Wrap-up
While Spotify's iPad app is truly excellent at what it does, I can't give it a pass for exhibiting many of the same faults I have with Spotify's iPhone app, Android app, Mac app, Windows app, etc, etc. The useless What's New section, inability to see your Play Queue, and lack of sorting options make the app harder to use, as competent and complete as it is by Spotify's standards. If you know exactly what you want to listen to, the app will make you happy but it's quite poor for discovering new music.
Perhaps most importantly, it seems like Spotify has deliberately decided to keep playlists as the sole means of organizing content instead of a unified "Collection" that lets you view songs you've saved by artist, album, and inside playlists you've created. Only being able to save content via creating playlists is a long out-moded method just ask iTunes, Grooveshark, Rdio, MOG, Amazon, and just about any other company that offers music jukebox software. I hoped that this feature, among other things I've mentioned, would pop up in the company's iPad version especially since competitors have had some of these features for years. So while Spotify's iPad app and catalog are both exceptionally solid, the company's product-related priorities are confusing. It spent months building a beautiful and speedy iPad app that will elate Spotify users but doesn't actually do anything new for discovering music. In short, it's exactly what we expected and nothing more.
GOOD STUFF
Great design
Lightning fast
Paned interface works well for music browsing
Full-screen mode
Unified instant-search
High-res images and album art
BAD STUFF
Still no Collection view
What's New section is useless
No artist radio or live feed of what friends are listening to
No Spotify apps
VERGE SCORE
7.8/10