Music App Roundup: Play by AOL, Pixies Official, Spotify, VinylLove and Björk: Biophilia

​The music app business has been booming enough recently that we decided it was time we start sifting through it all on a regular basis. It's a strange digital world when everyone out there can create a mobile application for whatever purpose they desire, but that also means there are a lot of junk apps trying to trick you into forking over your cash. This week has some great stuff, including new options for streaming music, the official Pixies app and more.

​5. Play by AOL Music (iOS), (Android)
Play by AOL Music is a strange beast. It's partially just a music player for those who don't like using iTunes, but it's also a radio station and social-networking app that syncs with Twitter, Rdio, Facebook as well as its own system. It's free, so if you're a music junkie, it's well worth checking out. It's also full of SHOUTcast radio stations, if that's your thing.

​4. Pixies Official (iOS), (Android)
The official Pixies app is one of the better band-centric apps. The free download gets you a copy of Purple Tape, a download of the band's 2004 Coachella show and streaming of a bunch of other performances. You can also purchase the albums via in-app purchase, but we can't imagine anyone would actually utilize this feature. For die-hard Pixies fans, though, it's a great collection of stuff.

​3. Spotify (iOS), Android
You need the $9.99/month subscription to stream to mobile, but if you don't mind dropping the cash, it's a decent app. While Spotify isn't exactly breaking ground in the streaming space, it does work well and has a lot of great features. If your enjoying the desktop version, the mobile one works just as well, even in some of Denver's worst reception spots.

​2. VinylLove (iOS)
Apple itself has been trying to emulate real-world objects with a lot of its in-house apps like the calendar and iBooks, but they haven't bothered with iTunes. VinylLove originally launched a couple of months back for iPad, but it recently got the universal treatment, meaning it can work on iDevices big and small. If you've ever wished you could listen to your iTunes library as if it was a record collection, this is for you.

​1. Björk: Biophilia (iOS)
We're big fans of Björk's multi-media approach to her next record, Biophilia and with the launch of the app, the first portion of her project has started. The thing is, Biophilia is free on first glance -- but you have to purchase each section inside the app. For $1.99, you can pick up "Crystalline," an interactive experience designed to "explore the similarities between musical and spatial relationship simultaneously." It's basically a game made from the song. We'll assume the rest of the singles will follow suit. It's an interesting way to do things, but we can't help but think it would have been nice to at least get the first single for free.

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