CoverMusic Review

Those who know me well will know that I simply love music. As such, I'm always in search of new and potentially exciting apps that could in some way enhance this listening experience. So when I was given the chance to review CoverMusic - a fairly new app designed for the iPad, which relies on stripping back the listening experience as it provides a simple and intuitive way to listen to the music that most interests me - I jumped.

Granted there's not a lot I can say about CoverMusic, functionally. The aim is to provide the user with a random selection of songs from their library, and present them in a way which is visually pleasing to the eye.

CoverMusic displays a random grid of twelve different tracks from the user's library. Each track is accompanied by its corresponding album artwork, and playing a track is as simple as tapping the desired album cover. Double-tapping the current track will center it and display lyric information (when available).

The first aspect I should mention about the music player is that, although CoverMusic is a free download, the app is ad-supported. While it isn't littered with ads, the one ad which overhangs at the top of the CoverMusic's visual album view is bound to have users paying the $0.99 to remove it - if only to get rid of the distraction.

Other additional options regarding the way in which tracks are displayed can be found by tapping the small drawer indicator located at the bottom of this album grid view. This control drawer is split into three sections: volume control and a button to instigate AirPlay to a compatible device on the left, the usual button to call up Apple's built-in iOS 7 share sheet on the right (giving users the option to share the music they're currently listening to with their followers on Twitter and Facebook), and a button that, when pressed, will flip these twelve album tiles to reveal a fresh new set of tracks smack-bang in the middle.

CoverMusic's “settings” panel is located to the far right and includes such options as toggling both “Auto Flip” and “Auto Lock” on and off, as well as choosing the ultimate style of the shown album covers (straight-edged or curved). Note that activating curved corners requires that previously mentioned $0.99 in-app purchase - and don't forget this will also remove the app's single top-hugging ad.

As for possible caveats? Well I only found one; which was that CoverMusic, in its current form, doesn't appear to like it when the user streams their music library from the cloud. Instead, CoverMusic would appear to rely on one's library being actually stored on the device in order to work as intended.

Overall, I would consider CoverMusic to be more of an alternative to Apple's built-in music player than that of an actual replacement. That said, some may prefer to use the clean, art-driven interface over the ‘list view’ that Apple has opted for with its stock offering.