruments like Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Electric Bass and more. Also choose effects like Chorus, Distortion etc. The best part – it’s relatively cheap at $0.99.
Download PocketGuitar iPhone app.
10. Chordmaster
Chordmaster is another great app for music lovers that puts a huge library of more than 7,800 guitar chords at their disposal. It displays a virtual fretboard complete with notes and fingerings and virtual chords in various positions on the fretboard. You can strum the strings, in fact even tap individual strings to to hear the specific notes just like in a real guitar. It is priced at $1.99.
Download Chrodmaster iPhone app.
11. Cleartune
Cleartune is a seriously cool iPhone app which helps you tune any musical instrument using your iPhone (or iPod touch which has an external mic). It is a powerful chromatic tuner which displays a note wheel and a fine-tuning meter, both of which let you find the right pitch and tune for your musical instrument. You can tune stuff like acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, brass..almost any musical instrument available. The price you pay is $3.99.
Download Cleartune iPhone app.
12. Pianist
Pianist, as the name suggests, transforms your iPhone into a full fledged 88-key piano. You can play the virtual piano, compose and record music for a playback later, zoom into the keyboard to take a better look and access complex piano features with rich 3D graphics. Obviously it’s difficult to imagine the instrument of the size of a piano on a tiny iPhone, but nonetheless this app with its cool features tries its best to create the feel. Cost – $3.99.
Download Pianist iPhone app.
13. Bloom
Bloom is an interesting and innovative iPhone app which lets you create music and melodies by simply touching and tapping on the screen. The app features a colorful screen which combines artwork and instrument with composition. It can in fact create compositions on its own if left idle along with some stunning visualizations. Other features include 9 different mood settings, random mood shuffle, shake to clear, adjustable delay and much more. It’s like an endless music machine. The price is a reasonable $3.99.
Download Bloom iPhone app.
14. iheart Radio
iheart Radio lets you tune into the popular FM stations across the major cities in the U.S. It’s a free app and offers a really good sound quality as compared to other such free radio apps. You can listen to a huge number of different radio stations like Z100, KFAN and many more. A cool feature in this app is that it can locate your position and then play the local radio stations in that city.
Download iheart Radio iPhone app.
15. Pocket Shaker
Pocket Shaker is another fine app which can turn your iPhone into a cool percussion instrument. In fact it can turn it into any such instrument like Conga, Rattle, Shaker, Tambourine, Cowbell, Bass Drum and many more. Just hold the iPhone with the power button facing upwards and then shake it to listen to the instruments. As you keep shaking, it keeps changing to the random percussion instruments. It’s free to download and use.
Download Pocket Shaker iPhone app.
16. TuneWiki
TuneWiki is a highly acclaimed iPhone music app which combines many nice features in a single app. You can listen to music while checking the lyrics of the song ( which is available in 40+ languages ), check out the cool music maps to see what the people around the world are listening at the moment, access the lyrics search database and get the real time top 50 chart from around the world. All this at an incredible price – $0.
Download TuneWiki iPhone app.
17. Lyrical
If you like checking out the lyrics of a song as much as you like listening to it then Lyrical is a must have iPhone app for you. It automatically finds the lyrics of any song you are playing and also lets you view it offline. You can search for a song lyrics by artist, title or if you just remember some lines from the song, that’s enough for lyrical to fetch the corresponding song lyrics. And it’s free too !
Download Lyrical iPhone app.
18. Amazing Piano Free
Amazing Piano free aims teaching piano to users while they enjoy the cool features of this virtual piano. It features a keyboard with the piano on top and while the notes are played you can tap the letters to match with the notes played on the screen. You can record and playback songs, experience the 16-bit high quality sounds and learn with 3 levels of music speed. And as the name suggests, the app is free to download and use.
Download Amazing Piano Free iPhone app.
19. MixMeister Scratch
Mixmeister Scratch is an innovative DJ Scratch tool for iPhone and iPod touch which, as they mention, lets you scratch anywhere and anytime. You can even do it one top of the song playing in your iPhone/iPod touch. It offers a list of vinyl scratch sounds to use and also lets you control the song volume while you are doing the DJ thing with it. And yes, it’s a free app.
Download MixMeister Scratch iPhone app.
20. FlyCast Mobile Radio
Flycast Mobile Radio iPhone app offers over 1500 digital channels in different genres. It brings you a huge number of live radio streams along with some unique features like ability to pause a live station, song skipping on some webcasts and StreamAhead, which lets you listen to a station even without a connection. It also offers an in-built web browser so that you can surf the web while you enjoy the music. A great app offered for free.
Download FlyCast iPhone app.
21. Band
Band, developed by Moocow Music lets you create music from scratch using their collection of virtual musical instruments. It provides instruments like drums, piano, bass guitar, blues guitar, and crowd which sync well with iPhone’s touchscreen allowing you to compose music with ease. You can do a lot of things with the instruments and also mix them together while composing a song. It costs $3.99 to download.
Download Band iPhone app.
22. Beat Maker
Beat Maker is a high end iPhone music app which calls itself the “mobile music creation studio”. It provides a number of advanced tools and effects to help you create an intuitive composition. You can pick up audio samples, record them and use them in your composition. Other features include trigger pads, sequencing tools, advanced audio effects and more. And all this comes at a price – $19.99.
Download Beat Maker iPhone app.
23. AOL Radio
AOL radio streams music to your iPhone from almost 150 CBS radio stations located all around the U.S. Most of us have been listening to AOL radio for years and hence having it on the iPhone wouldn’t be disliked by many. You can select from about 25 genres of music. Just choose the category you like and it will play music accordingly. This app is available for free for your iPhone.
Download AOL Radio iPhone app.
24. MiniPiano
As it is evident from the name, the MiniPiano iPhone app is for playing piano on the iPhone. And that’s it, really. It has left the advanced features and complexities for other apps like Pianist and Amazing Piano free. If you are looking for a very simple mini piano to play on your phone and have fun then this is it. And it also comes with a simple price tag – $0.
Download MiniPiano iPhone app.
25. uDrummer Lite
Drum Set fans would love to have uDrummer Lite on their iPhones. In fact any music lover would. Why ? Well, with 3 different types of drum sounds, brilliant visual effects and the ability to play along while playing your own music on the iPhone gives the feel of a real drum set. The sound quality is excellent and the drum positions are such that you can easily tap them with your fingers. Get it for free now.
Download uDrummer Lite iPhone app.