Comparison

Deadsound vs Heady Set

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

Head to head
About

Deadsound

Access and stream over 17,000 Grateful Dead live recordings. Search shows by date, venue, song, or source, and build a personal library of your favorite performances. Enjoy offline playback and daily historical discoveries.

Highlights
  • Search 17,000+ Grateful Dead recordings
  • Filter by date, venue, song, or source
  • Intelligent caching for offline playback
  • Background playback with lock screen controls
  • Gapless audio
  • Favorite and track listened shows
  • Daily historical discoveries
Features
Read full description

Every Dead show. One app. We built Deadsound because finding the best tapes on should be easy. Now you can search 17,000+ Grateful Dead recordings by date, venue, song, or source, and start listening in seconds. FIND ANYTHING Search by setlist to find every "Dark Star," or every show where they played "Dark Star" plus "Estimated" and also "Blow Away." Filter by Charlie Miller transfers or Betty Boards, or by AUD/SBD/Matrix. Narrow by year, city, or venue. LISTEN ANYWHERE Intelligent caching means your music keeps playing even when your signal doesn't. Full background playback with lock screen controls, all with gapless audio. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY Favorite the shows that matter. Track what you've heard. Pick up where you left off. DISCOVER DAILY See what happened today in Dead history. A new discovery every day. Completely free. No ads. No subscription. The music belongs to everyone. Streams from Archive.org. Not affiliated with the Grateful Dead.

About

Heady Set

Track your concert experiences and share them with friends. Get personalized statistics about your favorite artists, songs, and venues. This app is free and ad-free, built for music lovers.

Highlights
  • Setlist tracking
  • Show history
  • Friend sharing
  • Personalized stats
  • Artist tracking
  • Song tracking
  • Venue tracking
Features
Read full description

Heady Set is the setlist tracker built for the jam band and live music community. Log every show you attend, keep a running history of the songs and venues you've experienced, and unlock personalized stats about the artists you love — Grateful Dead, Phish, Billy Strings, or whoever's on your tour list this year! TRACK YOUR SHOWS Build a complete log of every concert you've been to - venue, date, setlist, and who you went with. Your show history becomes a permanent, personal archive of your live music journey. PERSONALIZED STATS See how many times you've seen your favorite songs live, which venues you frequent most, how your most-seen artists stack up against each other, and how your concert-going has evolved over time. SHARE WITH FRIENDS Compare notes with friends, see who was at the same shows as you, and relive tours together. FREE. NO ADS. NO CATCH. Heady Set is a passion project built by a fan, for fans. It's free today and will stay free and ad-free - always. No paywalls, just a tool for people who love music. Have a question, feature request, or bug to report? Reach out to me directly at aaron@headyset.net - I love hearing from users and will do my best to make your ideas come to life!

Screenshots

Deadsound4 screens
Heady Set4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Deadsound at fortnightly against Heady Set's every 3 months. Deadsound also leads on ratings volume (7 vs 1). Heady Set's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Heady Set holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Deadsound has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Deadsound ships an update fortnightly, Heady Set every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Deadsound versus Heady Set: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDeadsoundHeady Set
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (7 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better1
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB60 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperJames BarnesAARON THEODORE KY-RIESENBACH

Customer experience

Deadsound

All ratings7 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral14.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Heady Set

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Deadsound

No in-app purchases

None

Heady Set

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Deadsound free?
Deadsound is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Heady Set free?
Heady Set is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Deadsound or Heady Set?
Heady Set is rated higher. Deadsound averages 4.7 out of 5 from 7 ratings, while Heady Set averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Deadsound or Heady Set have ads?
Neither Deadsound nor Heady Set shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Deadsound or Heady Set?
Deadsound ships an update fortnightly, and Heady Set every 3 months. Most recently, Deadsound was updated on October 25, 2026 and Heady Set on October 18, 2026.

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