Tech Talk: Let the music play on

But if you have an Android phone and you’re still using the factory-installed music app to play your tunes, you’re missing a beat – there is a whole library of alternatives competing for the eyes and ears of the discerning audiophile.

Some specialise in integrating with Facebook, so you can share your music choices with friends; others offer wireless connection to your Bluetooth car stereo, or automatic downloading of album cover art from the internet.

A few will recommend new music from online stores, based on the tracks you already have. And if you regularly sync music with your PC, you’ll find apps with companion desktop programs that communicate with each other more efficiently than native Windows and Android. Almost as well as Apple’s iPhone and iTunes, in fact.

Here are some of the best choices:

PlayerPro comes with “smart playlists” and will attempt to find and display the lyrics for any song in your collection. It will also download artwork for your music and unlike the standard Android player, comes with a five-band graphic equaliser and stereo widener. The sound from it is so good that it outperforms (to my ears, at least) my iPod and Samsung music players. PlayerPro costs £2.50 after a free trial period.

Mixzing is a similar-looking app, with the addition of new music recommendations, especially from independent musicians. Each time you play a tune, it creates a playlist based on what it thinks you like. You can influence its choices by rating songs on a scale from one to five – but in practice, it’s a feature of more use to the record industry than to you, since it stands to reason that you will like all the tunes on your phone. A free version is available and an upgrade without adverts is £3.19.

Winamp was a popular desktop music player in the early days of Windows. Its new portable incarnation is free and can import any music library you may have in iTunes. There is a desktop companion for your PC, and syncing your music between the two is a breeze.

Songbird also has a companion app for your PC and connects wirelessly to your Bluetooth car stereo. It’s free and non-commercial, with a stylish, uncluttered screen.