Awesome iPhone Music Apps

Which iPhone apps will make your life easier?

Author:
MainStreet Staff
Publish date:
Feb 6, 2010 7:00 AM EST

Which iPhone apps will make your life easier?

The iTunes App Store is brimming with cool applications to make your iPhone a great source of productivity. And now with all the great free music apps available, you can finally trim down your audiophile spending budget without sacrificing your tunes. We’re counting down the top 30 free music-related iPhone apps. Photo Credit: Getty Images

The iTunes App Store is brimming with cool applications to make your iPhone a great source of productivity. And now with all the great free music apps available, you can finally trim down your audiophile spending budget without sacrificing your tunes. We’re counting down the top 30 free music-related iPhone apps. Photo Credit: Getty Images

Let’s say you hear a song on the radio and want to know who sings it. You could use an iPhone app that “listens” to the song and analyzes it against a database. But it might be tricky to hold up to your radio while driving or if you’re not near the source. This iPhone app, called FLRP for short, uses your GPS to locate your position and scan the songs playing on local radio stations. This is often a better way to accurately pinpoint the exact song. Get it here.

The iTrip is a useful device that plugs into your iPhone and lets you broadcast your music through your car’s radio dial. It can sometimes be a hassle finding stations manually while driving, which is why Griffin, the maker of the iTrip, came out with this popular little iPhone app to assist in the process. You’ll need an iTrip FM transmitter device to make use of this app, but if you have one, this thing could be a lifesaver. Get it here.

Are you bored of being able to play only cool, popular instruments in real life or on your iPhone? Well, fear not, this new iPhone app will let you play the ironic, jazzy sounds of a real harmonica with your fingers right on your iPhone’s touch screen. Make sure to bust this out next time Blues Traveler comes on the radio. Get it here.

As we’ll get to later, there are dozens of great radio station apps for all sorts of music genres. However, this app does a great job of giving you the very best of national and local public radio channels. Developed in conjunction with National Public Radio, Public Radio Exchange and American Public Media, this app will keep you abreast of all the intellectual goings on that keep you on top of the world. Get it here.

With this app you can put an entire sound studio in your pocket. Well, not really, that would be ridiculous, but you can do some simple on-the-go instrumental audio recording and mixing with it. Studio App Lite is free and it lets you record four layers of audio over any instrument. So drop a few beats on your drum machine, spit a few rhymes and maybe you’ll become the next T-Pain... OK, not a chance, but it’s still fun. Get it here.

What’s That Song? is a fun guessing game app that plays a 10-second clip of a song and prompts you to guess the title and artist. In easy mode, players are given multiple choice, while in hard mode, the responses must be typed in. Get it here.

Tune Wiki is a cool little app that lets you listen to your music library or browse hundreds of radio channel presets, all while following along to the lyrics for each song scrolling by in karaoke fashion. Get it here.

The iPhone Metronome app is pretty straightforward yet elegantly designed. Musicians can use it to keep time in 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4 signatures. Or, if you want, you can use it as some sort of hypnotic device for your cat. Get it here.

There may be cooler touch-screen instruments to play on your iPhone (guitar, drums and harmonica come to mind) but there’s nothing classier than busting out a violin solo right on your phone. Get it here.

Slacker Radio is another one of the many great free streaming music radio stations for your iPhone. You can discover new music, view band info and listen to millions of songs in this app’s gigantic library. Get it here.

This iPhone app searches the Web for free video content to accompany the songs in your music library. While you’re listening to Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” you can also be checking out the official music video on YouTube. Get it here.

Scratch LP is a little different than some of the other DJ iPhone apps we’ve talked about. On this app you can literally touch and scratch the spinning record on a visualized player. The search tool also lets you find and scratch your favorite songs. Get it here.

This is a fun party app that allows users to mix two songs from their iPhone in real time. Even if you’re not the most coordinated DJ in the house, you’ll still be able to put together some interesting jams with this easy-to-use, colorful app. Get it here.

Local Concerts is a handy iPhone app that helps you look up and keep track of all the local music events going on in your area. You can even personalize and track artists you’re interested in to notify you when they come to town. Get it here.

This iPhone app is a more advanced DJ mixing app, which allows you to mix, distort and enhance the songs on your iPhone. DJ Mixer is a high quality app that even goes as far as to visually show the best time to mix in certain beats. Get it here.

AOL Radio is a joint operation in conjunction with CBS Radio. Together, these two mega media brands provide you with more than 150 free music, talk and sports stations to listen to for free with this app. Get it here.

Just admit it, you listen to Radio Disney. There’s no shame in it. Whether your kids got you hooked or you’re just a die-hard Jonas Brothers fan, now there’s an easier way to rock out to those crooning G-rated tones on the go. Get it here.

As a video gaming species, we’ve come a long way since the days of Game Genie and blowing into Nintendo cartridges to clean them. Now all you have to do is download this iPhone app and you’ll have all the cheat codes for Guitar Hero World Tour in the palm of your hand. Get it here.

This app is a little visual guidebook that will walk you through the process of making some of your favorite iTunes songs into custom ringtones for your iPhone. It’s pretty straightforward and completely free. Get it here.

This neat little iPhone app allows you to strum a few chords using your iPhone’s touch screen. You can use the device to learn the basic guitar chords or crank out some serious rock with the advanced distortion and shredder modes Get it here.

This is a beautiful and useful app that Sirius XM subscribers will love. It’s a free download, but you need to be paying for the satellite radio service to use it. However, for some reason Howard Stern’s popular radio show is not offered on the iPhone app due to some contract requirements. I would only recommend trying this app to those who already pay for the service. Get it here.

Sometimes people ‘just want to wail on the drums all day’. And now, with this cool iPhone app, you can. This touch screen app lets you beat along to your favorite songs or record some original tunes with a partner. Get it here.

This is a simple free iPhone app that lets you play a mini-piano on the touch screen. This app is also cool because it also serves as a mini-piano lesson tool. Get it here.

This is a simple, yet well-designed music app that allows users to search and find lyrics to their favorite songs. View the lyrics on your screen and even customize your player to read along while you rock out. Get it here.

Unlike other popular music apps that allow you to create your own stations, iheart radio allows the user to browse and bookmark some of their favorite existing terrestrial and digital radio stations. You can also view lyrics and purchase songs. Get it here.

Have you ever been listening to a song on the radio or at a party and really wanted to know what it was? Shazam is a cool music listening app that can detect songs, give you info on the band and allow you to download the song to your iPhone. Get it here.

This app might not be one of the most practical tools for listening to good music, but it is definitely one of the coolest and most innovative. You transform your very own voice into awesome beats, guitar riffs, synth tones and a variety of other legitimate-sounding musical instruments. If you’re in doubt, watching this short video demo is a must. Get it here.

Last.fm is a free streaming, personalized radio app that plays hours of your favorite songs for free on your iPhone. You can create your own playlists or stations and also read up on artist bios and concert info. Get it here.

Similar to Last.fm, Pandora is another free streaming music service with almost all of your favorite songs. The real benefit of this app is that it allows you to discover new music based on your preferences. Just start off with a band, artist or song you really enjoy and Pandora will craft your own personalized radio station with similar songs and artists. Get it here.

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Free Music

The iTunes App Store is brimming with cool applications to make your iPhone a great source of productivity. And now with all the great free music apps available, you can finally trim down your audiophile spending budget without sacrificing your tunes. We’re counting down the top 30 free music-related iPhone apps. Photo Credit: Getty Images

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