Comparison

Musical Kittens vs Year One

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Musical Kittens

Create unique musical compositions using adorable cat meows as sound effects. This application allows you to craft memorable cat music, save your creations, and share them with friends to impress them with your musical talent.

Highlights
  • Cat meow sound effects
  • Musical composition
  • Save songs
  • Share creations
  • Unique sound library
Features
Read full description

Musical Kittens is an amazing musical composer application where all of the sound effects are generated with adorable cat meows! This app will change your life forever. Meow your way to fame and glory by making memorable cat music. Save your songs and share them with friends! Everybody will think you are so cool!

About

Year One

Experience music in a new dimension with augmented reality. Move around your space to uncover hidden sounds, build melodies, and create unique listening experiences by interacting with spatial audio arrangements.

Highlights
  • Spatial album listening
  • Augmented reality soundscapes
  • Interactive music exploration
  • Build melodies and chords
  • Dynamic audio effects
  • Create unique listening experiences
Read full description

Hear different lyrics in the corners of your room; build melodies as you walk around your couch; hear hidden parts and build your own chords just by walking through the space around you. Year One is the first spatial album, utilizing the possibilities of augmented reality technology, by D.C. group and label TCW. Upon launching the Year One app, the different sounds and instruments of the songs will populate and begin moving through the space around you. Your movement, tracked by your smartphone, will affect which sounds you hear and change how individual effects are applied to them, making for a different listening experience each time. This final release of the album contains all eight spatial arrangements from TCW, Wall of Trophies, and N.E. Hertzberg. TCW has released a how-to guide for any musician to build their own similar app independently. Alongside the guide, TCW has begun cataloging spatial composition techniques for other musicians to use and contribute to. This guide and techniques can all be found on tcwav.com. TCW released their first spatial album, Inauguration, in early 2017 using smartphone GPS positional tracking, and released a similar guide for building spatial applications. Contact the group at tcw@tcwav.com Headphones required for proper audio spatialization.

Screenshots

Musical Kittens4 screens
Year One4 screens

Verdict

The call

Musical Kittens and Year One both sit at 4.3 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Musical Kittens's written reviews are positive against 0% of Year One's. Year One's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, rating, ratings volume and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Musical Kittens sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Year One asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Musical Kittens against 4.3 for Year One. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Musical Kittens's written reviews are positive against 0% of Year One's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Musical Kittens ships an update every 15 months, Year One every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Musical Kittens versus Year One: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMusical KittensYear One
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (6 ratings)4.3 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 7 months — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB407 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrandon SteckleinTCW

Customer experience

Musical Kittens

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Year One

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Musical Kittens

One-time1
  • Advertising Removal$1.99
None

Year One

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Musical Kittens free?
Musical Kittens is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Year One free?
Year One is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Musical Kittens or Year One?
Musical Kittens and Year One are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Musical Kittens or Year One have ads?
Musical Kittens shows ads; Year One does not.
Which is updated more often, Musical Kittens or Year One?
Musical Kittens ships an update every 15 months, and Year One every 7 months. Most recently, Musical Kittens was updated on October 24, 2026 and Year One on October 22, 2026.

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