Vela adds direly needed voice search to Spotify

Spotify can be useful if you’re looking for a specific mix and just want to hear the songs you want legally and without stealing them. On the other hand, it’s an app, and if you happen to be using it on a treadmill, doing something in the kitchen, or otherwise busy with your hands, using a touchscreen can be problematic.

Vela

Enter Vela, for iOS.

Vela, short for Voice Electronic Listening Assistant, is essentially Siri for both Spotify and Rdio, although I refuse to use Rdio until they can afford a vowel. Instead of having to pull out your phone, you just speak the song you’re looking for, and Vela tracks it down.

It’s actually quite useful, even if you’re not in the middle of something. Putting it through its paces, we found that it’s pretty good at tracking down songs, even total obscurities. If it’s available to stream, you can play it back.

One mild annoyance is that it’s incapable of scanning your on-phone library and playing songs you already have on it. But we’re sure that’s coming.

Vela [iTunes Store]