APPeal' to your senses

Take a moment to look at the students around you. Some of your fellow classmates are wearing headphones or ear buds while jamming out to their favorite music as they walk around campus. Music is a staple of everyday life. It gets our day going, puts us in a happy mood and brings us together with people. For all the music lovers out there looking to discover new music, here are four apps that you should have.

Band of the Day (BoD)

Not many people have this app, but first-time users will be blown away. Brought to you by 955 Dreams Inc., BoD was awarded App of the Year (2011) Runner Up by the Apple App Store, and The New York Times recognized it to be one of the top 10 apps to have when it was released. BoD was even inducted into the iPhone and iPad Hall of Fame - yes, that's a real thing.

When users first download BoD, they can either sign in as a regular user or sign in with their Facebook account. From there, the app displays a large calendar that can open up to each band of the day from the last month. Some users may not like that the app only features lesser-known musicians, but this also provides a unique opportunity to discover new music for free.

Genres of music on the app can range from blues all the way to hip-hop.

The greatest benefit of BoD is that it's free and has no commercials, which means quality listening without interruption. Music lovers can go to an artist's day on the calendar and freely listen to their album as long as they want.

8tracks Radio

Brought to you by 8tracks Inc., this app has over 8,000 positive reviews from the iTunes Store. If that's not impressive enough, new users should know that by downloading this app they join a community of more than 5 million monthly listeners. Another bonus? It's free. Users can either go to the "home" tab to play playlists they already love, the "explore" tab to create playlists based on their mood, the "search" tab to find music in any genre or the "profile" tab. 8tracks has a lot to offer as users are always submitting their own playlists for other music-lovers to enjoy.

There are also free "favorite" songs, which users can flag as they listen. On their profile, users may go back and look at all of their favorites.

The app allows listeners to find new artists or listen to their old favorites. It also lets users listen to their favorite songs through YouTube or buy them on iTunes. The app tends to crash, though, when a user isn't connected to the Internet.

Pocket Tube

Pocket Tube is a music app by Masayuki Mieno with just over 800 respectable reviews in the App Store. Even with a small review post on iTunes, users gave the music app a promising 4.5 average rating out of five. Pocket Tube allows users to launch the app and then search for any song they want. That being said, the one thing that does hurt this app is users don't have unlimited downloads. A user of Pocket Tube can download up to 15 songs at one time. If a user then tries to download any other songs, they have the option to share the app in order to increase their downloading capability. Users who do share the app through social media gain five more songs for a total of 20 songs available for download. The app itself is free.

TuneIn Radio:

For you radio lovers or commuters, here's an app that many people are tuning into on the go. TuneIn Radio allows users to enjoy 70,000 live radio stations, 2 million podcasts, concerts and shows on their smart phones. Essentially, the app is a world radio that features music, sports, news, talk show, comedy stations and more. The app streams from every continent, which allows users to have access to radio stations outside of America.

There is a TuneIn Radio Pro app that costs $4.99 and allows users to record everything they love from the app. Users of TuneIn Radio Pro can create a commercial- and ad-free listening experience with shows they record.

Users don't gain much by upgrading from the free version to the $4.99 version. Smartphone users are better off getting the free version, which they can still explore the worldly app and discover international and national radio stations.

Email: arts@ubspectrum.com