InfiniTracks is an 8tracks.com player for Android

8tracks.com is a popular music streaming website that mixes things up with social networking features. Users of the service can create  themed music playlists that need to have at least 8 tracks -- hence the name -- which become then available on the website.

There is no need for an account if you just want to listen to playlists, but most social features and playlist creation only become available after account creation.

Music is taken from YouTube and SoundCloud, and the thing that sets 8tracks apart from going directly to those sites is the wide range of playlists that you find on the site.

While there is an official application for mobile devices available, it pales in comparison to InfiniTracks.

InfiniTracks review

The unofficial application mimics the functionality of the official application. You can either listen to music right away by using the app without an account, or if you want to access your playlists and other features that are only available to registered users, sign in or create a new account.

If you do not sign in, you have four main options to listen to music. You can browse the hot, new or popular playlist sections that the application makes available, or use the search to find artists or users.

A tap on a playlist starts to play it right away on the mobile device. It will continue to do so when you switch apps, turn off the screen or if the lock screen of your phone or tablet kicks in.

What more? It adds play controls to the notification area so that you can control music playback from there with just a tap. Here you can for instance stop playback, forward one song, or close the app.

Other highlights include code that detects whether earplugs are plugged in or not so that playback is automatically paused when you plugs get disconnected.

There is also a sleep timer that you can use to listen to music while you are falling asleep, an equalizer to improve music playback further, and of course the sleek elegant interface that makes the app stick out of the rest.

The settings provide you with additional features. Here you can control the auto-playing of mixes (enabled by default), what happens when mixes end (play the next mix in the set), and safe search (disabled by default).

A tap on the menu button while a mix is playing displays -- next to settings and equalizer -- an option to look up artist information. This can be used to find out more about an artist, which is great if you just discovered a new artist.

If you sign in you get access to social features such as checking up on your followers, accessing your mixes while on the go, or checking out what is new on 8tracks. Plus, you can always use it to create or edit collections.

Closing Words

InfiniTrack is a beautiful music app that taps right into 8tracks.com's vast archive and functionality. The only drawback is that it does not support widgets yet, but that is only a problem if you use widgets actively.

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