Those who were able to get an iPhone 3G or update their iPhones and iPod Touches to 2.0 probably noticed that at first, last.fm, the social music service now owned by CBS, was missing. Instead, users had the options of Pandora, AOL Radio, and Virgin, with many opting for the familiar and once-popular Pandora.
On Monday, last.fm finally had an app in the App Store, but it looks like it's too little, too late. Pandora's iPhone app has the momentum as well as the user features.
The iPhone app from last.fm both looks and feels like it was rushed. The UI is downright ugly, with plain text song/artist/album information, status bar, "Share," and "Buy on iTunes" buttons overlayed over the album graphic. Most of the functionality on the iPhone app is similar the Web version, except the key iTunes rating feature. On a PC, with the iTunes interface, you are able to love and hate tracks as they play, but if you are listening to the music in iPod mode on your Touch or iPhone, you are out of luck, as nothing can be scrobbled (or loved) until you sync back up to your iTunes installed on your PC. There also doesn't seem to be anyway to tag songs, even if you are playing recommended songs or a friend's station. Those used to the full-featured app will be disappointed with the number of missing features, and the amateur-looking UI just buries the app.
In contrast, Pandora's simplicity translated well to the iPhone, and it's obvious that the designers were really thinking about how things should both look and feel in a mobile app. Rather than trying to cram everything onto the small screen, Pandora utilizes most of the screen real estate for the album image. The text for artist/song/album is in a top bar with buttons to go back to the station selection and get information, and a bottom bar gives you simple options to vote the song up or down, pause, or forward past the song. Options to bookmark the song or artist or buy the song or album on iTunes are accessible with a pop-up menu, freeing screen real estate.
It may simply be a case of one app having features that lend themselves more readily to a mobile app, but in the battle of iPhone music recommendation apps, Pandora is winning hands down. last.fm needs to really pick up their game.
More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:
Comments
It's worth noting that Last.fm is not technically able to provide real time scrobbling of ipod plays do to the lack of background process support on the iPhone.
I do think Pandora has the edge right now, but it is by no means a landslide IMO. I think you are overstating the ugliness of Last's UI. It's not that bad.
One think that really bothers me however is (also do to the lack of background processing) how you can't switch to any other app and leave your radio going. This means you can't effectively "Share" or "Buy on iTunes" w/o losing your place.
There is more info on the Last blog:
http://blog.last.fm/2008/07/13/lastfm-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch
As long as pandora streams only in the US, it will *never* be a real competitor for last.fm.
You might want to try to actually listen to both apps too. Last.fm sounds much better - Pandora's music on the iPhone is a low bit, *mono* stream. On the other hand, since Pandora is streaming fewer bits it is able to stream better in low-bandwidth situations (such as when no WIFI is available). And as for the comment "Pandora's iPhone app has the momentum as well as the user features." - which features were you talking about?
@Matt To me, it's a huge ugly fest, but I also have poor eyesight, and have a really hard time reading the text on the last.fm app, which may set me off. And yes, the lack of background processing is annoying, but I can only imagine the battery life would run about 5 minutes if it were enabled.
@Jan Check out last.fm on the iPhone. Also georetarded, which makes even LESS sense since the Web app isn't. I'm still waiting for an explanation on that one.
@Paul, in terms of ease of use and being able to bookmark, etc. to a feed, as well as, well, looking better, Pandora wins hands down. I've also noticed no difference in sound quality between Pandora and last.fm, but then again, I'm usually listening through the iPhone speakers and not a headset.
Post new comment