Attics vs The Dead Archive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Attics
Access and stream thousands of live concert recordings from popular bands like the Grateful Dead, Billy Strings, and more. Easily find shows, enjoy gapless playback, and download your favorites for offline listening.
- Stream live concert recordings
- Download shows for offline listening
- Easy show navigation
- Gapless playback
- Share favorite shows
- Access 30+ bands and 20k+ shows
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Attics is a fast, simple, and reliable app that lets you stream and download thousands of live Grateful Dead, Billy Strings, Dead & Company, JRAD, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and many more concert recordings hosted on the Internet Archive's Live Music Archive. Features: - Easy to navigate: get right to the show you're looking for - 30+ bands, 20k+ shows, more being added regularly - Gapless playback - Share your favorite shows with your friends - Download and listen to your favorite shows offline
The Dead Archive
Explore a comprehensive catalog of Grateful Dead shows, including setlists, song histories, and venue details. Stream available recordings and discover curated jams. Engage with a community of listeners and enjoy background playback with lock-screen controls.
- Grateful Dead show catalog
- Stream Archive.org recordings
- Setlists, songs, and venues
- Curated and community-favorite jams
- Community discussion board
- Background audio playback
- Tribute band recordings
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Find your next Grateful Dead show, and the tape you want to hear. • On This Day: revisit shows played on today's date. • The 1965-1995 show catalog: browse every cataloged show and stream available Archive.org recordings. Community-rated sources help you find the best soundboard fast or compare audience tapes. • Setlists, songs and venues: follow a song through the years, explore venue histories and read each show's setlist. • Heady Picks: discover curated jams and community-favorite performances. • The Board: talk about the jams and see who is listening now when listeners choose to share. • Keep listening: background audio, lock-screen controls, AirPlay and Bluetooth let the music travel with you. • Tribute bands: explore Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) and Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD) recordings. The Dead Archive is an independent fan app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Grateful Dead. Free, with no ads and no account needed to listen.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: The Dead Archive at every 3 days against Attics's every 3 months. Attics's advantage is ratings volume (522 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Attics against 5.0 for The Dead Archive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Attics has 522 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Attics ships an update every 3 months, The Dead Archive every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Attics | The Dead Archive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (522 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 97.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 522 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zachary Wood | John D'Attoma |
Bugs and requests
Attics
Reported bugs
2 issues- Network errors causing connectivity issues
- Inconsistent behavior between downloaded and streaming shows
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to create playlists or queue songs
- Implement offline listening/download option
- Add more artists beyond Grateful Dead
- Improve sorting/filtering options
The Dead Archive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Attics
No in-app purchases
The Dead Archive
No in-app purchases
