Comparison

Top Tracks vs The Public Variable

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

Head to head
About

Top Tracks

Transform your Apple Music playlists into personalized Top 40 radio stations. Create custom stations based on charts or playlists, and influence song rotation based on your ratings and preferences. Share your creations with friends.

Highlights
  • Create Top 40 radio stations
  • Use Apple Music playlists or charts
  • Customize song rotation
  • Rate songs to influence playback
  • Share stations with friends
  • Automatic chart updates
Read full description

Top Tracks lets you transform your favorite Apple Music Playlists into Top 40-style radio stations. Make as many stations as you want until your personal Top Tracks station dial is overflowing. The Top 40 format was built around a core music library of 40 songs which was freshened each week. Some songs were added to the playlist and played just enough for us to get to know them. As we began to love them, the station knew to move them up into categories that were played more often. Every 10 minutes or so, we knew we’d hear one of our very favorite songs and then, when we started to tire of them, the station knew to move them down into categories that were played less often and eventually out of the core library. The 40 songs weren’t played in the same order over and over, and they weren’t played in a random order. The mix was always fresh and each hour was different. The top 10 songs repeated about every 90 minutes. The next 10 repeated every 3 hours, the next 10 every 4 hours, and the bottom 10 repeated every 6 hours. Sprinkled in now and then were the songs our favorite DJs retrieved from the music vault. Top Tracks puts you in charge of as many stations as you want to create. The app lets you create two kinds of stations - it all depends on whether your station is based on a chart or a playlist. If you start with a Top 25 City Chart or a Daily Global Top 100 Chart, Top Tracks automatically creates a station for you and updates it every day. A Top 25 station rotates the music a little more quickly than most stations, but then again, the music refreshes every day and songs move on and off and up and down the charts. A Top 100 station rotates the top 40 songs just like a classic Top 40 station and treats the remaining 60 songs as songs that can be added to spice up the mix once an hour. Want a little more control? If you build your station from an Apple Music Playlist, you can influence whether a song is played more often or less often and rotate the music on your schedule. Choose a playlist by checking out the top ranked playlists, or look for playlists by selecting a top genre, a particular mood or activity, a favorite decade, a particular International vibe, or try your luck with a search. As you listen to these playlist stations, take the time to rate the songs, and the next time you choose to rotate the music in the station, your favorite songs will move up, others will move down, and music from the vault will enter the Top 40 rotation. As Apple Music refreshes these playlists, you’ll be able to add new music to your station. Share your favorite stations with friends, and they can build their own stations from the same playlists and charts. Create and enjoy as many stations as you’d like. This app requires that you have an Apple Music Subscription.

About

The Public Variable

Experience a unique augmented reality theatre piece exploring perspective and communication. This evolving digital space will eventually host the full production, offering an immersive artistic experience accessible from anywhere.

Highlights
  • Augmented reality theatre
  • Perspective exploration
  • Immersive digital space
  • Evolving content
  • Accessible anywhere
Read full description

I'm building a feature length AR experience, scene by scene. A piece of theatre about perspective, and how we stopped hearing each other. And how we might fix it. And, through this platform, a piece of theatre you can experience wherever you are. This space will be updating and expanding until it eventually contains the entire piece, and more. Your support couldn't mean more than it would right now. publicvariabletheatre.org

Screenshots

Top Tracks4 screens
The Public Variable4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: The Public Variable at every 2 weeks against Top Tracks's every 6 months. The Public Variable also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Top Tracks against 5.0 for The Public Variable. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Top Tracks ships an update every 6 months, The Public Variable every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Top Tracks versus The Public Variable: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTop TracksThe Public Variable
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings22
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TViPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB1.4 GB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperDim Sum Thinking, IncJohn Sullivan

Customer experience

Top Tracks

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

The Public Variable

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Top Tracks

No in-app purchases

None

The Public Variable

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Top Tracks free?
Top Tracks is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Public Variable free?
The Public Variable is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Top Tracks or The Public Variable?
Top Tracks and The Public Variable are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Top Tracks or The Public Variable have ads?
Neither Top Tracks nor The Public Variable shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Top Tracks or The Public Variable?
Top Tracks ships an update every 6 months, and The Public Variable every 2 weeks. Most recently, Top Tracks was updated on October 4, 2026 and The Public Variable on October 12, 2026.

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