Track 8 is a $1.99 universal music app that is very clearly inspired by the the Windows Phone Metro interface. This means that the user interface is heavy on text and large images, but very light on interface chrome. I bought Track 8 two weeks ago because I think the iPhone’s music app could really […]
" />

Quick Look: Track 8 for iPhone and iPad

Jun 22nd 2012 by

Track 8 is a $1.99 universal music app that is very clearly inspired by the the Windows Phone Metro interface. This means that the user interface is heavy on text and large images, but very light on interface chrome. I bought Track 8 two weeks ago because I think the iPhone’s music app could really use a refresh, and the Metro UI is simply gorgeous.

Track 8 takes a little longer to load than Apple’s own music app, but once it’s up and going, this third-party app is quite slick. Music can be sorted by the standard song title, artist, album, or playlists, as well as extra categories, like “history” (recently played), “new”, and “most played”. There is no alphabetical scrollbar in Track 8, but you can tap on one of the alphabetical headers (e.g. A, B, C) to bring up a grid that will allow you to jump to any letter. I still prefer Apple’s way of doing things in this regard, but it’s interesting to see a new UI approach.

The experience of browsing your music in Track 8 is visually rich: new menus rotate into position, the background image is always set to the currently playing artist, and album views emphasize the gorgeous cover art. Another nice touch is that Track 8 always keeps the title and album cover of the current song visible, regardless of where you are in the app.

Misc

  • Track 8 features a full text search, but it’s currently only for song titles. I’d love for this to feature artists and albums in the future.
  • iTunes Match is supported within the app, so even albums that haven’t been downloaded to your iOS device will display their album art (though this can take a bit of caching).

The only problems I’ve had with Track 8 have to do with how music apps on iOS are handled – it isn’t an app-specific issue, but it’s still worth noting. Sometimes I’ll start a song by using the button on my headphones, and this will keep Track 8’s controls from working until I re-select the song from within the app. But this is something I’ve also experienced in Groove and Soundhound, so I won’t single Track 8 out for it.

Apple’s own Music app is still the fastest way to start playing your tunes, but if you want to take a more scenic approach to your music library, Track 8 is worth a download.

Continue reading:

TAGS: