Broadcasts vs Now Playing Plus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Broadcasts
Stream internet radio stations from around the world with an intuitive, single-purpose application. Enjoy beautiful artwork, metadata, and cross-device syncing. Offers a free tier with a limited library or a full version for unlimited stations and advanced features.
- Global internet radio streaming
- Unlimited station library (full version)
- Station artwork and metadata display
- Shazam integration for metadata
- iCloud library syncing
- CarPlay support
- Apple Watch and Apple TV playback
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Listen to streaming internet radio in an award-winning, ultra-simple, single-purpose app. Beautifully designed and fully-native on all platforms. Completely private: no accounts, no logins, and absolutely no tracking or analytics, by design. Broadcasts makes building a library of stations from around the world easier than ever. Use completely free with a handful of stations, or subscribe to unlock the full power of an unlimited library and add as many of your own stations as you like from the thousands available on the Station Browser, or manually via URL. Search for stations from around the world as easily as from your own library, by country, by genre, or on the world map. Manually add and listen to your favorite live podcasts, air traffic control, and more — just point Broadcasts at any supported streaming audio source. Use the Now Playing screen to showcase gorgeous station and track artwork (where provided). Control from the MiniPlayer, or the menu bar on your Mac. Use Broadcasts in StandBy mode on your iPhone as a bedside clock. Sync your library across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro, and Apple TV with iCloud, and Universal Purchase. Enjoy your library on the road using CarPlay and your iPhone. Listen with just your Apple Watch (Cellular) while on a run, or on Apple TV at home. Browse stations in grid or list view. Listen in Light or Dark mode. Edit stations to provide your own artwork, or use the Artwork Chooser or Image Playground to generate something fun and colorful. Use Handoff to transfer playback between devices, or AirPlay directly to a home speaker. Live Transcription uses an advanced on-device model to provide a realtime transcript so you can follow along without audio, or scroll back and see what you just missed, with support for dozens of languages. On macOS, Siri AI lets you ask questions about the transcript, like 'who is this person' or 'translate this for me'. Use Shazam to look up the current song, and add it to your music library. Supports Shortcuts & AppleScript for playback automation. Sleep Timer. Visualizer. Widgets. Spotlight. Siri. Game Controller. And much more! Supports Family Sharing. Made in Ireland. --- Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy: https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/privacy
Now Playing Plus
Enhance your Apple Watch face with convenient audio controls. This app adds corner and circular complications, allowing quick access to playback functions without navigating through menus.
- Corner complications
- Circular complications
- Audio controls
- Quick access
- Customizable watch face
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Now Playing Plus provides corner and circular complications for your Apple Watch face. This gives you easy access to audio controls, without needed to hunt around in the App List or Dock.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Broadcasts at 4.7 against Now Playing Plus's 3.7. Broadcasts also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (965 vs 53). Now Playing Plus's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, review sentiment and ads 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. Broadcasts sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Now Playing Plus asks for nothing beyond the download.
Broadcasts holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Broadcasts has 965 ratings behind it against 53, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Broadcasts's written reviews are positive against 71% of Now Playing Plus's.
Broadcasts ships an update monthly, Now Playing Plus every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Broadcasts | Now Playing Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (965 ratings) — better | 3.7 (53 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better | 71.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 965 — better | 53 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 9 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Steven Troughton-Smith | The Iconfactory |
Customer experience
Broadcasts
Now Playing Plus
Bugs and requests
Broadcasts
Reported bugs
3 issues- Syncing issues causing data loss
- Playback issues on CarPlay and macOS
- Inconsistent behavior when changing stations
Requested features
5 requests- Improved global station search
- Genre-based station browsing
- Easier custom station addition
- Airplay and Siri integration
- Sleep timer and alarm clock functionality
Now Playing Plus
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Broadcasts
- Broadcasts (One Month)7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Broadcasts (One Year)7 Days trial$11.991 Year
- Unlock All Features (Legacy)$9.99
Now Playing Plus
No in-app purchases









