Couch Music Player for iPad is not only a lot more visually appealing than the default music player, it functions like a music player should on the iPad by taking advantage of the screen real estate in more functional ways. Outside of just being a replacement music player, it's got support for AirPlay and up next playlists built right in.

I've never been a huge fan of the default Music app on the iPad. It seems like a port of the iPhone version that Apple never really took time to fine tune specifically for the iPad. Couch Music Player for iPad does just that but combines some of the features of iTunes for an even better experience. The first thing you will notice is the interface, which is a lot more slick and refined than the default Music app.

Couch Music player has support for both landscape and portrait orientation. Your controls will be either along the top and bottom or bottom and sides depending on the orientation. Your music controls are the usual suspects with support for scrubbing, playing and pausing, shuffling, volume, and AirPlay. You'll also see a thumbnail of the album cover as long as you've got album art in your library. The binocular icon will automatically take you to the currently playing track when tapped.

Along the sides or top you'll see tools to filter your library including the options to sort by artist, album, songs, or search. Not too much different than the options you've got in the default Music app. You also have some playlist controls that allow you to create playlists super quickly, and as many as you want. The paintbrush tool will allow you to quickly clear a playlist (queue) in a single tap. If you want to remove a single song from a list, just swipe it to the right and it'll disappear.

To add a new playlist, just tap on the plus sign. You can either tap song names in order to add them or simply drag them over. You can reorder them within a list however you'd like. Tapping the icon with two squares will take you to a grid view of all your playlists. Just tap on one to add or view it or tap the "x" in the upper right hand corner to remove it completely.

The good

Great interface
AirPlay support which allows you to completely replace the default Music app with Couch Music Player
Playlists are super easy to create and edit, much easier than stock iOS

The bad

No existing playlist support

The bottom line

If you aren't a fan of the default Music app for iPad, Couch Music Player will make a much better alternative. Whether you've got music on your device physically or use iTunes Match, Couch Music Player will auto import it with no work on your part. The playlist queue feature is excellent and something I plan on using a lot going forward.

The only options I'd like to see in a future version is the ability to view playlists I've already created in the default Music app as well as maybe social share options. I can live without options to share songs but sometimes I want to send a song title via SMS or Facebook to someone and it'd be a nice add-on. Regardless, Couch Music Player is already replacing the default Music app on my iPad.