Spotify for Android cranks it to 11 with ICS support, revamped design, & more

Streaming music service Spotify has massively updated its Android application with support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), a new navigation bar, an Android widget, and an option for higher sound quality, the company announced Tuesday.

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Spotify is now available in 15 countries, and while its iPhone and new iPad app are quite good, the service has been considerably lacking on Android by comparison. Now that will be remedied by bringing its app to more Android devices and featuring a better overall interface.

“For all our Android users, this Spotify update is a huge leap forward, said Gustav Södertröm, VP Products at Spotify, in a statement. “We’ve rebuilt it from top to bottom, making it faster, slicker, and much better looking.”

The most important part of the update is that it will finally work with Android 4.0 devices, including awesome phones like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and HTC One X. The design and navigation are also much better than the prior version of the app. Finally, my personal favorite of the updates is the inclusion of “extreme” 320 kbps sound quality, which hit the iPhone earlier this year, and is something audiophiles will appreciate.

The company highlights the following updates to the app:

• Full support for Android 4.0
• All-new slide-out navigation
• Crossfade/gapless playback settings
• Widget – control Spotify from the home screen
• Folder support – organize and order your playlists
• Even more social – check out friends’ profile pages and playlists on the go
• Artist imagery in high resolution
• Related artist view – available for the first time on mobile
• ‘Extreme’ sound quality setting for 320 kbps listening
• Play queue
• Last.fm scrobbling

You should be able to download the app shortly from the Google Play store. You must be a premium subscriber ($10 per month in the U.S.) for the app to work on your phone.

Check out the gallery below for more pictures of the app:

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