Live Music Archive vs Play Dead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Live Music Archive
Explore a vast collection of live concert recordings spanning decades. Discover and listen to performances from thousands of artists, from classic rock to contemporary acts. Download music for offline playback and sync your favorites across devices.
- Search thousands of artists, tapers, festivals, and venues
- Download music for offline listening
- Browse recordings from the 1960s to today
- Sync favorites across devices
- View in-depth recording information
- Infinite shuffle for continuous playback
- Stream music over Bluetooth and AirPlay
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The world's live music, in your pocket. Stream the Internet Archive's massive collection of concert recordings, plus a huge archive of live Phish shows from Phish.in. Thousands of artists from the 1960s to today: Grateful Dead, Billy Strings, Goose, String Cheese Incident, and so many more. Discover. Search by artist, taper, venue, festival, date, or song. Browse recent shows or dive deep into decades of music. Listen your way. Let Infinite Shuffle keep the music going, queue up what's next with Play Next and Add to Queue, or hand off playback between your devices. Stream over Bluetooth and AirPlay, in lossless FLAC if you like. Set a sleep timer to drift off. Scrobble to Last.fm or Libre.fm. Take it on the road. CarPlay puts your shows right on the dash, and Siri starts them hands-free: just say "Play a show on Live Music Archive." See the music. The visualizer turns any concert into a live light show that reacts to every note. And the whole app comes in Light or Dark. Always have something to listen to. Download shows for offline play. Offline Refresh automatically swaps out finished shows for new ones, so your library stays fresh, even without a connection. Make it yours. Favorite artists, shows, tapers, and venues sync across your devices and your archive.org account. Track your listening history. Share concerts with friends. Terms and Conditions: https://livemusicarchive.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://livemusicarchive.app/privacy
Play Dead
Access a vast library of officially remastered live Grateful Dead concert recordings. Discover previously unreleased shows every week, including rare CD-only releases now available in high-resolution audio. Listen across your devices with seamless playback.
- Official Grateful Dead live recordings
- Hi-res remastered audio
- Exclusive 'Dead Drops' weekly
- CD-only releases now streaming
- Vault organized by year
- Cross-device listening
- Apple CarPlay support
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Play Dead is the official Grateful Dead streaming app, offering unprecedented hi-res access to the Grateful Dead Vault of live recordings. For the first time, the band’s live legacy is brought together in a single official streaming service, with newly transferred and mastered recordings from the original sources. Previously unreleased shows - called Dead Drops - will be available every Tuesday, augmenting the catalog of official live Grateful Dead releases, many of which have never been available on any streaming service. The Vault Unlocked Exclusive Hi-Res Recordings Access new high resolution transfers, mastered for the first time and available exclusively on Play Dead. Dead Drops Every Tuesday Previously unreleased recordings added, every Tuesday, curated by Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux, mastered for the first time by David Glasser. CD-Only Releases, Now Streaming Shows previously available only on CD from box sets and Dave’s Picks are now streaming for the first time -only on Play Dead- in higher-than-CD-quality. The Vault by Year Live recordings are presented in order of performance date for the first time in the band’s history. Play Dead brings together three decades of live recordings into a single, evolving app designed for both longtime Dead Heads and those who just got on the bus. Listen Anywhere Listen and resume listening across devices, including Apple CarPlay. Subscription Subscriptions available starting at $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Official Access to the Grateful Dead Vault Created for Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino Entertainment, longtime stewards of the Grateful Dead catalog. Built by nugs, the leading platform for live music. For nugs Subscribers Play Dead is also available as an add-on to nugs. PlayDead Payment and Auto-Renewal Terms: Play Dead offers auto-renewing monthly and annual subscriptions to stream music from the Play Dead catalog. Two subscription types are available, monthly (30 days) and annual (365 days). All subscriptions auto-renew. A Play Dead monthly subscription is $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year for new users. Plans auto-renew at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year after the first year. Payment will be charged to the iTunes Account at the time of your purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Accounts will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the users Account Settings after purchase. Terms of Use at http://nugs.net/terms.aspx Privacy Policy at http://nugs.net/privacy.aspx
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Live Music Archive at 4.9 against Play Dead's 4.4. Live Music Archive also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 61%) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Play Dead's advantage is chart position (#113 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Live Music Archive sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Play Dead sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Live Music Archive holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Live Music Archive has 1.7K ratings behind it against 77, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Live Music Archive's written reviews are positive against 61% of Play Dead's.
Live Music Archive ships an update every 8 days, Play Dead monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Live Music Archive | Play Dead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (1.7K ratings) — better | 4.4 (77 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.6% of reviews — better | 61.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.7K — better | 77 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #113 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Astral Engineering LLC | nugs.net enterprises, LLC |
Customer experience
Live Music Archive
Play Dead
Bugs and requests
Live Music Archive
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on launch for some users
- Buggy offline download feature
- Incompatibility with older devices
Requested features
4 requests- Add Carplay support
- Implement an equalizer
- Allow playlist creation
- Add login and review functionality
Play Dead
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Live Music Archive
- Monthly Nice Tip$0.991 Month
- Monthly Generous Tip$2.991 Month
- Monthly Amazing Tip$4.991 Month
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Monthly Wonderful Tip$9.991 Month
- Monthly Astronomical Tip$19.991 Month
- Nice Tip$0.99
- Generous Tip$2.99
- Amazing Tip$4.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Wonderful Tip$9.99
- Astronomical Tip$19.99
Play Dead
- Monthly$9.991 Month
- Yearly$99.991 Year
Questions
Is Live Music Archive free?
Is Play Dead free?
Which has better reviews, Live Music Archive or Play Dead?
Do Live Music Archive or Play Dead have ads?
Which is updated more often, Live Music Archive or Play Dead?
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