Spotify for iPad (and iOS) – one of the leading music streaming apps for the iPad  – has been updated today, to Version 0.5.1.

The biggest new feature in this update is push notifications. You can now choose to receive push notifications when friends join Spotify, when someone subscribes to a playlist you’ve shared, and when a playlist you subscribe to is updated. Here’s the rest of the items on the update change list:

• New: Intro guide for new users.
• Fixed: Missing retina graphics on log in screen (iPad).
• Fixed: Retina album art is now always synced when you offline sync playlists.
• Fixed: App could sometimes become unresponsive after scrolling and navigating at the same time.
• Other improvements to Facebook login, screen locking when offline syncing, performance and stability.

I haven’t spotted that many of my friends on Spotify just yet, but I like the idea of paying more attention to its social features – so I’m happy to see push notifications added to the app.

Here’s an App Store link for Spotify; it’s a free app and a universal app designed to run on both iPad and iPhone.