VinylLove™ Pocket Review

Listening to music has certainly changed a lot over the last few decades, and just about every iOS user enjoys having a full library of music at their fingertips wherever they go. There are some aficionados though, that prefer the warm crackle of vinyl to the cold, crunchy bits of an mp3. Still, it's not all that easy to lug a record player around with you, or plug it into the speaker dock on your desk.

For fans of vinyls who find themselves often missing the feeling of placing the pickup needle in the groove of their favorite track, VinylLove™ can help. This app essentially transforms the music library on the user's iOS device into a portable vinyl record collection with a turntable to play them on. The music in the user's library is split up into its separate albums, cover art and all. These albums are then displayed as records in crates through which the user can flip to find the record they'd like to listen to.

Once an album is chosen, it is loaded onto the spinning turntable. The user can then use their finger to move the pickup bar over to the record to start playing the tracks. By moving the pickup's needle to different parts of the track, the user can select from among the album's different tracks. When the needle is placed on the record, there is the tell-tale scratching and pop-hiss sound before the needle gets into the groove and starts playing the track. There is no shuffle option. This is a true simulation of the vinyl experience. Users can move the needle back and forth, or even scrub the record backward or forward, but the tracks will play one after another in the albums original order from wherever the needle is dropped. Once the album is finished, the record continues to spin and the needle bumps along the inner track emitting soft pops and a hiss until the user stops the player, repositions the needle, or chooses a new album.

This is a fun little app. It doesn't really change very much about how the musics sounds, but it changes the way users interact with the music on their iOS devices. The interface is clean and looks great. The app looks great on a device docked in a speaker system and this may be the best way to enjoy it.