Comparison

Live Music Archive vs Dead Sets

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

About

Dead Sets

Features
Read full description

Every Grateful Dead setlist. And now, the music. Dead Sets is the fastest way to dive into the Dead's live catalog: 1,600+ shows from 1972 to 1995, every setlist searchable by song, venue, city, or year — entirely offline, no account, no ads. LISTEN — Almost every show links to its recordings in the archive.org Grateful Dead collection. Dead Sets auto-picks the best-rated soundboard and streams it right on the setlist page — or flip between every tape of the night, soundboards, audience recordings, and matrixes, even mid-song. The mini-player follows you through the app, and playback continues with the screen locked. SEARCH — Type "Scarlet Begonias" and see every performance. Filter by year, state, or country. Tap any song in a setlist to trace it across two decades. TODAY IN DEAD HISTORY — What did the band play on this date in '77? In '89? One tab, every year. SAVED — Heart your favorite shows, and mark the ones you attended with a ticket stub. Your whole trip, tallied, stored only on your device. CHAT WITH A DEAD HEAD (subscription) — A virtual dead head who's seen 300+ shows and followed the whole Europe '72 tour. Ask him anything — "best Dark Star of '73?", "what happened today in Dead history?" — and tap the shows he mentions to jump right to them. $1.99/month after a 7-day free trial, 30 messages a day, cancel anytime. Setlist data from the Grateful Dead Setlist Archive (cs.cmu.edu), cross-checked against archive.org and setlist.fm, with hundreds of hand-restored corrections. Recordings stream from the archive.org Grateful Dead collection, where the band has long blessed fan recordings. Not affiliated with Grateful Dead Productions. Just built by someone who gets it. Terms of Use: https://bowtiedjungle.dev/terms Privacy Policy: https://bowtiedjungle.dev/privacy

Screenshots

Live Music Archive4 screens
Dead Sets4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Dead Sets at every 2 days against Live Music Archive's every 9 days. 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Live Music Archive sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Dead Sets sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Live Music Archive ships an update every 9 days, Dead Sets every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Live Music Archive versus Dead Sets: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLive Music ArchiveDead Sets
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (1.8K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews94.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.8K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size88 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAstral Engineering LLCMatt Selph

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

Dead Sets

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Live Music Archive

Subscriptions5
  • Monthly Nice Tip$0.991 Month
  • Monthly Generous Tip$2.991 Month
  • Monthly Amazing Tip$4.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Monthly Wonderful Tip$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Astronomical Tip$19.991 Month
One-time5
  • Nice Tip$0.99
  • Generous Tip$2.99
  • Amazing Tip$4.99
Show 2 more
  • Wonderful Tip$9.99
  • Astronomical Tip$19.99
1 purchases

Dead Sets

Subscriptions1
  • Dead Sets7 Days trial$1.991 Month

Questions

Is Live Music Archive free?
Live Music Archive is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dead Sets free?
Dead Sets is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Live Music Archive or Dead Sets have ads?
Neither Live Music Archive nor Dead Sets shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Live Music Archive or Dead Sets?
Live Music Archive ships an update every 9 days, and Dead Sets every 2 days. Most recently, Live Music Archive was updated on October 26, 2026 and Dead Sets on October 2, 2026.

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