by The Ministry of Sound have just released their own radio app for iOS allowing you to listen to their MoS offering and listening to their live weekender sets.
Updated. There’s been an update since MoS radio to version 2.2.4 with some graphical UI flourishes.
On first run of the Ministry of Sound radio app you’re given a brief introduction on how to make the most of his features before you can delve right in to their streaming music offerings. It’s really refreshing that there’s no need to sign up, sign in, register or anything else before you get to listening to their sublime music offerings straightaway.
Going straight into listening to some music is exactly as you would expect from someone like the Ministry of Sound. The audio stream loads up with minimal lag on both mobile phone data and Wi-Fi connections and in my few days of testing I’ve yet to experience any buffering issues. It’s not entirely clear at what bit rates MoS radio streams, even with the update.
The new update brings more than one stream to the party with even easier access to purchase the tune that’s playing at the time with a tap on the “now playing” at the bottom. You can also slide the now playing to move between stations.
Whilst the streams advert free there is the occasional voice over the music to let you know what stream you’re listening too. Personally I found that handy and way better than commercial stations putting on some automated ducking with a channel ident at set times.
Sticking with the live music video “Live From The Club” strams audio directly from the decks of the MoS when the live events are going on and with the update you can watch as well as listen. I’ve not had a chance to watch live but there’s more good news as you can watch or listen to previous events. Again there’s no indication of streaming bit rate or just to limit to 3g only, which given the options on offer should really be included, or at least a warning saying it will consume a heck of data on mobile data connections. After all some people need it spelling out to them.
Of couse you can purchase the DJ’s music from a Ministry of Sound album or go through and purchase a ticket for the next live event. Like all of the purchase offerings none of them are in your face or interupt the flow of the app. whilst there are links a plenty none of them are overbearing.
I’ve yet to test when there’s a live event on and how it’ll hold up there but i’ll update this article after the weekendA 7 day schedule is available with tagging and of course you can share the show / event via the normal methods but what’s going to be the most useful is reminders.
There is a heart there but quite what it does I’m not so sure. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious way to see what I’ve “hearted”Ministry Of Sound Club
Skirting the bottom part of the main menu is Minstry Of Sound Radio’s 2nd act, Club. Here you go further into the Ministry of Sound where you can find out more about the venue, artists, delve into live shows and of course book tickets, even the VIP ones directly.The photo galleries are amazing to look at and as you might suspect all the photography and production values you associate with the Ministry of Sound come shining through here. In fact throughout the whole of the Ministry of Sound radio app all of the imagery and artwork complements the look and feel of the music throughout.
On the face of it you could easily label the Ministry of Sound Radio as just another radio streaming app up as just that, and on the radio up but when you delve deeper into the feature rich content and stunning photography it manages to edge its way out of there to be worthwhile.
Then when you take into account the ability to buy music, listen to live events as they happened and purchased tickets for those live events this really does become an app befitting of someone like the Ministry of Sound.
That being said there are a couple of slight niggles on this particular version of the app.
there’s no ability to restrict streaming to Wi-Fi only nor is there any notification to say that streaming music over your mobile data connection will result in data charges potentially.
Granted this is obvious but you know, there are those people who like to complain about these things.
As you might expect the quality of the sound stream is once again spot-on again something you think is given as this is coming from the Ministry of Sound
There’s no information about what bit rate things are being streamed at either.
Streaming audio quality is spot-on, like you would expect from the Ministry of Sound, with very little noticeable compression going on. bit rate and streaming information isn’t anywhere to be seen within the app but this is going to be addressed within a future release of the application.
Overall:
It would of been easy for the Ministry of Sound’s radio app developers to release a simple app that streams music, show the track / album / artist and then link you through to the iTunes store. So kudos where it is due and doing way much more than that.
It’s clear that listening to the music is just one part of the Ministry experience. When you couple that with the galleries, ability to schedule programmes, excellent photography and graphical stylings throughout, and of course being able to purchase tickets you can tell this is more of an experience to encompass the feeling of the Ministry of Sound rather than just another “radio app”.
Best of all Ministry of Sound Radio is free from the app store and of course it’s well worth checking out the ministryofsound.com
Ministry Of Sound Version 2.2.4
Since the review Ministry Of Sound Radio has gotten an upgrade “Choose your genre from our new range of radio channels. House, chilled, Brand new tunes and more are available at the press of a button.”
A revamped interface with a boatload new channels but theres still no streaming bit rate indication or way to restrict streaming to wifi Only.
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