Garage Band: TUAW Best of 2011 for iPad music apps

It's been a long haul, but we've finally come to the end of the TUAW Best of 2011. The last category in which readers nominated their favorites and then voted for the top five finishers was iPad music apps. This was a huge category -- music apps cover the landscape from applications that turn the tablet into a musical instrument to apps that make it easier to organize and listen to your music. The winner was Apple's Garage Band (US$4.99), grabbing 44.1 percent of reader votes.

Garage Band, of course, started life as a Mac music app. But it has really come into its own as an inexpensive iOS app, allowing musicians and would-be musicians of all ages to create and record their own music. Smart Instruments and pre-recorded loops make it possible for anyone with an iPad to generate professional-sounding music.

What was the runner-up? Tango Remote Control Media Player HD ($4.99), an amazing app that can "wirelessly control music and video between iPads, iPhones and iPod touches." With one device connected to a stereo or TV, you can use another as a powerful remote with multiple playlist support, audio and video scrubbing, and more.

Congratulations to Apple's software team for winning the TUAW Best of 2011 award for the best iPad music app of the year.