Batanga (for iPad)

There's no dearth of options for streaming music to your iPad?Slacker, Songza, Stereomood, and a slew of other companies have dipped their toes into the mobile music service waters, with results that vary from forgettable to excellent. Batanga joins the mix with a free app that has a decidedly Latin focus but its splintered, confusing interface may impede some users' enjoyment.

Getting Started
You start by creating a dedicated Batanga account (there's no option to login using Facebook), and then adding your birth year, gender, and language (either English or Spanish). Once you've completed the setup process, you can dive into the music?and that's where things get a little dicey.

Most music apps keep a very streamlined interface, but Batanga goes out of its way to complicate matters. Instead of keeping a consistent interface, Batanga has numerous sub-sections?Now Playing, My Stations, Genres, Artists, Tracks, New Station, and Profile?that look and function differently. For example, Now Playing and My Stations both list recently played channels, but the former displays category tags, similar tracks, and ads, while the latter lets you wholesale delete channels. Ideally these would've been combined into one section with some creative UI design. The lack of section explanation is sure to perplex users?you're left to your own devices to figure them out.

Using Batanga
Tapping Genres?yet another screen?opens Batanga's various categories ranging from holiday music to comedy. Bringing a finger to a group starts the audio playback, but tapping the small information icon next to it takes you to a screen that displays tracks recently add to the rotation as well as top tracks within the genre. For an app that's presented as having a heavy Latin focus?and it does?there's many English language artists (such as AC/DC, Frank Sinatra, and The Rolling Stones). There's lots of music to enjoy, and lyrics accompanied every song I sampled.

The Artists section lets you find music makers by applying filters such as music genre, leading voice (based on gender), language, decade, and other differentiators. It's an unusual music discovery method that I liked?I wouldn't mind seeing other apps adopting a similar tool. Not only does Artists serve you musicians that match your selected criteria, but it displays the number of tracks each act has in Batanga's library, the songs' popularity, and a button that lets you add the track to the currently playing station. The Tracks section works in a similar manner except that it helps you sift through songs instead of artists. New Station gives you a search box that can use to input an artist or song name to create a station, but it takes you to the Now Playing screen again when you select an artist. Ugh.

That said, Batanga's audio is what you'd expect from a streaming audio service?crisp with decent highs and lows. Audiophiles will probably sneer at it, but less discerning listeners shouldn't find fault with the audio. As with other music services you can like or dislike songs to help tailor the listening experience.

The Wrap
Batanga isn't a bad iPad app, but its interface needs an overhaul to simplify the experience?in fact, the Batanga website is quite well-designed and worth checking out. If you prefer a music service with a Latin flavor that supports lyrics, Batanga is a solid choice, but, for overall enjoyment Slacker for iPad still holds the Editors' Choice crown by providing an all-around excellent music experience on the iPad.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/uGd6Vj7G6zg/0,2817,2410136,00.asp

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